[Air-l] Trouble with journals

[elw at stderr.org]

>> 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).


Yes, there is a bit of a possible disconnect there that needs to be 
avoided.  Having better mentors seems to help folks quite a lot.

Being able to say that "I do these things out of respect for my colleagues 
and as a way to honor this area in which I work" is quite a bit different 
than saying "I do this because I need to publish an article and three book 
reviews to get a job".  Joy is important in life.

I for one have a hard time doing things for money.  Service work that I 
would otherwise find gratifying is completely smothering and stultifying 
once the almighty dollar becomes involved.

Even so, I think we all see the need for folks to eat.


>> 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.


Yes, I decided that if I didn't make the point someone would say it more 
clearly than I might have :)  and you did!


>>> exigency and use of the journals is changes
>
> [Doug fires his typist...oh wait, this isn't a MOO]


But don't you wish it were?  :)  I miss scrabble with mday et al...


>> 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).


I think you're exactly right about disciplinarity being privileged, at 
least in the surface-level sense... in the deeper sense I think that many 
do see the reasons behind multi-/inter-/trans-disciplinarity and are 
willing to take advantage of those freedoms where they may....

--elijah