All 12 entries tagged Editors

State of Play in February 2024 for Exchanges

A February update on the special issue fun and games, and everything that's going on with the journal right now.

My apologies to regular readers for neglecting the blog somewhat in recent weeks. I have had quite a busy few weeks dealing primarily with the submission deadlines for two special issues [1] coming at the end of January which has been followed by a huge wave of submission to Exchanges. I’ve also taught a couple of classes and had a filthy cold too. However, in terms of the manuscripts we have had far more submissions in a relatively short period than I’ve ever dealt with before. Certainly in all my years on the journal at least! Even our biggest issues to date – the Nerds and Cannibalism special issues, had submissions spread across a much broader period of time as I recall. In the past two weeks though with the two issues I’ve had at least 50 new articles to deal with – which for Exchanges equates to about the number we can have submitted in an entire year.

So, yes, it has been a busy old time. But I’ll say it’s been a really exciting one too. To have so many potentially fantastic papers by so many wonderful authors around the world, entrusted with the journal for consideration is deeply gratifying. It’s at times like these I wonder if Exchanges might be better off being a special issues journal all of the time, as each of these special issues have had such a high volume of contributions. Although perhaps not quite this high!

Of course, part and parcel of this workload for me has been training and supporting the small new army of associate editors we now have working on the two issues. I have to say they are all acquitting themselves superbly, and while there are a lot of questions – that is to be expected! And indeed, encouraged! I don’t expect associate editors to be able to run before they can walk, so such guidance is freely and gratefully given. It is also refreshing to have many new people working on the journal. Not only for the fresh energy and enthusiasm they bring, which they certainly do, but also for the new insights they offer. Things I might not otherwise have thought about. Elements I’ve not considered for a while. Or new perspectives from angles I might not even have otherwise taken. Consequently, they’ve gotten me thinking about a few tasks on the back end of the journal that would benefit from my attention. Tasks that otherwise might have sat on the back burner indefinitely.

We’re also in a week of Library Board and Team meetings, a chance for me to update all of the team about what’s going on broadly with Exchanges. But also for them all to reflect back on the experience and share their opinions on topics of mutual interest. There’s probably a separate post I’ll write about that next week.

In the meantime, it’s back to dealing with yet another new submission this morning. One thing I can say about February 2024 for Exchanges – it isn’t a quiet month – and all the better for it!

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Endnotes

[1] The MRC @ 50 and Research Culture issues respectively. Read about them both earlier in the blog!

Gareth Johnson : 14 Feb 2024 07:44 |  Tags: Associate Editors Issues Progress Special Update |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Editorial Board Members Welcomed

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

A new crop of editors has joined our Board.

We are very pleased to announce that three more new Editorial Board members have joined Exchanges. This is as a result of our programme to both continue to bring in new insights to our editorial team, and also to replace some of our long-standing editors who have stood down from the Board in recent months. So, it is a hearty and warm Exchanges welcome to:

• Dr Bing Lu, Faculty of Arts, University of Warwick, UK
• Dr Louise Morgan, Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, UK
• Dr Ute Oswald, Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, UK

You can read about all three of these editors, and all our Board members, on our Board Profile page: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/BoardProfiles

These three new editors represent the first time we have directly recruited from Warwick’s Institute of Advanced Study’s early career fellows programme for some years. Given Exchanges longstanding relationship with this community as chief editor I am especially delighted we have strengthened our links here. I am sure Bing, Louise and Ute will have many useful insights and contributions to make over the coming years.

Meanwhile, we are also in the process of recruiting editors from Australia’s Monash University, long time home to our very first international Editorial Board members back in 2017/18. As Monash has become a little less represented on the Board over the past year, I am pleased to have been able to reach out to potential editors over there, through the agency of our mutual International Office colleagues. Hopefully, in a month or two I’ll be able to share more about our next crop of editors!

Gareth Johnson : 19 Jul 2023 10:33 |  Tags: Ecrs Editors Fellows New Recruited Warwick |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Opening up the (Editorial Board) Books

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/40

It seems a long time since I last made a call for new editors. Sure, we’ve had various calls for associate editors over the past couple of years but the last time I actually made an open call for new Editorial Board members[1] was before the pandemic when we reached out to CY Cergy Paris University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Before I was on the journal myself, my impression was that editors came and went with a greater regularity. Since I took on the Chief Editorship though, we’ve seldom seen members of the team stand down from their roles, or at least those that came onboard have stayed for the long haul.

Now, I would love to attribute this shift to the healthy, collegiate and respectful environment I strive to operate the title under. Perhaps there’s a modicum of veritas in that perception, but you’d have to ask the editors themselves for their perceptions as it not really for me to say! Nevertheless, from time to time my editors do confess how much they enjoy working on the title, so I’m clearly doing something right. Additionally, I’m sure the prestige and experience each gains from contributing to Exchanges plays no small part in retaining so many of the team over such a span of time. Perhaps then this is the key element which has kept them on the team over the years.

That said, in recent months as I’ve watched the IAS’ involvement with the EUTOPIA Alliance, a consortium of European universities of which Warwick is proud to be a member, a thought occurred to me. Surely, there could be a way through which Exchanges could tap into and contribute to these useful inter-intersectional networks in some mutually beneficial ways. Afterall, we were set up to engender a broad, and international, interdisciplinary discourse. Not to mention, for the journal itself, bringing on a few new faces to the Board would help to enrich and strengthen it, alongside giving the team as a whole some greater resiliency.

You see, there’s a truism which suggests the longer anyone remains in a post, the increasing likelihood they will call time on their commitment and depart. While it may not apply to everyone, as the individual tasked with running the journal, this idea does form part of my informal risk registerer associated with maintaining smooth and effective operations. Given so many of our editors have now been with us for such a relatively long time, at the back of my head I’ve always had concerns we might suddenly witness as a ‘great resignation’ all of our own. Which would put me in a difficult spot trying to keep all the plates/wheels/cats spinning[2] on the title, while simultaneously recruiting and training new members of the team. Moreover, with the traditional summer quiet time on the journal operational front, it feels the time couldn’t be better to open up a call and start assessing some potential new editor candidates.

Hence largely for these reasons I’ve concluded it is the right point at which to see if we can find a few new members of the team to join us. Editors play such a crucial role in not only managing the reviewing and copyediting stages of our processes, but also directing and encouraging new author submissions through promoting the journal within their local and professional networks. Bringing in some fresh [3] faces will bring with them some interesting, insightful and useful new perspectives to the table.

Now, as with past calls I suspect I won’t be overwhelmed with applications, early career researchers generally have a lot on their plates [4] to deal with as it is. But I remain hopeful that we’ll have a good batch, varied and diversly international set of candidates willing to throw their hat into the ring.

If you’re interested in finding out more – you can read about the call via the link below. Or of course, by dropping me a line directly via the usual contact routes.

https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/40

Here’s to an enriched and energised set of new editors working on Exchanges by the year’s end!

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[1] Lets just call them ‘editors’ in this post for brevity

[2] Insert your own preferred metaphorical device here. And maybe not think too hard about spinning cats.

[3] Or at least candidates early in their personal research career journeys – as a mature ECR myself when I joined, age isn’t actually a consideration or barrier here to being considered.

[4] Spinning or otherwise.

Gareth Johnson : 11 Aug 2022 15:23 |  Tags: Board Editors Members Recruitment |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What Do I Get Out of Publishing With Exchanges? Some thoughts and ideas

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

With so many journals published today – what makes choosing to publish with Exchanges a worthwhile experience for potential authors?

It’s a good question!

Certainly, this is an existential topic I believe every editor-in-chief will probably have considered explicitly or implicitly at some point in their tenures atop the editorial tree. It’s certainly a regular point of debate I hear when talking with early career scholars or running my various academic writing workshops. It is undoubtedly a very valid question and hence well worth giving more than a few moments’ reflection in answering.

I might reconfigure it slightly to reframe the root of the enquiry as: Given there are so many (many!) journals out there for potential authors: what makes our title different, valuable and worthy of the labour in becoming one of our contributors. In essence, what makes it worth potential authors taking their hard-won, hand-crafted manuscripts and offering them up to be considered for publication in our pages than somewhere, anywhere else?

Firstly, in my perception, I should say there is no singular answer to this question which will satisfy every scholarly author. If there were, well, let’s say my job promoting the journal as a destination for quality research writings for an interdisciplinary audience would be a lot easier. However, like Soylant cola[1], the answer which satisfies differs from person to person. It is more of a matrix containing various elements which will appeal to greater or lesser degrees to different authors. I can’t claim this is a complete list either! But from my various conversations with past authors, including those on the Exchanges Discourse, along with casual and formal feedback these are the aspects which I best answer the question: what do you get out of publishing with Exchanges?

Early Career Focus: Exchanges has always aimed to not only appeal to early career authors, but also to take account of the additional support and understanding they sometimes need early in their publication career. This means not only are we willing to consider every submission we receive as a potential publication, but that our editorial team readily aim to provide support and guidance to newer authors. Alongside this, we’re more forgiving than the average journal where authors haven’t quite got our format and styles down correctly at the outset. Heck, we might event overlook a few typographical and spelling errors that can sink a paper at the first hurdle elsewhere. Why? Well, it’s because we know we’ll work on these together as the piece progresses towards, hopefully, publication.

Personal Mediation: This leads neatly to my second point, which is we are very much a journal with a human heart. What I mean here is every submission will be read, considered and progress based on a decision made by one, or more, living entities. Living entities which are willing to enter into a dialogue over your work, rather than making decisions based on metrics, or similar, numerical ‘fit’. With many top-flight titles deploying algorithm-derived selection methodologies, potentially good papers can fall because of a machine-driven evaluation. Okay, this might mean we take a *little* longer to respond, but be assured every submission will be personally considered and appraised, by the Editor-in-Chief at the very least.

Open Access: Articles need readers. It’s as true now as it has ever been, and as a diamond open access title, from our birth, that’s something we’ve always made as easy as possible. For Exchanges, there have never been any author fees to pay and all of our publications are provided without financial barrier to the readers of the world. Propagating good scholarship should not be restricted only to those with deep pockets or the ability to pay to publish. Additionally, as repeated studies have shown publishing in an open access title increases the reach, impact and citation of published work too.

Copyright Retention: Authors licence their work to be published in Exchanges as a condition of submission. But, and it’s a big but, we don’t make any claim over the exclusivity of the work once it’s published. Authors retain their moral and economic rights over their writing. Hence, you will be free to make derivative works from it, exploit it commercially or even republish it in some other organ.[2] That’s right – you get to KEEP the fruits of your own intellectual labour – do the top journals in your field let you do that?

Counter-Commercial Ideology: I won’t prolong discussions on the commercial hegemonic dominance of scholarly publishing [3], but if you, like myself, want to take a stand against this – publishing in our scholar-led, institutionally funded, diamond-OA title is an obvious route to a win. By ourselves we might not be able to ‘disrupt’ the capitalised control and commodification of the scholarly publishing sphere. Nevertheless, each article we publish is one which the commercial titles are denied! Strike a (small) blow for academic publishing freedom – publish in Exchanges!

Stable Identifiers: Okay, slight nerd alert – but every single one of Exchanges’ articles is ascribed a stable unique resource identifier – a DOI. This means you can put a link to it in your CV, on your website, on other papers and be assured access will be maintained. Even if the journal was to be (gulp) discontinued, we’ve made archival arrangements to ensure as so long as there’s an Internet, access to your paper is stable and assured. It also helps in your paper being found via search engines and other indexes too, all of which enhances its discoverability.

Funder Compliance: Exchanges is compliant with most, indeed virtual all, funder requirements for open access work – including those proposed by cOAlition S. We adhere to the international standards for openness and copyright, alongside our efforts to produce a quality-assured publication destination. This means in terms of research assessment exercises, work published in Exchanges is perfectly viable for consideration. Incidentally, if you are aware of any major funder whose mandates for open publication we don’t meet – I would be very interested in hearing about it!

Interdisciplinary Audience: Let’s talk enhanced visibility! Writing for Exchanges means your work is going to be seen and read by scholars around the globe, and not only within your own discipline. While a reader might land on one article, many like to browse the rest of the issue too. This means they can and often do serendipitously discover work they wouldn’t have otherwise considered. Given all of our readers, authors and reviewers receive a publication notification each time the journal comes out there’s a chance for hundreds, even thousands, of new scholars around the world discovering your work. All of which raises awareness of both it and yourself, and we would hope an increased chance of being cited elsewhere.

Personal Promotion: A poorly kept secret about Exchanges is how every successfully published author is invited to come on our podcast to talk about their article, research and adventures in publication. Without wanting to head off into a secondary article about the benefits of podcasting – appearing on the podcast is a great way to raise professional visibility – both for yourself as a scholar and for your published work. Alongside this, we encourage all of our authors to provide a personal mini-biography and picture alongside their article, helping readers discover more about the people behind the names. We include these specifically to enhance your personal and professional recognition among peers and potential collaborators.

Partnership: Did you know we publish special issues? Did you know each special issue came out of a collaboration between people who had published, reviewed or otherwise previously contributed to Exchanges? As a past journal contributor, you are perfectly positioned to propose some form of collaboration with the journal. Be it a special issue, conference, seminar or research project. Exchanges likes to go beyond being a destination – we’re interested in becoming your scholarly partner! Plus, if there's a need for some academic writing teaching, the Editor-in-Chief loves to talk about this subject with interested audiences too!

Scholar Led: Finally, we are robustly and defiantly scholar-led, from the top down. This means we editors are a community of scholars, many drawn from the early career ranks, who understand the trials and tribulations of academia.[4] We also appreciate the personal importance of the work each author has entrusted with us for consideration. In our own professional research capacity, we also publish and review,[5] so we know what it is like to be on the other side of the author equation. We sincerely desire to offer then an authorial publishing experience configured to operate as the kind of journal we ourselves would wish to publish in. We sincerely hope that’s the experience of our authors too, and always welcome comments on what we’ve done well, and how we could improve.

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Okay, that’s the areas which I think from a few minutes reflection make our journal one to consider. There probably are many more, and I welcome any suggestions in the comments below for other positive and attractive aspects we offer. Likewise, if there are areas we should aspire towards adopting, I am always interested in hearing about those from potential authors.

No matter what though, one thing I always remember as Exchanges’ Chief Editor is how every author has made a positive choice to try to appear in our pages. This conscious act is something we welcome, celebrate and applaud each time. Not primarily for any vainglorious reasoning because it inflates our own self-importance [6], although there is a measure of satisfaction in knowing our efforts continue to draw in new authors and their scholarship. No, it is mainly because the choice of an author to publish with us means Exchanges’ value, reputation and audience continue respected and appreciated by members of our potential author community old and new.

We were created to offer a route to propagate new and emerging scholars’ voices within an ongoing interdisciplinary dialogue. That people continue to choose to contribute to this – means we must be doing something right.

Although, there are always new things we can learn to make things better!

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[1] See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zwOf4JAmk

[2] Subject of course to whomever is publishing this second time’s own rules on prior publication and originality. Read the author guidance for the title or publisher, or ask their editor for more details. You will need to give us a link-back though to the Exchanges article 😊

[3] Read my thesis and published works for more on my distaste for this aspect of the field.

[4] And real-life travails and challenges too. See the note on our shared ‘human’ approach above.

[5] Some of us more than others. I know I’m long overdue a few articles or a book or two elsewhere…

[6] We are after all, a small fish in a very, very large pond. But there is a marked satisfaction I cannot deny.

Gareth Johnson : 22 Feb 2022 16:09 |  Tags: Argument Authors Benefits Editors Guidance Publishing Rationale Reasoned Soapbox Submissions |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Volume 8.2 – Special CliFi Issue Published

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/38

The labours of 18 months came to an end last week as we launched our second special issue, developed as a result of 2019’s 20th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society hosted in a sunny Prato, Italy. The irony of the issue launch coming in the middle of ‘Beast from the East 2’, and thick driving snow outside my window isn’t lost on me! I’ve been delighted throughout the production of this issue to continue working with a number of our associate editors, drawn from the PGR community, an experience we celebrated and reflected upon in our most recent podcast.

While, size-wise, the issue doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of last year’s Cannibalism issue - which actually made it easier to pull together from a lead editor perspective – the issue remains a very rich and interesting one. Here’s the rundown of the contents:

Johnson, G.J., 2021. A Change in the Wind: Editorial, Volume 8, Part 2. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. i-xii. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.784

Farnell, I., 2021. Things Are Heating Up: Reflections on Utopia, Dystopia and Climate Change, the 20th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Europe. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.531

Alberro, H., 2021. In the Shadow of Death: Loss, hope and radical environmental activism in the Anthropocene. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 8-27. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.510

Novello, C., 2021. Ecological Destruction and Consumerism: A critique of modern society through the works of the contemporary German author Ilija Trojanow. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 28-46. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.581

Rey Segovia, A., 2021. Climate Fiction and its Narratives: (Non) Secularists imaginaries for the environmental collapse. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 47-68. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.539

Tait, A., 2021. Environmental Crisis, Cli-fi, and the Fate of Humankind in Richard Jefferies’ After London and Robert Harris’ The Second Sleep. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 69-83. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.554

Horsfield, R., 2021. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Borders in the Anthropocene. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 84-98. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.584

Xausa, C., 2021. Climate Fiction and the Crisis of Imagination: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria and The Swan Book. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 99-119. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.555

Holding, S., 2021. What on Earth Can Atlantis Teach Us? Cli-fi and the inconvenient truth behind our pre-history. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 120-131. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.582

The DOI for the issue as a whole is: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2

Naturally, all articles are fully open access and available to read freely to all. Please do share this with anyone you think would be interested in this lovely articles, or perhaps would like to consider writing for us to contribute to a future issue. We always welcome new, and returning, authors alike. My thanks as always to all our authors, reviewers and editors who contributed to making this issue an undoubted success. Now, to start preparations for volume 8(3) due out in late spring…

Gareth Johnson : 09 Feb 2021 09:40 |  Tags: Associate Clifi Climate Editors Fiction Issue New Published Special |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

June 2020 Editorial Board Meeting

Today I hosted the first Exchanges Editorial Board video conference, and it was a success, a slightly qualified one perhaps, but a success nevertheless. Sure, it would have been nice if more of the Board had been free to join, although with the current global disruption I quite understand when many could not. Nevertheless, it was a really helpful exchange (no pun intended) for those who were there, and I certainly found it very useful, especially as I’d not spoken face-to-face with today’s participants before. Such is the nature of having as international an Editorial Board membership as us.

In terms of content, the meeting began with a discussion on current issues for editors, along with clarifications with assigned manuscripts, as well as examining some of the foibles experienced with using OJS (Open Journal Systems). I frequently deal with these kinds of concerns via email with individual editors, but it was far more engaging to be able to talk them through in a small group. It was helpful for me too in terms of exploring our policy approaches and response to various circumstances with reviewers, authors and manuscripts collectively. Hopefully, everyone who participated is a little clearer now on how and why we run things.

We moved on to the second part of the meeting, wherein I outlined some of the current activities with the journal, including our various special issues already in production or scheduled for launch over the next 18 months. I was able to highlight the news that we should have a new issue of the journal out in the next few weeks, something I was very pleased to be able to share, especially as each issue is the result of so much hard work from my editorial team. I also talked a bit about the podcast launch and my plans for future episodes, along with inviting suggestions for themes or topics for future issues.

Finally, we wrapped up the meeting by discussing the next themed call for papers. The Board agreed that a theme was desirable, alongside our open call. From our discussions there was an excellent suggestion, which I’ll augment over the next few days. More about this, once I’ve launched the next issue of Exchanges.

So, an excellent meeting, although I did realise after we closed that I’d failed to do some quick introductions. Learning from the experience it’ll be something I’ll make sure to schedule time for at the next meeting. And yes, there will be a next meeting, booked in for Tue 30^th July. Fingers crossed more of the editors will be free to join us then.

Gareth Johnson : 09 Jun 2020 13:51 |  Tags: Board Editorial Editors Meeting |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Editorial Entrances & Departures

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

This week we’re witnessing a slight changing of the guard with Exchanges. Firstly, some of my associate editors who have been working on our various special issues have come off the team. My thanks to Sophie, Freya and James for their various contributions to the title, and I hope they’ve found it a useful learning experience [1].

Meanwhile, behind the scenes at Exchanges I’ve been working these past two years to gradually increase the internationalisation of the Board, by talking with Warwick’s various institutional partners. It can be tricky overseeing and supporting a distributed editorial team around the globe, and it’s a time consuming (and occasionally frustrating) task to engage with those institutions where we don’t have any direct representation for the journal. Much as I’d like to do a spot of globetrotting and make some connections in person [2], it hasn’t been practical – so I’ve been involved in extensive chains of email correspondence. It probably won’t surprise you to read that Exchanges isn’t top of many scholars’ priorities. This might be understandable, but from a Managing Editor perspective, it can make for false starts and occasional stagnation.

Nevertheless, as of today, I’m delighted to welcome aboard our newest two members of the Editorial Board as Dr Guilherme Sampaio and Dr Salvatore Monteleone join us from CY Cergy Paris Université. Guilherme is an intellectual historian, specialising in particular on the French reception of Keynes and generally on the relation between economic thought and policy in Modern France. By contrast, Salvatore is a researcher focussing on cyber-physical systems, embedded systems, and network-on-chip architectures. I’m confident they’ll both bring some much appreciated new perspectives and insights, alongside their more practical contributions to the journal.

[1] More about that in a later post and conference paper next month!

[2] Perhaps less so currently, given the current global health crisis

Gareth Johnson : 05 Mar 2020 09:48 |  Tags: Board Editors Quality Team |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Call for Editors: Monash University (Sept 2019)

Once again, Exchanges is delighted to announce that we’re seeking a new member for our Editorial Board, due the departure of some team members. This call is specifically for early career and post-graduate researchers registered with Monash University, Australia [1]. Thanks in part to the ongoing Monash-Warwick Alliance, Exchanges has long enjoyed a wonderful collaboration with members of the Melbourne based university, and it’s something I’m keen to continue.

You can download and read the formal call here [PDF], or alternatively chat to some of the current Monash based Exchanges editors for more details. Naturally, you can always drop myself as Editor-in-Chief a line directly (exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk), with any questions you might have.

The short version of the call is:

• Open to early career or current post-graduate researchers based at Monash University
• A 1 to 2 year commitment of time, working remotely
• Role supports the editorial review and copyediting stages of publication
• Editors also have a crucial role in promoting, commissioning and encouraging new article submissions to the journal
• No experience in publishing required, but an enthusiasm for scholar-led publication is essential

Editors have the opportunity to be part of an international editorial board, forge extensive interdisciplinary networks and gain first-hand experience of editorial and publication production workflows. Further details of the role’s responsibilities and expectations are available on request.

If this sounds like you, then read the call and then get your application in quickly, because it closes Friday 20^th September; although we may close if sooner if a suitable candidate is found sooner. I look forward to hearing from you!

[1] A call for editors from Warwick, is likely to appear later this year.

Gareth Johnson : 19 Aug 2019 09:48 |  Tags: Australia Board Editorial Editors Monash Recruitment University |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Summer Submissions & Editorial Changes

August is traditionally a quiet month, physically, around campus. It’s also fairly quiet electronically, as here at Exchanges HQ there’s been a noticeable tailing off of email traffic: beyond the regular out of office messages popping up when we get in touch with various people across the global academy. Unsurprisingly, many scholars are using this month to take a well-earned annual vacation.

Having just returned from a delightful staycation myself though, the quiet is giving me a great opportunity to pick up on and develop some of the developmental threads and projects that I’ve naturally side-lined due to more pressing term time work. It’s a slight peculiarity that despite not working with taught course students, Exchanges remains subject to the ebb and flow of the scholastic year. However, this is more of an artefact of the academics who are writing, reviewing and editing for us being AFK (away from keyboard). Although, I’ve had more than one email response in the past week from scholars nominally on holiday!

One slightly unexpected thing I’m finding myself dealing with as Editor-in-Chief in this quiet time is handling the fallout from a couple of my Editorial Board standing down on fairly short notice. While, understandably due to the rising pressures of their other professional commitments, I’m always sorry to see any of my team leave. Partly, because it means I’ve some shuffling of assignments to handle, but mainly because I know how much the journal has benefitted from their contributions and insight, alongside their editorial labour. However, Exchanges has always seen itself as a journal providing a training and experiential boost to our editors, so I can’t complain when it contributes to their career progression. Fair sailing and every future success, Andrew and Jane!

Of course, many academics take the summer break as the opportunity to catch up on all their writing and publishing plans. If you’re an early career scholar, or PhD student, then maybe take a moment to consider writing something for Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal. We’ve two currently open calls for publication (1) a themed in-between spaces one and (2) our regular open call on any topic or theme. I should mention, if you’re thinking of writing something like a critical reflection or an interview, these are the kinds of articles we can typically publish much faster as they don’t normally undergo peer review. Which means there’s a really good chance you could appear in print in a matter of a few short months in our autumn issue.

Gareth Johnson : 08 Aug 2019 10:15 |  Tags: Calls Editors Papers Projects Submissions Summer |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Early Career Editors Learning Experience from Scholar–Led Publishing Involvement

It won’t have escaped most readers’ attention that Exchanges is an early career focussed, scholar-led journal. Given I write about this on a regular schedule in this blog, you’d be a rare visitor had you missed this aspect. As its Editor-in-chief, I passionately believe academics need to take a greater ownership for their publication processes if we are ever to ween ourselves away from the commercialised commodification of the publishing sector. This shift is far from the only consideration if the academy is to acquire a greater agency over publication, but I believe it’s an important one.

However, what might be less apparent, unless you’ve attended one of my lectures or thoroughly read our online guidance material, is how Exchanges serves an educational and professional development role alongside its publishing mission. The developmental role for those people working on the journal has been an intrinsic part since Exchanges founding in 2013 as output from the IAS’ early-career fellows programme. Since day one all members of the editorial board, and associate editors too, are drawn from the early career researcher community here at Warwick and further afield. This means all of us are still learning and growing as scholars in the post-PhD environment.

A key developmental need of course is to enhance our career prospects, which is where Exchanges provides the opportunity to deepen a practical appreciation of the processes, policies and ideologies which operate within the publishing field. Incidentally, serving on Exchanges’ boards delivers this sort of experience in spades, given members of our Board performs a greater ‘hands-on’ role than the more advisory structure of other journals’ boards.

This developmental mission for Exchanges, is a characteristic of the journal to which I’m devoting some considerable thought at the moment, as I’ve two forthcoming public engagements where I’ll be talking about the benefits to scholars from a closer scholarly publishing involvement. One is the session I’ve previously mentioned at the Utopian Studies conference in Prato at the end of June, while the other is a workshop I’m contributing to at the Vitae Conference in London this Autumn. Naturally, I’ll be sharing my slides and experiences from these events here afterwards.

I find though, as I sit down to write the outline for these talks, I’m left wondering to a degree about what exactly people such as my editors gain practically from their contribution of time and labour.

From a personal perspective, I feel I’ve learned more about the importance of patience and persistence with authors and reviewers alike, alongside deepening my practical knowledge of coordinating a publishing ‘empire’. I’ve also been polishing my relationship management skills, which are an essential adjunct to any manging editors’ toolkit. Alongside this, I’ve found it’s been illuminating to witness the authorial styles and voices deployed in our developing manuscript, especially as many diverge considerably from my own academic prose style.

That’s my perspective, and I must acknowledge it’s been understandably coloured by my managerial and editor-in-chief role. Hence, I’ve been talking to Editorial Board members past and present about what they’ve gained from their experience. Unsurprisingly, beyond developing the practical skills, the benefits from broadening their network of professional contacts are aspects which seem so far to be especially valued. However, it is early days and I’m still looking forward to more of my Board sharing their thoughts, and I expect I may well be surprised by some of the comments.

One thing has become clear from this simple critical reflection which is newly minted scholars do perceive benefits exist from taking up the reins to steer academic publishing endeavours. This must in part help explain why Exchanges has always had a steady stream of willing Board and associate editors. And I, for one, am delighted for their every contribution as well.

Gareth Johnson : 12 Jun 2019 12:23 |  Tags: Benefits Editors Publishing |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem