[Air-l] Trouble with journals

[Douglas Eyman]

elw at stderr.org wrote:

> I am sitting here thinking about how I think about journals - I think of 
> them as inherently participatory spaces, where part of your "dues" as an 
> active member of the community is that you read/write article reviews for 
> editors, participate by writing book reviews when they're needed, review 
> conference panel submissions and/or conference papers when asked, et 
> cetera.

Elijah, I like the way you think about journals -- this is also how I 
think about them, but I find that many people who aren't as involved (in 
terms of editing, conference-presenting, research-writing) don't always 
get that (of course I come from a discipline that tends to focus more on 
pedagogy and less on research...and whose members are often teaching far 
more than they are researching).


> There are several journal/zine/etc editors on this list;  most of the ones 
> that I've come in contact with are *delighted* to receive offers of free 
> labor from ze community.

Absolutely! But we are, I should note (not that you implied otherwise, 
but still noteworthy) careful to make sure that this free labor ends up 
accruing some kind of value to the laborer, whether that's a cv line, 
experience with a particular kind of editing or production, or extended 
opportunities to network with senior scholars in the field.


>> exigency and use of the journals is changes 

[Doug fires his typist...oh wait, this isn't a MOO]

> 
> May a thousand flowers bloom!

Yes! And I think that is one of the ways that the value of online 
publications can grow -- develop and sustain good venues until they 
become part of the academic culture of each discipline they represent 
(or of several disciplines, in the case of interdisciplinary journals, 
which would be preferable, but I think our historical moment is 
currently privileging disciplinarity...hopefully that will begin to 
shift soon).

Doug