Bad Mom, Good Researcher
- SJ Williamson
- Aug 18, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 27, 2025
Earlier this month, I attended a summer seminar for publishing research, research I have been working on since Spring of 2022. As a less experienced scholar when it comes to publishing in academic journals, I was prepared for feedback that could drastically change my project. The night of our first day at the seminar, we set goals for the week. My goals were simple: get feedback on my introduction, methods, and large set of data results in order to get my research published before I go on the job market next year.
During the seminar, I received feedback from graduate peers, professors, and multiple mentors who knew the field well. The first two days gave me feedback from each of these groups: because of my large data set, I'd have to split my research into different publication projects. I'd have to chop up my baby.
While I didn't learn that the correct term for this in academia was salami slicing until the last day of the seminar, I still knew this was necessary after getting consistent feedback. Instead, I used the metaphor of chopping my baby up to describe what I was doing during the seminar. I ironically referred to the story of two mothers in 1 Kings 3:16-28 (ESV):
16 Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. 19 And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king.
23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” 24 And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” 27 Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” 28 And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.
According to this Bible story, I would be a terrible mother for agreeing to chop up my baby. Good thing I'm not a mother at all. However, the wisdom shared with me by my seminar colleagues suggested chopping my baby up. One mentioned focusing on the stories of two or three unique exemplar students I interviewed, encouraging me that a top scholar in the field wrote a whole book on just one research participant. Another suggested focusing on the interview data and the textual analysis data separately in order to make the results easier to read, saying I could indeed cite my other article within the one to get published later in order to shortly refer to results. Yet another recommended choosing only the most vital codes and their patterns instead of trying to show information I collected on 4 categories, 17 codes, and 153 sub-codes. I also was given advice on how to organize these kinds of data in different publications.
The path to follow for me was clear by the end of day 2: I needed to chop my baby. What would make me a bad mom would make me an excellent researcher. I had to become detached from the labor it took to collect my data and write my original draft, and for the research's own good, divide it. When I left the seminar, I had started 4 different drafts following the different feedback I got those first days. I feel far away from publishing it as I now aim to finish my literature reviews for each unique topic and research methodology, but I hope this will give me a better chance at getting published by 2026. As I continue to move forward, I continually think of this metaphor. The good mother, the real mother disagreed with equality by chopping the baby up. The lying one sought equality. I must separate myself from my baby, knowing this is what is best. May it bless me in the long run.
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