On September 14, 2022, the 47th "Duyan"workshop of Institute for Central Asian Studies of Lanzhou University was held in Room 602 of Student Activity Center. More than 40 participants from School of Politics and International Relations and School of Marxism of Lanzhou University attended the reading workshop through online and offline means. The reading material of this reading group was Li Lianjiang’s"Publish orperish".

Firstof all,Ms.Wang Enyu gave a brief introductionofthe author and main content of the book. Professor Li Lianjiang is currently a professor in Department of Government and Public Administration,the Chinese University of Hong Kong, focusing onthe rural governance in China.In the book "Publish orPerish" Pro. Li takes his own academic experience as examples,and illustrates the rules a scholar should follow and the mission a scholar should shoulder from six aspects, which are review criteria of academic journals, selection of valuable topics, conducting original research, clear expression, journal submission and scholar career.

Then,the participants talked about their own gains and confusions concerning the book.They mainly focused onfollowing three aspects: First, students generally found the book is inspiring to their essay writing and submission. And helping them reflect themselves and to set right attitude towards learning.Secondly, the students raised some questions, such as ‘Should we read the classical or the frontier materials firstly?’‘Is it possible to submit the paper to different journals due to the long review cycle ofit?’ ‘How should aqualified literature review be written?’ Thirdly, the students talked in detail about what they had learned from the book.

Finally,Professor Zeng made response tothe questions raised by the students and summarized the content of this workshop.Firstly, there is no contradiction between the classical and frontier materials, both of them need to be read.Reading monographs is to lay a solid foundation for learning, reading journals is to know the academic latest study, and reading newspapers is to keep abreast ofpolitical dynamics. Second,Professor Zeng reminded the students that it’s better to know the review cycle of journals before submitting essays instead of submitting an easy to different journals, which violates the rules. Third,Professor Zeng mentioned about how to write a literature review.There are three elements of an issue-driven literature review, which are classic, cutting-edge, and relevance. Agood article is one that is rewritten for times rather than one-time written. Finally,Professor Zeng expressed his welcome to the new students again and reiterated the purpose and original intention of reading workshop.It is important to set a workable plan,develop good study and living habits, and improve comprehensive ability for the first-year graduates.