All 4 entries tagged Anniversary

Celebrating 6 Years at Exchanges

Chief Editor commemorates their sixth year at Warwick, and looks to the future.

On a personal note for once, today marks my sixth anniversary of coming to work at Warwick as the Exchanges journal’s editor-in-chief. 2018 was a very different time for the world, when a Teams call was an outlier not a daily occurrence, and also a time when the journal was smaller, based in a very different building and with a much smaller editorial base.

Six years is also an auspicious moment for more than one reason. For starters Exchanges as it exists today is not the journal I first took on back in 2018 by many metrics. We have grown beyond measure over this time in terms of issues produced not to mention the range of activities we do and personal who are involved in the title. We’ve also evolved in terms of collaborations, as these have become very much at the heart of much of what we do – both with colleagues at Warwick but also with partners and contributors around the world. That I’ve enjoyed more than one breakfast meeting this week training up new associate editors from Australia stands as one example of this ongoing and lively international collaboration. Indeed, I did a back of the envelope calculation earlier which pointed out that I currently oversee the work of over 50 editors as part of our team – helped immensely by our incredible and expanding special issue programme!

Today, where once we produced a couple of annual issues, this year we potentially have upwards of four or five issues which will be seeing publication, which is a massive development for what is, after all, a relatively modestly resourced scholar-led title. Looking back at my own career journal too, entering the seventh year tends to be a moment of change of direction for myself also. Does this mean that the next 12 months herald big career changes for myself? Perhaps, perhaps not, it is hard to tell, as my magic eightball is not cooperating currently.

Nevertheless, it’s still a moment for some light celebration today, even as I keep my eye firmly focused on what the future brings. My grateful thanks to all of Exchanges’ contributors, editors and reviewers past, present and future for everything they have and continue to do which help keep making our little interdisciplinary research journal a going concern!

Gareth Johnson : 11 Apr 2024 10:24 |  Tags: Anniversary Back Looking Six Years |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Call for Papers: Authentic Interdisciplinarity

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/36

In case you missed it, we have a themed call for papers now open which ties in to our planned 10th Birthday Issue in October 2023.

we are seeking contributions which seek to celebrate, challenge or define ideas around authentic interdisciplinarity. Authors may wish to draw on their own research practices and activities or adopt a more holistic stance in engaging with the prior literature and activities within this broadly demarcated field. As is Exchanges’tradition, we will potentially consider any work which its authors choose to present which seeks to address the themes evident within this call.

Authors may also wish to draw upon methods or methodological practices within a variety of field. Alternatively, they may consider explore if there are discrete or disparate audiences for interdisciplinary rather than unitary disciplinary work in academia today. Additionally, pieces considering, rationalising or amplifying cross-disciplinary discourse concerning centring on the concepts of authentic interdisciplinarity would be warmly received.

Authors looking for further inspiration should read the full text of the call at:

https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/36

Deadlines are:

• Peer-Reviewed Papers or Review Articles 30th November 2022
• Critical Reflections, Conversations (interviews) or Essays 30th June 2023

Gareth Johnson : 03 May 2022 09:14 |  Tags: Anniversary Call Interdisciplinarity Papers |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

4 Years Not Out (yet)

48 months in, the Editor-in-Chief pauses to celebrate his progress and progression

It was my Warwickversity yesterday, commemorating that day back in 2018 when I first took on the mantle of senior editor for Exchanges. A lot has changed, not least my official job title and that of the journal itself, since then. There’s also been a lot more home-office working than I anticipated, and while I miss seeing a lot of the Warwick campus crew in the flesh right now, I’ve not missed the countless miles of the commute down the M69.

There weren’t any celebrations – hopefully if I make it to year 5 that would seem a suitable moment to make a mark – other than a quiet reflection on job (mostly) done well. It is great to acknowledge that having come into the post as what was a fixed term 2.5 year role, that I’m still here and loving the job more than ever today. Probably in part because what the journal is and does has evolved, but mainly because of the editors, authors and other contributors or supporters I’ve met along the way. Not to mention the IAS’ unflinching backing of the title and myself through good times and adverse too.

Right, enough omphaloskepsis – time to get back to work for the next 12 months of effort – starting with the call for papers coming out in this month’s new issue of the Exchanges journal!

Gareth Johnson : 12 Apr 2022 15:50 |  Tags: Anniversary Celebrations Four-Years Reflection Warwickversity |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

One Year Later

Today marks the one-year anniversary since I took over running the Exchanges journal as its Managing Editor-in-Chief. Hence, I thought it’d be appropriate to take a look back at what’s occurred during in that time, along with casting my gaze upon the road ahead.

The past year has seen two issues of Exchanges published, as might be expected. Perhaps more excitingly, it saw shift in the journal’s title as part of a ‘conscious-uncoupling’ from the Warwick brand. As our statistics show, the vast majority of articles published in Exchanges have historically originated from Warwick based or associated scholars. That’s nothing of which to be ashamed though. In fact, I continue to be delighted by the number of local scholars who’ve chosen to publish with us, and I hope to welcome many more contributions from them in the months ahead Nevertheless, going forward, our Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal brand makes plain our global ambition for readers and contributors far more than the title’s original name. Revising Exchange’s full title name was one of the earliest changes I introduced, and I’m happy to say one which I remain deeply satisfied I made.

Meanwhile, in the wider world we’ve had the rise of the Plan S [1] initiative from research funders, representing the strongest effort yet to force compliance with an open access publication norm. There are many issues or concerns over the impact of the plan, and almost as many detractors, naysayers and counters often located in the commercial publishing sector. Nevertheless, Plan S is undoubtably one of the biggest potential game changers within the academic publishing sector, certainly in the UK since 2012’s Finch Report [2]. That said there remains much which remains uncertain or unknown, a theme Prof Martin Eve highlighted at this week’s UKSG conference in Telford [3]. As the publishing lead of a scholar-led open access journal, Plan S is naturally a development I’m keeping a close eye on. Even if largely Exchanges already meets with the requirements…or at least as they’re currently understood.

I guess as a journal hosted at a UK university, I can’t avoid mentioning the B word. Brexit is something we British-based scholars can’t help but fret over, with its potential impacts on funding, partnerships, student intake and opportunities. I am pleased to say, in line with the IAS’ global ethos, over the past year the journal has continued to make links with scholars across Europe and further afield. Whatever Brexit’s outcome, this increasing international engagement is without a doubt something that’ll be continuing as long as I’m running the journal!

In a somewhat related development, the past year has also seen changes in and an increased internationalisation of Exchanges Editorial Board. There’s been the departure to pastures new of a half-dozen of valued past editorial team members, but our ranks have swollen with nine new members of the Board. Not to mention only yesterday the introduction of our first three assistant editors too, as I broaden the idea and reenvisage practically what it means to be a member of the Exchanges team.

Behind the scenes there’s also been a shift in how the board works with myself as Editor-in-chief, largely down to my more consultative managerial demeanour. I’ve also created a series of evolving supporting materials for the Editorial Board, demarcating their roles and responsibilities more clearly, alongside providing more accurate guidance in how to perform their editorial duties. Anecdotally, the editorial team members seem to have relished these progressive moves, which has pleased me considerably. I’ve undoubtably learned and benefitted even more so from the professional relationships I’ve forged through working with them. I hope they’ve also benefitted from my increased professionalisation of journal operations, procedures and policies – things I strongly believe are vital to Exchanges’ long-term sustainability.

One of the reasons why I’ve believed it’s important to provide greater support for my editors’ practice, is because behind the scenes we’ve had various improvements to the OJS (open journal system) platform that Exchanges runs on. Generally, I suspect these enhancements won’t have been visible to readers and authors, but for those of us working on the journal, they’ve helped introduce some much-needed new functionality alongside streamlining other elements. It’s (sad to say) not a perfect system, and my technical wish list continues to be a living document that’ll I’ll be using to try and instigate further developments in the system over the next year. Chief among these, I don’t mind mentioning, are better author metrics and better integrated multi-media. Keep your eye on this blog for news about this!

More visibly long-time readers will probably have spotted that one of my early endeavours was to overhaul, review and revise every single piece of information on Exchanges’ websites. It was clear to me from day one that this was long overdue, and served to remove numerous errors, oversights and in some cases directly contradictory material. I’m (slightly) hampered by the OJS system in terms of how much additionally functionality I can add to the journal’s website, but hopefully it’s a much richer resource especially for prospective authors and peer-reviewers.

Continuing the more tangible developments of the past year have been the numerous occasions when I’ve stepped out from behind my desk to engage with the early career researcher community at workshops, conferences and events. Personally, I have a deep love of teaching and public speaking, and so I have been utterly delighted to participate in these occasions. My mantra of ‘any time, anywhere’ when it comes to speaking about academic publishing, exchanges or scholarly communication remains at the heart of my personal professional practice. Hence, I can only encourage further invites globally to speak on behalf of the IAS and the journal.

Perhaps principally among these was my work with Warwick’s PAIS (Politics and International Studies) department in co-facilitating their academic writing and peer review summer school. Not only was this a fantastic opportunity to promote the journal, and discuss potential article submissions with emerging scholars, but it served as an impetus for revisions and improvements to Exchanges peer-review guidance and policy. I’m happy to say, that these are now more robust than ever, and importantly, more closely aligned with best academic praxis. I’m also proud that this event led to the publication of an extensive work on peer review by myself [4], which I hope early career scholars will find invaluable in supporting their own efforts.

Finally, there’s also been a rash of other efforts on the marketing and awareness front. The launch of our various associated social media channels (including this blog, twitter and Linked.in) have given our contributors and readers new ways to hear about developments with the journal, alongside highlighting individual publications. Our ever-popular Exchanges black pencils (have you got one?) too have been distributed far and wide, turning up on at least four different continents thanks to the efforts of the Editorial Board. And of course, that’s not including the various videos, posters and flyers which have served to raise the journal’s presence within the early career researcher community.

As you can see, it’s been a busy and eventual year for Exchanges and myself as it’s Editor-in-Chief. Looking ahead, we’ve a new issue coming up in a few weeks (my third!), and another regular one scheduled for late autumn too. Moreover, we’ve also got the preparations for the oft-mentioned special issues, which looking at the abstract proposals from the prospective authors for the first, looks likely to be exhilaratingly insightful contributions to the interdisciplinary discourse. I’m also booked to speak about academic publishing in the summer at one international conference already. So, here’s to a prosperous, scholarly and eventful Year Two for me and Exchanges!

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[1] Fun fact, the S stands for shock

[2] Finch, J., 2012. Report of the Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings – the Finch Group. London: BIS/Research Information Network.

[3] Eve, M.P., 2019. Plan S: Origins, Developments, Speed. In: UKSG 42nd Annual Conference and Exhibition, 8 April - 10 Apr 2019, Telford, England. (Unpublished).

[4] Johnson, G.J., Tzanakou, C., & Ionescu, I., 2019. An Introduction to Peer Review. Coventry: PAIS, Warwick. http://www.plotina.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Introduction-to-Peer-Review-Guide.pdf

Gareth Johnson : 11 Apr 2019 12:53 |  Tags: Anniversary Editor Exchanges Overview Reflection Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem