All entries for Wednesday 10 May 2023

May 10, 2023

Contributor Conduct Policy Introduced

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/journal-policies

A formalisation of a longstanding operational ethos is seen with the introduction of a new contributor conduct policy

Informally ever since Exchanges was founded and certainly even more so since I took over the reins of power, the journal has been run with an operational ethos of enlightened collaboration. The idea has been that we wanted the journal to standout within the academic publishing field not so much for academic excellence [1] but more for being a title with a polite, positive and enabling demeanour attitude to contributor interactions. I am happy to report, as evidenced within our recent feedback report, [2] this approach has paid considerable dividends. From a personal perspective too, I can report how greatly I’ve enjoyed the mutual respectful and engaging interactions I had and continue to have with our contributing community – which is a credit to each of them.

Understandably though, there have been a limited number of occasions where we have experienced some issues within these interactions, with a very few not quite engaging within the same envelope of mutuality. Thankfully, we usually found a way through and back to more cordial working relationships, much to my professional relief. Nevertheless, the occasional but recurrent nature of these events suggested how more formally stating the journal’s position with respect to interpersonal engagement may be of benefit to everyone. Such a formal statement, or policy, to which we can direct people would assist everyone involved with Exchanges in maintaining our operational effectiveness and collegiality.

We are lucky, being based at the University of Warwick, to have an institution which takes matters of professional conduct and positive personal interactions seriously. The Dignity at Warwick Policy for example is a cornerstone statement demarcating the expected norms of interpersonal conduct and respect between colleagues here. Hence, even though Exchanges deals with scholars around the world, this policy strongly resonates with the attitude the journal has long espoused itself and to its contributors.

All of which is a long preamble to announcing how this week Exchanges has introduced a new, brief, policy statement, drawing on Warwick’s framework and our own operational philosophy, outlining the conduct expectations for all journal contributors. It is a policy to which I suspect I will rarely need to directly refer, given how cordial and professional are the vast majority of our working relationships and interactions. Nevertheless, I hope it will serve to clarify our expectations on contributors, and hopefully continue to help frame the journal’s operations within an effective and enlightened scholarly mode.

You can find our Contributor Conduct Policy along with all our other key operational statements, on the Journal Policy section of Exchanges' website. As always, where there are any questions, as always, the first port of call is myself as Editor-in-Chief.

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Endnotes

[1] Although, that would be delightful too, and certainly an ongoing aspiration for us.

[2] See also my recent editorial for discussions about this report.