Closing Down for 2020

Writing about web page https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/A-Conversation-withIsabelle-Heyerick-eo42dq

'Don’t be blinded by where you want to publish, look for people you want to publish with’

Well, it’s been a year, and what a year it’s been for us all. From the triumph back in January of our first special issue making it to publication, through the launch of the new podcast to speaking about Exchanges to the international community. A lot has happened.

You don’t need me to tell you 2020 has been a year like no other in living memory. It has changed how we work, but for the journal it has also reinforced the strengths of the links we have with contributing communities. From editors, to authors, reviewers and readers, I’ve probably enjoyed more direct interactions this year than I do when I’m actually sitting in my campus office. An office, I hope to see once more in the not too distant future, I may add.

We don’t know what the future holds, so I’m going to avoid any prognostication here, and perhaps introduce a mild sense of caution. I’m hopeful that 2021 will see the publication of two regular issues of the journal, alongside an unprecedented three (!) special issues – those are the plans as they stand right now. I know too that we hope to continue producing our Exchanges Discourse podcast, the latest episode of which went live this morning.

>Listen to: A Conversation with…Isabelle Heyerick

The next two episodes have already been recorded or scheduled for production early in the new year, so there’s plenty of content to come.

In the meantime, if you’ve read or in anyway contributed to the work of Exchanges this year, can I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and wish you a much, much better new year. Stay healthy, take care of yourselves, and I look froward to talking publishing with you very, very soon.

Gareth Johnson : 22 Dec 2020 12:20 |  Tags: 2020 2021 Podcast Review Year |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Podcast Episode: A Conversation with…Dr Julia Gauly

Writing about web page https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/A-Conversation-withDr-Julia-Gauly-enac6f

“Criticise other people as you would like be criticised… .That’s what I try to keep in mind…that’s a small sentence, which can make such a difference”

>Listen to: A Conversation with...Dr Julia Gauly

We reach episode 10 in the first season of The Exchanges Disocurse podcast series, with a delightful interview with Dr Julia Gauly. An early career fellow at the IAS and based at the Warwick Medical School, Julia’s work focuses on evaluating sexual health information provision and, especially as a route to enhancing accessibility and public health, the impacts from increased its availability via local pharmacies. Julia also takes the time to share her own learning journey with respect to publishing, along with providing some words of advice for first time and other early career authors.

Episode 11 is already recorded, a conversation this time with Dr Isabelle Heyerick and later today I'll be recording episode 12 which will focus on the 'cultural representations of nerds' forthcoming special issue in 2021. I'll be joined by the two leads for that special issue to chat about what it means, and also discuss the planned event tying into the issue.

Please do have a listen, and if you like what you hear share the love! If you'd like to get in touch with the podcast with an idea for an episode, or to propose a guest, then you'll find our contact details here.

Gareth Johnson : 03 Dec 2020 16:04 |  Tags: Episode Gauly Health Information Pharmacies Podcast Public Sexual |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

15th Munin Conference on Scholarly Publishing & Exchanges

Writing about web page https://site.uit.no/muninconf/program/

This week I’ve had the pleasure of virtually attending the Munin Conference on Scholarly Publishing, host at UiT University of the Artic, in beautiful Tromsø. While due to Covid-19 I sadly was unable to travel there, it was still two highly enjoyable and informative days focussing on a topic that rather fills my professional life. As all conference sessions were recorded you’ll be able to follow the link above and watch them to your heart’s content.

However, most excitingly I was one of the speakers at this year’s conference, on the topic The Twin Dilemma: Successfully Operating a Scholar-Led Journal to Enable Discourse and Empower Researcher Development. The habitual Doctor Who reference in the title aside, my talk focussed on the experiences we’ve had on Exchanges in terms of our work towards special issues, and the experiences of my associate editors as per the abstract:

The presentation will explore the configuration of a long-running and successful scholar-led, diamond open-access, interdisciplinary journal Exchanges, published by the University of Warwick, which combines knowledge dissemination with contributor developmental goals. Drawing on experiential data, the presentation provides ethnographic insights into the mutually beneficial outcomes derived from recruiting post-graduate researcher ‘associate editors’ to work on the title. It also problematises the balance between potentially exploitative, collaborative editorial production within the context of necessary academic immaterial labour required to operate an interdisciplinary scholar-led title.

I’ve had some very positive feedback and one or two post-talk conversations already which might be opening some new avenues for the journal to tentatively explore. Moreover, with an audience of 150 globally for the talk, I’m hopeful it might also engender a few new submissions of work to the journal too, which would of course be absolutely fantastic.

Fingers crossed circumstances and journal developments allow me to be physically in attendance for next year’s conference!

Gareth Johnson : 19 Nov 2020 13:58 |  Tags: Communication Conference Munin Norway Scholarly Tromso |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Call for Papers (themed): A.I. – Panic or Panacea

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/28

Download the full text of this call

The issue of intelligence lies at the heart of the scholarly lifeworld, although for much of history a topic focussed around a singular, human construct. Today though, algorithms, deep learning and artificial intelligence have emerged into the everyday world. From the seemingly trivial, to battling the pandemic or even fighting our future wars, applications of algorithmic intelligence are increasingly shaping critical decisions and policy helping meet emerging challenges. Should we be celebrating the transition to a more ‘automated’ workplace, freeing humankind from waged-labour exploitative drudgery or does it represent an existential threat to the livelihood of millions?

Some would argue humanity has cause to fear the unchecked rise of the machines in our society. For example, the recent examination debacle in the UK undoubtedly lays still sharp in the minds of many British students and their parents as an example of a misapplied technological aid. Other cautionary tales of unfettered algorithm use abound in fields as diverse as space imaging and earth observation, through to the evaluation of immigration applicants or ‘future crime’ prediction. Is the age of the 'Minority Report' a new era of safety to be trumpeted or a greater force for oppression and fear?

Conversely, many assert artificial intelligence, machine learning and algorithms offer humanity a brave new world of opportunity, advancement and potential achievement. Deployed in the service of humanity algorithmic intelligence could help us better plan for future building and habitation needs, predict cataclysmic acts of nature or even more efficiently discover curative treatments. Thus, the artificially intelligent enabled future may be a far brighter one than some currently anticipate. Where, if anywhere, does ‘the truth’ lay?

Manuscript Submissions

Hence, for the issue of Exchanges due for publication in Autumn 2021, we invite authors to submit original, exciting and insightful manuscripts for peer-reviewed publicationconsideration inspired by any aspect of this theme. We welcome papers written for a general academic audience exploring or reviewing the science, application and implementation of machine learning, artificial intelligence or algorithms within a broader societal setting. We also welcome submissions from the humanities, arts and social sciences dealing with the ethics, perceptions, interpretations and representations of these issues too.

First-time or early career authors may alternatively wish to consider submitting either a critical reflectionor conversational (interview) pieceinspired or informed by these themes. Such pieces would serve to provide much needed background to the topic for a general academic audience. Critical reflections and conversations only undergo editorial review ahead of publication and hence are especially suitable for first-time or early career authors.

> Our author and style guidelines are available.

Deadlines

All submitted manuscripts will undergo editorial review, with those seeking publication as a research article additionally undergoing formal peer-review. The online form should be used to make manuscript submissions.

> Peer-reviewed articles: 1st May 2021. | Conversations or critical reflections: 31st August 2021.

More information

For more information on Exchangesand our activities, visit the journal’s website. For questions relating to this call, future submissions or other matters relating to the title please contact Editor-in-Chief, Dr Gareth J Johnson.

Gareth Johnson : 03 Nov 2020 16:50 |  Tags: AI Algorithms Call Ethics Learning Machine Papers |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Exchanges Volume 8.1 Published

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/30

The sixteenth issue of Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journalhas been published (29 Oct 2020) by Warwick's Institute of Advanced Study. Written and by and for early career researchers in all disciplines, this issue once again brings an assortment of articles, topics and authors to its broad readership, with strong resonances between the pieces of creativity and language acquisition. Articles this issue deal with areas including:

Gareth Johnson : 29 Oct 2020 16:43 |  Tags: 2020 Autumn Issue New Published |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Exchanges AMA 2020

Today we rolled out the annual Exchanges session for the IAS’ Accolade programme, although with being online this year it was slightly different. Last year we had a fantastic [1] gamified workshop on publishing traumas, and the year before that more of a chalk and talk session. This time, well, the opportunity to host a Reddit style AMA (ask me anything) session seemed ideal. It was discursive, well suited to the online format, allowed for written or spoken questions and best of all, I didn’t need to do too much preparation.

Well, that is aside from ensuring I’d pre-written answers for the three outline questions I’d posed in the event blurb, to ensure we had something with which to kick off discussions. My thanks to my esteemed colleague Dr Sarah Penny for hosting and acting as session chair. Also, my thanks to those research fellows who listened and questioned me for what became a surprisingly fun 30 minutes of chat about the journal and publishing in general [2]. I hope you all got something useful, interesting or at least vaguely entertaining out of the session!

So, reader of the editorial blog, you’re probably wondering what was asked. Well, and I’m slightly paraphrasing, here are the topics we touched upon today.

• ‘Are articles rejected by journal editors when reviewers actually suggested major corrections?’
• ‘Are you approaching people to take part in the podcast or are people approaching you?’
• ‘Do you have any advice for starting out reviewing in journals? [Especially] do you have any tips for overcoming imposter syndrome?’
• ‘Do you prefer outlines [abstracts] before the completed paper [is submitted]’
• ‘I’m interested in if [Exchanges] is interested in new methods to integrate data (rather than findings from research studies’
• ‘I’ve never published before, and it’s nerve wracking’. Can you offer any support to someone like me?’
• ‘What are the three best ways to really annoy an editor?’
• ‘What’s a/your journal impact factor?’
• ‘What’s the deadline for the upcoming issue?’
• ‘Why should I publish in Exchanges?’

As for the answers…ah, you really needed to be there. However, I might pick up on one or more of these themes in future posts and podcast episodes, so maybe I won’t leave you all entirely hanging. Safe to say one or two of the questions above could probably have filled the entire 30 minutes had I given them the full answer.

Will we run this session again? I’d be keen to, and I’m sure we might find time down the line for a later Accolade repeat. Or of course, a royal command performance elsewhere. As readers, and those who know me, are aware, I will talk about Exchanges and scholarly publishing until the cows come home, so I look forward to the next session – whenever or wherever it might be!

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[1] Well, I loved it and really want to run that session again, albeit, slightly reconfigured.

[2] Not to forget the hirsute Dr Marcos Estrada, one of my two longest serving and most prolific members of the editorial board for his input today too.

Gareth Johnson : 08 Oct 2020 15:28 |  Tags: Accolade Anything Ask Fellows Ias Live Me Talk Training Workshop |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Declining Manuscripts

As I’ve written and talked about previously, one of the least pleasurable tasks within the editor-in-chief’s bailiwick is that of declining author submissions at any point in the editorial cycle. This is foremost within my mind this morning as writing to inform an author their work was not being progressed for publication consideration was essentially the first task I deal with today. One thing I find invaluable to keep at the forefront of my mind when dealing with this unpleasant, but essential, editorial task is the ‘human factor’. That is to say, on the end of my dreaded missive lies another genuine human being, resplendent in all the highs and lows of professional and personal life which creates the lived human experience.

Consequently, what I always find myself thinking as I write to them is that no matter how polite my phrasing and encouraging my words of explanation, there will always be a sting of rejection for someone elsewhere on the planet. No one likes to feel they’ve not made the grade whether it be after an unsuccessful job interview, disastrous date or hearing from a ‘heartless’ academic editor that your work’s not going to appear in their journal. Learning how to cope and handle with being rebuffed in academia is a skill we all have to develop, and from which we can learn, adapt and grow in our professional practice. Believe me when I say I’m speaking from personal experience here!

When considering the person I’m writing to, it’s worth remember while we continue to have many submissions from my own host university [1], a rapidly increasing proportion of the work Exchanges considers is by individuals I may never meet. This means I’m likely unaware of their individual circumstances and can never be entirely sure if our decline will be a crushing blow or merely just another Tuesday in their academic trajectory. Perhaps editors with more years more experience than myself have learned to harden themselves to a greater degree when scripting these terminatory communications. I’m not sure, and I’m equally hesitant to will myself towards achieving such a lapidarian exterior.

Incidentally, writing to an author I know personally strangely makes the task simultaneously harder and easier at the same time. Harder, because I know exactly who I’ll be disappointed and likely have a clearer idea of the personal circumstances and challenges they’re embroiled within. Easier, because I can write more as a critical friend than a dispassionate if concerned editorial worker.

Part of the reason why I agonise somewhat over the impact of the ‘declined’ email is due to the nature of Exchanges. We are a journal which champions and encourages contributions from first time authors. This means we have authors who might not themselves be used to on the receiving end of a rejection before, and I strongly believe it is our role as a journal to cushion the blow to a moderate degree. I would rather we were perceived as a title which encourages new authors, than dismays them with an offhand or discourteous dismissal.

Additionally, working with first time authors also means at times the submissions we receive may lack sophistication of voice, style and structure. Naturally, not all first-time authors submit weaker work, far from it, as we have been privileged to consider, accept and publish many well-written articles by new academic authors. However, we do continue to have a steady stream of submitted manuscripts where the author has demonstrably yet to make the transition from a ‘student essay’ to ‘scholarly academic’ voice. For some authors, we can explore ways to achieve this transformation during the review and revision cycle. For others though, the weaknesses are sadly so endemic that it is kinder and perhaps more expedient for all concerned to remove them from publication consideration.

In these latter cases, and indeed whenever we decline work, I take it upon myself to not only inform the author of our decision, but to explore with them the steps they could take towards authorial redemption. In this respect I have been delighted over the last couple of years that a handful of authors have taken onboard our comments and feedback, overcome the sting of rejection, and later resubmitted a reworked manuscript. Not all of these resubmissions have been successful in achieving publication, such is the nature of our quality assurance regime.

Nevertheless, that some authors try, reinforces my belief in the importance of how and what we say to authors at the point of decline matters beyond any emotional considerations. It hopefully contributes as well in some small way to enhancing their reflective professional practice and self-critique as they progress towards become accomplished, and hopefully successful, publishing authors.

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[1] Thank you to each and every one of you who has submitted to us, it’s great to keep that ‘Warwick Wow Factor’ appearing in our pages.

Gareth Johnson : 06 Oct 2020 11:48 |  Tags: Authors Decline Editorial Process Submissions |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Forthcoming Attractions in 2020/21

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/

I thought it would be worth discussing, publicly, where we are with Exchanges, in terms of future journal issues. Those of you who read my editorial in the most recent, and slightly delayed, issue will be aware the pandemic has had some unavoidable impacts on our planned timescales. Hence, I thought rather than leaving this information on a spreadsheet on my machine, it’d be a healthy and productive to share with the wider community.

Oct/Nov 2020 (Issue 8.1): The next issue of Exchanges would normally be published in October. I would dearly like us to continue this tradition, especially following the delayed spring 2020 volume. Naturally, a lot depends on how many articles we have ready by this date. I am hopeful that as scholars have become more acclimatised globally to working under these current difficult conditions, our contributors and editors alike will be more able to deliver in a timely manner. It is notable we’ve already one article ready for publication, and I believe a second one will be ready in the next week or so. This is a significant improvement on where we were at a similar stage for the Spring 2020 issue and suggests we may be able to hit the deadline this time. Naturally, things may yet slow down again with the summer ‘break’ and new academic year affecting academic available writing time, alongside the ongoing pandemic conditions. Nevertheless, I would hope we would see a new issue produced by the end of November at the very latest with how things are progressing currently.

Jan 2021 (Special Issue 8.2: Climate Fiction): If there was one future issue whose production has the been most impacted by lockdown: it is our forthcoming CliFi issue. My associate and full editors have been working diligently behind the scenes, but we’ve hit a number of reviewer and author snags due to the global situation. We had initially targeted September 2020 for this volume to see publication, While there are a handful of papers ready, or close to it, there is as of yet an insufficient corpus of them to call an issue or indeed to make a 100% confident prediction on that issue’s publication date. I have to admit we have lost a couple of manuscripts under consideration for this issue, due to the authors’ personal circumstances requiring them to withdraw their participation. I cannot begin to describe how sympathetic we are to these authors, and wish them every future success, and perhaps a resubmission with us down the line. Nevertheless, for the editorial team members who’ve laboured over these papers, this has been a somewhat disheartening experience. Consequently, after talking it over with the special issue lead, we’ve agreed, with considerable regret, to push this issue’s anticipated publication date back to a likely January 2021 date. Hopefully, this means we will be able to bring together a great issue in the vein [1] of the cannibalism issue at that point.

April 2021 (Issue 8.3): Assuming we keep getting manuscript submissions arriving and passing through review at close to the same rate as normal [2], I would anticipate a regular issue of Exchanges should appear around this time. Naturally, with the pandemic and its devastating disruptive impacts, nothing is certain. All the same, this is the goal line towards which the whole editorial team is working towards.

May 2021 (Special Issue 8.4: Then & Now): This is point at which my prognosticative powers begin to fail. We have commissioned a special issue, in collaboration with Warwick’s Faculty of Art to appear in the first half of 2021 we hope. If the Fates smile upon ourselves and the contributing authors, this might even be an issue which appear sooner than expected. That is, if all the papers are submitted in the timely fashion myself and the special issue leads are hoping. Additionally, given our assumption many of the papers for this issue will need to undergo editorial rather than peer review, this could speed publication processes up considerably. At this stage though, we are still at the stage where we’re talking with potential authors about their submissions, and while I’ve seen a few outlines, I’ve yet to see a single paper even close to a first draft yet. Hence, I can’t make too many exact predictions for now. I am however, acutely aware that I personally need around a month between each new issue coming out to ensure I have sufficient time to deliver on my own editorial due diligence on each new volume’s content. Hence, there may need to be some gentle massaging of the timeline to ensure this and the proceeding expected volume don’t collide.

June/July 2021 (Special Issue 8.5: Lonely Nerds): Like the Then & Now volume, this is at a very early stage, although unlike that volume we went with an open call for abstract contributions. After this closed, the special issue leads selected the best submissions, and hence we’ve commissioned the authors who will be writing for this issue already. Excitingly we had TOO MANY potential submissions to include in this volume, which is a unique position for Exchanges. Unlike the preceding volume, the articles for this issue are largely expected to all be peer reviewed pieces, which means there’s going to be a longer editorial process before they’re publication ready. Although, hopes are high after examining the quality of the submitted abstracts, that we’ll be overseeing the editing of some very exciting, well written and impactful contributions to this special issue. Naturally, once I have the actual draft submitted manuscripts to hand towards the end of 2020, I’ll be ready with a keener idea on the likely issue publication date.

October 2021 (Issue 9.1): Right now, next October might only be 14 months away(!), but it feels like the far, far future, after everything 2020’s thrown at everyone [3]. Hopefully, we will all still be here to welcome in the 9^th volume of Exchanges with this regularly scheduled issue. Currently, there aren’t any special issues planned beyond this point, so things might get a little quieter for a while as we return to our ‘regular’ schedule. But after two years of special issues…I’m not quite sure what that’ll look like.

There you have it - a potted guide to the next year and a half of planned publication for Exchanges, as things stand here from the ramparts of mid-summer 2020. Given the speed with which society has changed this year, and the uncertain impacts from that and other events on the higher education sector [4], nothing here is written in stone. Now though, at least you might be able to appreciate where our publication ambitions are leaning towards in the medium term.

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[1] No pun intended. #SorryNotSorry.

[2] An assumption which might be foolish to make under the current circumstances but then there’s no other data I have to draw on. August is normally the quietest month for us in terms of new papers, as people take well-deserved summer breaks, so I’ll have a clearer idea in about 8 weeks on this.

[3] So far. There are still 5 months to go of this year, and so many known (and likely many unknown) global and national events which could throw a digital-sabot in the electronic printing press.

[4] Student numbers, ‘the B word’ and university finances alone being a major bump in the road ahead.

Gareth Johnson : 06 Aug 2020 13:48 |  Tags: Editorial Future Insight Issues Outline Plans Publication Special |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Keeping in Touch with Exchanges

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/FAQ

One of the most important attributes each registered contributor for Exchanges lodges with us is their personal email address. Currently, the journal platform can only store a single address, which means if you are coming to the end of your doctoral studies or are about to change institution it’s vitally important that you update your details at the earliest opportunity. Notably, some journal contributors prefer to use their personal, non-institutional email with Exchanges instead as their primary contact address. This is absolutely is fine, as this usually guarantees a continued line of contact outside of any changing employment circumstances. Whether you register your personal institutional or non-institutional email address with us is very much a personal choice.

But this illustrates a simple fact: if your email address isn’t up-to-date on our system, we’re won’t be able to contact you about developments with your submission, requests to participate in reviews or highlight new publishing opportunities.

Thankfully, changing your contact email address only takes a few moments:

1. Log into your Exchanges account at: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/login
2. Click on your profile name in the top right-hand corner of the screen and select View Profile
3. Click the Contact tab and change the address at the top of the screen
4. Finally, click save to confirm

My hope is in the longer term, as the OJS platform develops, that we may be able to allow contributors to register an alternative, secondary email address. This would certainly benefit the editorial team’s work in keeping in touch with all their respective author and reviewer contributors. For now though, the message is clear, if you’re about to or have recently changed roles, make sure you’ve got the right email address registered with Exchanges!

Naturally, if you have any issues with updating your address, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.

Gareth Johnson : 04 Aug 2020 10:49 |  Tags: Addresses Contact Contributors Email Guidance Updates |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Podcast Episode: Art Students Then & Now

Writing about web page https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/Art-Students-Then--Now-eg62eq

We've just rolled out our next episode of the podcast, and I'm really excited because it is the first time we've hosted a guest on the series. I'm joined in conversation with Pierre Botcherby from History, talking about the student-led Then & Now Project, which is collaborating with Exchanges towards a special issue we're looking to publish in 2021.

Listen online at: https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/Art-Students-Then--Now-eg62eq

I'm lining up a few more guests for future episodes, so the series will hopefully continue to not always be solely my voice to which you're listening.

Gareth Johnson : 01 Jul 2020 16:02 |  Tags: Episode Issue Podcast Special |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem