AI & Authorship

Writing about web page https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author

Like many of you I've been following the discussions around authorship and AI, especially as it relates to ChatGPT and scholarly communications in recent weeks (for example: Haggart, 2023; Lucey & Dowling, 2023). You probably saw the splash in the news recently too when the major research journal Science took the position ‘banning the use of text from ChatGPT and clarifying that the program could not be listed as an author.’ (Sample, 2023). Naturally, as a journal editor thoughts on originality are rarely far from my mind, and while there have been tools around for some time which can be deployed by authors in the creation of text – I can recall playing with them as far back as two decades ago – ChatGPT does rather seem to have shifted the practice from a niche to a mainstream activity.

Given Exchanges regularly looks to COPE (the Committee in Publishing Ethics) for best practice guidance in maters of publishing ethics, I’ve been keeping our powder dry as far as any related policy for the journal is concerned. Certainly, during the last few weeks we’ve received our first – and I doubt last – article submission relating to the issue. Note about not by, being the important elements in this respect. Nevertheless, I suspect in the fullness of time we may will almost certainly have contributions from authors who will be making use of AI tools in the creations of their papers.

Hence, this morning I noted with particular interest how COPE have now produced a position statement on the issue of authorship and the use of AI in the creation of research publications. I confess I’ve been waiting on this with anticipation, and now it’s here am glad to report it is fairly elegant in its simplicity. The key elements of COPE’s position being:

• AI Tools cannot be listed as paper authors given they cannot take any legal responsibility.
• Authors utilising AI tools in a manuscript’s creation must disclose where/how they were used.
• Authors retain responsibility and ethical liability for all of their paper’s contents

(COPE, 2023)

To my thinking this seems a rational, fair and workable approach. It doesn’t entirely exclude contributions from authors who may well wish to make a use of AI tools in the creation of their research outputs – which is good, because I wouldn’t want to preclude these from our considerations. However, it does clarify and demarcate the expectations of professional ethics, original contributions and the boundaries of authorship within any journal contributions. While I suspect questions around the use and misuse of AI tools within scholarship will not be evaporating any time soon, to my mind this position statement at least provides editors like myself with a framework upon which to consider and build our own related submission policies.

As such, with the hopeful agreement of Exchanges’ Editorial Board, we will be adapting and adopting a policy on AI tools and authorship, very much based on the COPE guidance. Given we as a journal typically look towards COPE for best ethical practice, this is line with the development of our extant policy frameworks. Authors seeking to explore these topics more, and how it may impact on the production of their submissions, naturally, are encouraged to contact myself for further discussions.

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Endnotes

COPE, 2023. Authorship and AI Tools: COPE Position Statement. Committee on Publication Ethics. https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author

Haggart, B., 2023. ChatGPT Strikes at the Heart of the Scientific World View. Centre for International Governance Innovation. 23 January 2023. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/chatgpt-strikes-at-the-heart-of-the-scientific-world-view/

Lucey, B., & Dowling, M., 2023. ChatGPT: our study shows AI can produce academic papers good enough for journals – just as some ban it. The Conversation, 26 January. https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-our-study-shows-ai-can-produce-academic-papers-good-enough-for-journals-just-as-some-ban-it-197762

Sample, I., 2023. Science journals ban listing of ChatGPT as co-author on papers. The Guardian, 26 Jan 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/26/science-journals-ban-listing-of-chatgpt-as-co-author-on-papers

Gareth Johnson : 14 Feb 2023 10:59 |  Tags: AI Authorship Chatgpt Computers Policies |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Subscribe to the New Exchanges Newsletter

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/44

There's a new regular way to get a monthly update on Exchanges direct to your inbox - a newsletter!

I'm delighted to announce there's now an Exchanges newsletter which people can subscribe to online. Each month the newsletter will highlight recent developments from the journal, along with a reminder of current and forthcoming calls for content, opportunities to get involved and all the very latest on our podcast series too.

The newsletter will, mostly, be reusing the content we post to the IAS' monthly newsletter - so if you're already subscribed to that, then you probably will be up to date on things. But if not, and you'd like the make sure you're always fully appraised of everything going on with Exchanges - then signing up to the newsletter is a great way to achieve this.

Full details of how to subscribe are here: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/44

For interest in this issue of the newsletter:

• Focus in on top articles and episodes
• Review of Exchanges workshops and events
• News about the Exchanges Discourse podcast
• Reminder of open calls for papers
• Somewhat meta-textually...news on the new newsletter
• Highlighting Exchanges' social media instances
• Plus a regular guide on managing your list membership and what Exchanges is all about.

So, if you don't want to miss out on everything to do with Exchanges, and want to know more - subscribe today!

Gareth Johnson : 01 Feb 2023 10:01 |  Tags: Information List Mailing News Newsletter Updates |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Publishing for Arts & Humanities Post–Graduates: CADRE Workshop January 2023

Writing about web page https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cadre/current_students/phdlife/cadreworkshops/

Following a session for arts and humanities students, the EIC reflects back on the discussions, content and advice offered in a workshop for PGRs.

Today I had the pleasure of attending and helping to facilitate the CADRE Publishing for Arts Postgraduates workshop and seminar on campus, thanks to old friend of the journal Dr Pierre Botcherby. As my first of a number of workshops and events I’m contributing to this year, I was very much looking forward to the discussions. I was also looking forward to helping to host the event in person, as the side conversations you have with delegates seldom seem to occur in the online only format.

Led by Prof David Lambert and cofacilitated by myself and Pierre, the session was an opportunity for the research students to explore, discuss and broaden their knowledge of academic publishing. With a practical edge, the general focus was, largely, on academic journal articles. Although we also dipped into the realm of collected editions, social media and book proposals too. Naturally, because I was in the room, we also got into the complexities of open access and author rights, but perhaps thankfully I didn’t find myself on too much of a soapbox about the commodification of the publishing sector. Well, not too much of a soapbox anyway.[1]

Why Publish?

The opening question put to the delegates was ‘why should you publish’ – for the following areas emerged.

• Feedback: To gain useful feedback and enrich thesis writing. Appreciating publication is a process [a continuum even? – Ed] too, of which thesis writing is part.
• Discourse: To contribute to the scholarly discourse and in having something interesting and original to say within it.
• Enrich: To bring other researchers or fields of study which may have been previously neglected, and in this way enriching the field and reputations of other scholars was a related point.
• Career: Pragmatically it was pointed out that publishing was essential for building your academic CV, profile, reputation and potential job prospects.
• Confidence: Interestingly one delegate suggested that publishing helped to build personal confidence in their research endeavors, and also to stake a degree of ‘primacy’ over their field of work or focus.
• Visibility: Finally, it was agreed that creating a publication track record leads to creating a discussion or focus on your research in the wider academic environment – again a valuable career boosting element.

When to Publish?

Delegates were next challenged to consider when the time was ripe to publish – and an interesting spectrum of times emerged from different parts of the room. These perceptions included:

• Before: Potentially given prior experience ahead of starting the PhD, drawing on past studies like a Master’s dissertation or professional knowledge.
• Third Year: During your final year, once the research is done and findings are starting to emerge.
• Opportunity: As opportunities and circumstances allow – you might not be planning to publish but then a call appears which so closely matches your chapter or thesis theme that not trying to publish would seem self-defeatist.

These were all certainly valid perceptions, and very much reflecting that there is no ‘ideal’ moment, but a myriad of possibilities of opportunities.

Where to Publish?

Next came the knotty problem of selecting a publication destination, something I actually came back to in my own later talk How to Publish. Here discussions were largely around the routes to identifying the right candidate journal – through metrics or considering to whom a journal’s content is normally directed.[2] We didn’t get too deeply into the metrics, perhaps a bless’d relief, although it might be that a 20 minute follow up session these and the JCRs might have benefited the delegates somewhat – not matter my own skepticisms of the preeminence of these schema.

Points were also raised concerning about choosing to write for a niche, disciplinary title against the benefits (and challenges) of seeking to appear in a broader and more cross/interdisciplinary title too. I was gratified to hear some discussion from delegates concerning balancing knockbacks (rejections/declines) from more ‘senior’ titles against targeting ‘lower ranked’ titles. The perception was these more modest titles were normally more likely to be configured in a more welcoming, and accommodating manner whilst retaining quality regimes. I would certainly hope Exchanges itself falls into this latter category!

What to Publish?

Next, we enjoyed some more debate over what exactly to publish, although journal articles and book reviews were both seen as good starting points. Book chapters, especially as a result of conference participation and later collected editions were also agreed as strong and sometime serendipitous publication opportunities to be very much encouraged. Books, especially the research monograph, were noted as especially valuable for career capital but in terms of time commitment items with their much longer lead time to publication something which might be a greater challenge in terms of relating to a imminent job opportunity. However, it was highlighted that having any publication ‘accepted’ allowed it to be listed as ‘forthcoming’ within a CV, publication list or profile, which was seen as still offering considerable benefit.

At this point one of the experienced delegates stressed how important they had found it to be responsive and friendly in all their communications with publishers, and how it had opened potential additional avenues to follow up later too. I would concur with this point, and not just because I’m generally on the other side of the editorial communication equation!

How to Publish

Following on was section comprising a twenty minute talk from myself – and rather than blow my own trumpet here’s a link to the slides:

But for the record I covered a little on creating effective titles and abstracts, methods for evaluating candidate journals and publishers, the dangers of ‘trash’ publishers, coping with peer-review feedback and clearing third party rights. I also dipped into the importance of considering how a journal or publisher deals with author rights – in terms of requiring a transfer of economic rights, vs journals like Exchanges which allow authors to retain them. It seemed to go down well enough – although I might have frightened one delegate with my warnings about publishing in trash journals and career impact.

Oops.

Wrap Up

After some discussions over lunch we moved into the wrap up for the session, touching briefly again on open access and edited collections [3]. We also had a bit of chat about the artificialities of page and content lengths in a digital publishing age, although as demonstrated – some (many?) journals still have hardcopy editions which impacts on their minimum and maximum sizes for volumes and contents. Finally, there were discussions around blogging and social media as a route to ‘publishing’ and raising personal visibility. As a long-time blogger [4] I’m not sure how much blogs work that well in that respect today, but I’d agree they are a great environment within which to start a conversation alongside practicing your writing habits. As I commented though, some publisher’s definition of ‘prior publishing’ can be tricksy – in that they claim only ‘they’ perform ‘true’ publication…and yet ‘blogging’ by prospective authors might somehow be considered prior work and risk clash with a submission based on the blog.

ARGH!

I, and by extension Exchanges, very much disagree with this perception, which is mired more in considerations of profitability and market return than supporting scholarly discourse. Nevertheless, it was something worth flagging up so the delegates might be aware it could prove a future problematic for them to overcome.

Hence, as you can see a packed couple of hours, with plenty of good content and discussions. My thanks again to the hosts and delegates for all their contributions too.

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Endnotes

[1] Delegates were probably lucky I wasn’t running the session alone as I would have loved to get into these areas in more detail. But, when you’re sharing the stage it doesn’t do to hog the limelight too much!

[2] As I commented on twitter, I am usure how strong an argument ‘audience’ is these days, with much research indicating readers come in primarily at the article rather than journal level. Certainly for my own praxis, I rarely if ever read a specific ‘journal’ these days – I search for article on topics of research interest instead. Frankly being ‘open’ is more important to me than ‘prestigious’!

[3] I wasn’t aware that Warwick had a series for these, so this was an especially useful bit for me.

[4] I think this current blog is my fourth or fifth regular professional blog platform, so yes a long time and reasonably prolific.

Gareth Johnson : 24 Jan 2023 15:26 |  Tags: Advice Debate Discussion Postgraduate Publishing Seminar Training Workshop |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Episode: The What, The Why, The How and The Where of Critical Reflections

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

A new year brings with it a new episode of the Exchanges Discourse podcast, focussing on critical reflections.

Many moons ago I wrote a piece for the blog about critical reflections, in part to address the lack of substantive information which had been previously provided about them. Since then it’s remained a popular format, but one which I’ve found many authors are less than clear about. So, before the Christmas break, I recorded a lengthy new episode of The Exchanges Discourse podcast to explore this topic.

Listen here: Creating Critical Reflection Articles: The What, The Why, The How and The Where (23:57)

(Also available on Spotify)

As it’s a lengthy episode I’ve provided some navigation guidance for listeners so they can skip to the right point of the podcast episode.

• Opening (00:00)
• Introduction (01:08)
• Defining critical reflections (04:12)
• Why they matter (09:28)
• Writing critical reflections (14:08)
• Wrap up (21:12)

Keen eared and regular listeners will notice I’ve also updated the musical ident that we use for the podcast. I thought after three seasons it was time to have a refresh of this, and I hope you enjoy the light and slightly innocuous new piece I’ve selected.

As we don’t have any more author interviews scheduled (at least not until after we publish issue 10.2 in April), I’ll be hopefully pulling together a couple more episodes in the meantime…but no spoilers for now.

Happy listening.

Gareth Johnson : 18 Jan 2023 11:11 |  Tags: Advice Author Critical Episode Podcast Reflections |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Top of the Articles: Exchanges’ Most Downloaded Articles 2022

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

In a companion piece to yesterday's post, the EIC takes a look at which articles proved the most regularly consulted by the readership in 2022.

Yesterday I focussed on the most popular episodes of the Exchanges Discourse podcast. Today I’m turning to the journal itself and asking the question: What were the most popular articles in 2022? Naturally, there are a variety of metrics that we could use here but I’ll be deploying the one with the most readily available data to me: raw downloads. [1]

For interest, here’s the 2021 chart.

We published a grand total of 28 new articles in 2022, but as always this new chart isn’t limited to these pieces alone. Although, it might be natural to assume that there will be a strong representation from the new material given its prominence in social media post issue launch, previous years have shown a lot of articles on Exchanges go on being actively accessed year after year. Indeed glancing at the stats for 2022, even the least accessed article had 36 downloads which is no small feat! [2]

This year in keeping with the podcast chart, I’ve also given a reader share figure. This is to give an idea of the proportion of downloads each article enjoyed in comparison to every piece we’ve ever published since 2013.

Without any more delay then, here’s this year’s chart:

	Article	Reader Share	2021 Position	Issue	Year	Type
1	Tokens, Writing and (Ac)counting: A Conversation with Denise Schmandt-Besserat and Bill Maurer	7.6%	New Entry	5(1)	2017	Con
2	From the Advent of Multiculturalism to the Elision of Race: The Representation of Race Relations in Disney Animated Features (1995-2009)	6.1%	#1	2(1)	2014	CF
3	'A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism'	2.2%	#3	7(2)	2020	Art
4	Gamestop	1.8%	#2	8(3)	2021	CF
5	Challenges that Early Career Researchers Face in Academic Research and Publishing	1.5%	New Entry	9(1)	2021	Art
6	The Social Stigma and the Challenges of Raising a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Greece	1.5%	New Entry	6(2)	2019	Art
7	Reflecting on the Experience of Environmental Epiphany in the Lives of Aldo Leopold, Thomas Hill Jr., and Albert Schweitzer	1.3%	New Entry	9(2)	2022	CF
8	Critical Analysis of the Electric Vehicle Industry	1.3%	New Entry	10(1)	2022	Art
9	Interrogating Practices of Gender, Religion and Nationalism in the Representation of Muslim Women in Bollywood: Contexts of Change, Sites of Continuity	1.1%	#7	2(2)	2015	Art
10	Myths of Male Same-Sex Love in the Art of the Italian Renaissance	1.0%	#6	3(1)	2015	Art

Key: Art – Article, Con – Conversation, CF – Critical Reflection

As always, I’m delighted, if a little surprised, how a number of our older articles continue to maintain a strong grip on our audience, especially given the strong reader share of the top two items. That said items from the last three years are still strongly represented with five entries – two of which were only published in 2022 - making very commendable appearances here.

It’s also good to see both conversation and critical reflection articles appearing high in the chart. [3] We continue to receive a number of excellent pieces in these formats, if perhaps fewer of the conversations than I would like, and hence it is satisfying to see our readers continue to value them, at least extrapolating from this data. [4] There are two a good range of new entries and checking back to when I first started reviewing the downloads in 2019’s volumes they are all genuine first-time appearances at the top of the charts – well done those authors especially.

As always, I suspect some of these articles will appear in our 2023 chart. However, with a currently scheduled 5 new issues to appear this year it wouldn’t surprise me if there was more than a little more competition than ever from new pieces twelve months from now!

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Endnotes

[1] Bibliometric fans and scholars might want to adopt a different method, drawing on impact, half-life, citations or altmetrics, but with the limited time available to me I’m going down the easiest route.

[2] It was an editorial from 2016, should you be curious.

[3] The most popular editorial(one of mine) popped up at number 45 in the chart (out of 231 total entries). Surprisingly high, although it was in one of our largest issues in terms of articles. Personally, I’m happy anyone reads the editorials - as editor, one has to accept that your own prose is always going to be of lesser import than featured authors!

[4] I often mention how critical reflections especially are valued by our readership and it’s good to see the numbers back me up!

Gareth Johnson : 13 Jan 2023 09:00 |  Tags: 2022 Articles Bibliometrics Charts Metrics Top |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Top of the Chats: Exchanges Discourse Most Popular Episodes 2022

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

The EIC looks back at the Exchanges Discourse podcast listener figures to uncover 2022’s most popular episodes.

Happy new year Exchanges blog readers. As is tradition [1] at the start of each year I like to have a quick check of the stats relating to the journal. First up, it’s the Exchanges Discourse podcast. Last year (2022) we released 17 episodes with a total running time of 6hrs 49mins – almost double the duration of the content we released the previous year. Were our authors more loquacious? In part, yes, but also the four additional episodes probably helped to boost the total a little.

For interest – here’s a link back to last year’s charts.

Interestingly, 15/17 episodes in 2022 featured a guest [2] with only a couple being solo episodes featuring myself. Anyway, here are the top chats of the year:

1. In Conversation with Elloit Cardoza (Feb ’22) [Total Audience Share: 16%]
2. In Conversation with Mehdi Moharami (Jan ’22) [Total Audience Share: 13%]
3. In Conversation with Francesca Brunetti (June ’22) [Total Audience Share: 8%]
4. What Do I Get Out of Publishing with Exchanges? (Mar ’22) [Total Audience Share: 8%] [3]
5. In Conversation with Alena Cicholewski (Sept ’22) [Total Audience Share: 7%]

Unsurprisingly, those recorded and released towards the start of the year do benefit from a longer lead time than the later ones, although I’m delighted to see my lovely chat with Alena in September is there among the most popular. I am also slightly flabbergasted to see one of my solo efforts charting so high. It’s not that they’re ‘less worthy’ entries, but I’ve rather naturally assumed the friends and colleagues of our guests would always boost the episodes they appear in above my own solo entries.

My thanks as always to all my guests, and of course the listeners too – I hope you all enjoyed and benefitted from the experience.

So, what’s coming up in 2023? The good news is the first new episode is only a day or so away from release as I recorded it just ahead of the Xmas break. After that…ah, spoilers sweetie!

Happy listening!

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Endnotes

[1] It’s not a long-standing tradition, dating back only a couple of years, but a tradition nevertheless.

[2] Including one author who came back for seconds!

[3] A very slightly lower overall number of listeners compared to (3), but not enough to shift the stats.

Gareth Johnson : 12 Jan 2023 08:06 |  Tags: 2022 Charts Listened Most Of Podcasts Review The Year |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Exchanges Review of the Year 2022 – Your Month by Month Guide

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

The Editor-in-Chief of Exchanges takes us through a month-by-month rundown of the year in the life of the journal.

We are almost at the end of another calendar year here at Exchanges Command and looking forward to a Christmas and New Year’s break in activities. Before we get to that firstly we’d like to thank all the readers of our blog and the journal for your attention this year. Naturally, there’s also a big thanks to everyone who contributed in 2022 in some way to the life of the journal. There are far too many to thank by name but know that it was appreciated by me and the Board members especially.

So, for this final blog post of the year, I thought it would be interesting to draw together a rundown, month by month of what happened for Exchanges during in 2022.

January

In January as is typical we looked forward and back, starting with the launch of a new third season of the Exchanges Discourse Podcast, albeit with an episode recorded the previous December. We also explored what had been the most popular journal articles and podcast episodes in the preceding 12 months as well. Alongside this we closed the call for papers to appear in the forthcoming Anthropocene special issue, and began working closely with the associate editors for that volume.

February

Three more podcast episodes were published this month tackling a mix of topics, but there was also a long blog post concerning what makes Exchanges special for authors. Based on conversations with research fellows at Warwick, it made for a useful think piece that would be referenced throughout the coming year. It was especially interesting though to hear throughout 2022 from podcast guests how much validity they’ve found in these perceptions within their publishing experiences on the journal. Meanwhile behind the scenes, activity was speeding up as initial publication preparations were underway for the spring journal issue.

March

As winter began to give ground to spring, for Exchanges the focus on the new issue preparations continued and increased in scope. Yet it was still a healthy month for the journal’s aim to bring transparency to its operations with multiple blogposts exploring various issues. These included updates on the podcast’s branding, thoughts around the platform’s technical and developmental wishlist desires alongside a refresh of our open call for papers too. There was also a new podcast episode tied into February’s look at publishing with Exchanges from a prospective author’s perspective. Plus, the journal’s patron (the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) at Warwick) increased its funding to bring in more hours from the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) on the title, reflecting the need for greater staff time and attention on the journal.

April

Undoubtedly the big news for April was the publication of Volume 9(2) of Exchanges itself – the 21^st issue of the journal to appear since its founding. This issue brought with it the announcement of call for papers for the 10^th birthday issue, scheduled for publication in late 2023. As of writing we’ve had a few contributions already, but there’s still time for plenty more critical reflections to boost this issue’s scholarly content. There was also the launch of a readers’ survey, but this, sadly, wasn’t a resounding success.[1] This month also marked 4 years at the helm for the EIC, a small personal milestone, especially given more issues (and articles) have come out under his aegis than during any previous lead editor’s tenure.

May

With the new issue out, there was a shift in editorial gear behind the scenes as authors whose work had just been published were now being approached to appear on the podcast and offer feedback on the journal. More excitingly, two online workshops were hosted by the Editor-in-Chief for Warwick researchers. The first was the latest iteration of the now biennial Ask Me Anything (AMA) session dedicated to exploring Exchanges entirely driven by audience members’ interests. A session the EIC hosts in a very freeform manner and is generally warmly received. This event was followed days later by a panel session entitled Developing your Publication Strategy. Chaired by the EIC with guest speakers, this made for a lively and illuminating debate on the methods and approaches different scholars adopt in producing their research literature outputs. If all that wasn’t enough, towards the end of the month, the EIC also hosted a session for arts undergraduates on the nuances, benefits and approaches to article writing.

June

As the summer arrived, and we got a taste of the very warm weather the UK would experience this year, it prefaced a busy month for the journal. New podcast episodes featuring authors from the recent spring issue started to appear online for listeners. Plus, over on the journal the altmetrics, PlumX metric package was formally rolled out for all articles, offering new insights into the discussions, links and social media impact of Exchanges’ publications visible to all. Behind the scenes the EIC was hard at work at some data cleansing activities. To this end he was locating ‘dead’ reviewer accounts – or at least those where the email address no longer functioned - and removing them from our active user database to save any confusion when locating potential article reviewers. Meanwhile there was also a chance for the associate editors working on the Pluralities of Translation special issue to meet up and exchange experiences on their progress to date. Finally, one more workshop was hosted by the EIC with guest panellists, this time focussing in on Developing a Monograph Proposal – a second iteration of which workshop is scheduled for late February ’23. On top of all this activity, there was also an opportunity for the IAS and Exchanges team to meet the incoming IAS Director and departmental head for the first time on campus, as we prepared to say farewell to our outgoing director in September.

July

A warm month, and also as the busy academic sessional year came to a close a relatively quiet one publicly. Behind the scenes though the EIC was hard at work bringing together the contents for the Nerds special issue. Sometimes the busiest months editorially are also the ones with the fewest public announcements – reflected in the mildly surprising revelation that there were no blog posts this month. Still, there were plenty of twitter tweets to keep people interested and informed about the journal’s activities.

August

A heat wave in the UK would make August a challenging month to keep working on the journal, but it was also a significant time for multiple reasons. Firstly, the long gestating Lonely Nerds special issue (Volume 9.3) was finally published to an eagerly waiting readership. It brought to an end three years of collaboration with the universities of Oxford and SOAS meaning it was a moment of celebration and mild regret that it had all come to an end. Looking to the future, August was also the month when Exchanges opened a wide call across the EUTOPIA partnership for new Board members, a call which received a high standard of applicants from around the world.

September

This month saw a split in focus. In part efforts to promote and celebrate the previous month’s special issue on social media and podcast episodes were a focus. At the same time, preparations were in full swing for the publication of the next regular issue of the journal scheduled for the end of October making for a busy time. September also saw the departure of editor Giulia Champion after three years working first as an associate editor, before progressing onto the Board. Among Giulia’s many contributions to the life of Exchanges had also been the instigation of our very first special issues (Cannibalism and ClifFi) – a remarkable feat for which she will be long remembered. Behind the scenes, the EIC was also preparing to shortlist and interview prospective new Board members.

October

The biggest journal news in October was of course the publication of Volume 10(1) of Exchanges, the 23rd journal issue to date and also the last one to appear this year. October was also the 9^th birthday of Exchanges itself, meaning attention was once again drawn to the call for papers for the 2023 10^th birthday issue. The EIC hosted two Board meetings as well, opportunities for editors and associates alike to share updates and issues, as well as hear about forthcoming developments for Exchanges too. Behind the scenes podcast interviews with the authors from the Lonely Nerds special issue continued to be recorded and released too. Weirdly, this month the EIC wrote his 2022 annual review for his host department mid-month, which had to make some educated guesses as to what the remaining 14 working weeks of the year would herald for the journal. Of course, beyond this for some the twin highlights would be the welcome to new IAS early research fellows and the subsequent Exchanges AMA workshop – hosted live and in person for the first time in three years. The latter session was certainly a riotously successful session, and exceptionally well received by the attendees – and the EIC himself! Alongside this the new Editorial Board members were agreed and prepared to be revealed to the world…

November

The penultimate month is often a busy one at Exchanges before the end of year slowdown. With the publication of an issue, there’s all the follow up and promotional activity which comes with it, and for Exchanges especially the recording of author interviews for the podcast. Certainly, all these things happened, but we also sneaked out an episode devoted to peer reviewing too, inspired from discussions at the previous month’s AMA. This November though was a little more special as we formally welcomed on board seven new members of the Editorial Board, and put them through their induction training programme. Alongside all this the EIC found time to contribute to Warwick’s Leadership and Management Development course for early-stage researchers focussing on editing and peer-review. Tied into this course, which is running twice more in 2023, was the announcement of a new special issue focussing on researcher reflections. More than enough to bring us almost to the end of the year, even as we launched our new Mastodon Twitter-alternative channel too.

December

Aside from our EIC celebrating his birthday [2], you’d think the ‘quietest month’ would see only a few minor highlights as the journal wound down operations for the year’s end. Not so, as behind the scenes a number of the new Editorial Board members got their first real taste of manuscript and author guidance. Meanwhile the EIC finally found the time to collate and review the feedback gathered from the last three years of author experiences [3]. Incidentally, initial indications are very positive! On top of that after years of effort, the EIC was delighted when they were finally able to get together with all the editors of other journals at Warwick Journals for the first time in years. Discussions centred on plans for joint activities and operations along with sharing areas of mutual concern and debate. To say it was a useful meeting would be an understatement, and hopefully a harbinger of more such gatherings in 2023. December was also the month we said a fond farewell to one of our longest serving Board members, as Natasha Abrahams (Melbourne & Monash universities) stood down after around five years working on the title. And just to round off the year, and our 44 blog entries to boot, we also released three more episodes of The Exchanges Discourse, featuring our last authors of 2022 in conversation.

Into 2023…

And that’s it –our busy and eventful 2022. What, I hear you ask is coming in 2023? Well, currently we have three special issues likely to see publication alongside our two regular issues to begin with, which will be a record if they all appear. Additionally, we have a handful of workshops to talk about Exchanges already in the diary. Hopefully we’ll be able to add a few more dates to these, and maybe a couple of conference papers as well [4]. All this and the growing work with our colleagues across the Warwick Journals family too to look forward to means next year is already shaping into a busy and suitably active one for our 10^th birthday year.

In the meantime, merry Christmas and happy New Year to all those of you out there! See you in 2023.

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Endnotes

[1] One of the things planned for exploration in 2023 are different approaches to finding out what our readers, rather than our authors, value most about Exchanges. I suspect conversations with our fellow journal editors may help here.

[2] Not as of yet a public holiday but we live in hope that it will be one day.

[3] Finishing writing up the report on this feedback remains my final 2022 unfinished task after this blog post…

[4] Don’t ask me where – I’ve not as of yet spotted any suitable events! However, if you’re interested in having someone from Exchanges appear at an event – please do get in touch.

Gareth Johnson : 21 Dec 2022 11:30 |  Tags: 2022 Annual Overview Retrospective Review Year |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Podcast Episodes: Pavel Fedotov and Colin Hutchinson in Conversation about their work

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

Two final episodes brings a year of podcasting to a close

It might be a little early for Christmas, but not by much, but so here’s a little pre-gift for you to enjoy. Not one but two new episodes of The Exchanges Discourse podcast series, talking with authors about their lives, work and publication.

In an interesting counterpoint firstly I’m In Conversation with Pavel Fedotov, young author of the article Critical Analysis of the Electric Vehicle Industry: Five forces and strategic action fields, about his studies and ambitions.

• In Conversation with Pavel Fedotov: Five Forces

Then I’m talking with veteran author Colin Hutchinson, the mind behind End of the Line: The unpublished novels of Anita Mason, about his life and work as an indecent scholar in the realm of the social novel. In particular we touch on his hopes in bringing these novels to greater attention and perhaps even public view one day.

• In Conversation with Colin Hutchinson: The Social Novel & Anita Mason

For those keeping score, these are the 16th and 17^th episodes of the podcast this year, with a grand total of 6 hours 59 minutes of content across them all. As the host and producer of the show, it’s been a delight talking with so many different authors around the world about their work and publishing, and I do hope you’ve all enjoyed listening in on our chats.

The first episode for 2023 is already drafted, as – spoiler alert – it’ll be focussed on one of Exchanges most popular formats: the critical reflection. Listen out for that in January. In the meantime, I’ll leave to enjoy every episode from our first three seasons of the podcast.

• Podcast Index: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/podcast

(Also available on Spotify)

And if you’ve enjoyed them, have a comment or suggestion for future episodes, of would like to feature as a guest in a future episode – then do get in touch with me.

Gareth Johnson : 20 Dec 2022 16:01 |  Tags: Anita Episodes Five Forces Mason New Novel Podcast Social |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Episode: In Conversation Again with Huayi Huang: Realism & Epistemologies

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

Once more we are delighted to share a conversation with one of our past authors. In this case we were joined by an author on the podcast for the second time, marking their sophomore contribution to the journal. As to be expected, this gave us a chance to delve into some new areas of academic debate and discussion.

In this episode we talk to Huayi Huang (Usher Institute of Health and Wellbeing, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland) about his work and publications. We focus in on Huayi’s recent article – Reflections from Research Practice: Realism and its reality, coming to know this, and working out its mechanisms of socio-material change– which appeared in the Autumn 2022 issue (Exchanges v10.1). In a broad conversation we discuss realism, knowledge systems, compromises and normalising change. As always, the episode wraps up with suggested advice on early career and first-time academic journal authors, focusing in on how to successfully overcome trepidations at the point of submission.

Listen in here:

In Conversation Again with Huayi Huang: Realism & Epistemologies: https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/In-Conversation-Again-with-Huayi-Huang-Realism--Epistemologies-e1rldm8

(Also available on Spotify)

Gareth Johnson : 06 Dec 2022 10:30 |  Tags: Authors Episode New Podcast Publishing Realism |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Episode: In Conversation with Simon Varwell – Citizen Participation & Partnerships

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

Another new episode of The Exchanges Discourse podcast has gone live, once again featuring a conversation with an author whose work appeared in a recent issue.

In this episode we talk to Simon Varwell (SPARQS, Edinburgh, UK) about his work and publications. We focus in on Simon’s recent article – A Literature Review of Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation: Lessons for contemporary student engagement – which appeared in the Autumn 2022 issue (Exchanges v10.1). In a wide ranging conversation we discuss Arnstein’s relevance in various sectors today, explore student partnerships and representation within tertiary education alongside reflections on effective peer-reviewer practice. As always, the episode wraps up with suggested advice for early career and first time authors looking to publish within academic journals.

Listen in here:

• In Conversation with Simon Varwell: Citizen Participation & Partnerships https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/In-Conversation-with-Simon-Varwell-Citizen-Participation--Partnerships-e1r6vbh/a-a8ttn7p

(Also available on Spotify)

Gareth Johnson : 24 Nov 2022 11:07 |  Tags: Episode New Partnerships Podcast Representation Students |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem