All 11 entries tagged Research

Special Issue Call Launch (Almost) Closes Research Culture Conference

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/special-issues

Second special issue launch for September sees the focus turn to research culture.

This week saw the hosting of the International Research Culture Conference 2023 at the University of Warwick. Naturally Exchanges was in attendance, and not simply to listen to the fascinating range of talks and speakers. This conference, which was open to attendees around the UK and across the world, followed a more local event which was hosted in 2022 for Warwick staff. The success of this event plus moves at Warwick in founding its National Centre for Research Culture, demonstrated the value in throwing the doors open to the wider community – and hence the broader remit of this event.

From the journal’s perspective of course, the most important development revolved around the Centre and Conference partnering with Exchanges to produce a special issue. This will be, we hope, launched over summer 2024 with content based on and around the papers delivered at the event. Hence, towards the conclusion of the conference[1], I was able to address the delegates to formally announce the opening of the call for participation.

Now, while Exchanges relatively brief talk [2] the conference’s end was naturally a focus for your Chief Editor, I was there throughout the day on a stall. This gave me the opportunity to talk to various delegates and prospective authors about Exchanges, our work and importantly how they can contribute to the special issue. I’m delighted to report I enjoyed a considerable number of highly energised conversations with some lovely, and thoughtful, colleagues and look forward to continuing some of these over the coming weeks. Even more so I am looking forward to reading the submissions as they come in.

Now, as the special issue will capture the discussions and presentations, and as other material is available on the conference site itself, I won’t try and recreate the event from my notes. That’s certainly something you will be able to enjoy without my filter. Nevertheless, I am sure there will be many other delegates with something to say, so keep an eye out on social media for initial reflections from the event.

In the meantime, my thanks to Prof Sotaro Kita and Dr Rika Nair for their invite to collaborate on this special issue, not to mention participate in Warwick’s ongoing research cultures work.

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For more information on the special issue, and its call for papers, contact the Editor-in-Chief at exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk or see our announcements page. A copy of the call for papers is now available.

Endnotes

[1] I wasn't quite the final talk, as there was an address from Warwick's Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), Prof Caroline Meyer, which formally closed the event.

[2] I was offered 10 minutes, but suggested a modest 5 with questions would be best. Certainly, at the end of a long day, when I’m between the delegates and freedom, I didn’t think it was a good idea to build my part up too much.

Gareth Johnson : 27 Sep 2023 10:43 |  Tags: Call Culture Issue Participation Research Special |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Special Issue in Research Cultures Announced

Writing about web page https://warwick.ac.uk/research/supporting-talent/research-culture-at-warwick/

A new special issue project represents an exciting long-term collaboration between the journal and Research Culture programme.

We are delighted to let you know that we have partnered with Warwick’s Research Culture programme and the forthcoming Research Cultures Forum to produce a special issue. This issue, which we hope will mark the first of a series of annual collaborations, aims to comprise a range of critical reflections drawing on the sessions and speakers contributing to the conference. The conference itself is to be held Mon 25^th September 2023, details of which can be found via the link above.

One reason I am especially delighted to announce this collaboration, is due to the centricity of research culture work at Warwick at the moment. Personally speaking, research cultures were the area which triggered my PhD studies a decade ago – in my case relating to open access publishing habitus of scholars in the UK.

Naturally myself and the rest of the Editorial Board are looking forward enormously to working closely with the Research Cultures team over the coming months. With any luck, the issue itself should be out in the first half of 2024, and naturally I’ll be updating readers about progress both here, in the journal editorials and our monthly newsletter too.

Meanwhile in the background, the reviewers, authors, associate editors and myself are working feverishly to bring you the long-anticipated Pluralities of Translation special issue in the latter half of 2023. More concrete news on that exciting issue, as soon as I know more.

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For more on special issues and how they come about - visit our IAS pages. Or to see the past and future special issues programme, see the journal site itself.

Gareth Johnson : 04 Jul 2023 09:00 |  Tags: Announcement Collaboration Culture Issue Research Special Warwick |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Planning Peer–Reviewer Development & Future Training

Discussions and planning point towards a potentially exciting new endeavour in peer-review training for active researchers.

Yesterday, on a sunny drenched forecourt of Warwick’s fabulous arts building I had the pleasure of a lengthy and exploratory chat with my sometime collaborator – and collage as research expert – Dr Harriet Richmond. Over the last year I’ve co-facilitated a session for Harriet’s early stage researcher programme, around the areas of peer-review and editing, and it is always a pleasure to talk over professional matters with her. Albeit with the occasional segue into tangentially related topics too! I should note, each of the sessions this year was a wonderful and eye-opening opportunity to exchange insights with the delegates around their own publishing experiences – and my thanks to them all for their contributions.

Yesterday’s meeting arose on the back of these sessions, but more broadly is looking towards something which is loosely or even more directly aligned with Warwick’s increasing focus on developing effective research cultures [1]. What we were discussing was in fact our plans for future publishing related training – and specifically that relating to the topic of peer-review. One thing that’s been evident in our discussions with delegates this past year around peer-review is how clearly there is a need to offer some form of development or training for researchers, especially those earlier in their careers. However, that doesn’t mean they’re the sole potential audience!

Most of we scholars, when we perform peer-review early in our career, and are especially lucky will find a friendly editor willing to spare a few moments to offer some guidance. More likely many of us will be left reading a journal’s online reviewers’ guide and simply conducting ourselves as professionally as we can. I can say as a journal editor over the years the variance between practices I’ve witnessed from peer-reviewers has been considerable, although virtually everyone who’s contributed to the journal has risen to the challenge admirably.

What Harriet and I are thinking about here is producing a training session – or sessions – which takes a broader look at the wider realm [2] of peer-review. I should add, that currently the whole enterprise is very embryonic at best, and the focus of our discussions yesterday was to find if such an enterprise would be worthwhile, and what elements we’d both like to explore within it. Hence, yesterday's meeting saw us bounce around our outline ideas, explore a bit about how we might seek to formulate an effective session and especially identify those key areas we think would comprise a valuable, impactful and interesting session. Thus, while currently absolutely nothing is set in stone – not even how I’m writing peer-review [3] –as I said in my note to Harriet this morning the session clearly has ‘legs’. That is to say, a strong potential to be well-received by our researcher community.

Thankfully though, we’re looking to develop this session – as part of a broader envisaged developmental programme – over the next year rather than rush to present it after the summer. Partly, this is because as reflexive practitioner scholars, Harriet and I want to let the content develop organically – something which requires time, introspection and internal debate. Additionally, it also gives us both space and time to perform some background research into the literature and praxis of peer-review. As this is something I’ve been meaning to give over some serious time to for a while, it is nice to have some greater motivation now!

I anticipate too I may well ‘field-test’ some elements of the potential session within my own anticipated [4] training schedule over the next 12 months. This will be useful in using live subjects – sorry, delegates – to help refine, refocus and augment the content and emphasis of the session to better meet scholar’s authentic needs.

As always, watch this space – and elsewhere – for more news on this exciting and I interesting proposal as it develops. Naturally, if anyone reading wants to share their thoughts on peer-review training, related dynamics and normative practices, you are warmly invited to use the comments below. Alternatively, if you prefer, drop me a line and arrange a chat as I am always happy to hear from those reviewers on the front line about their experiences: especially those reviewing for titles which aren’t Exchanges…

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Endnotes

[1] Watch out for something exciting relating to this in an announcement next week.

[2] Dare I say field, in a Bourdieulian sense? Yes, I probably can.

[3] Peer-review or peer review? Is it a personal preference or should I be following strict grammatical rules? Your answers on a postcard too…

[4] My event, workshop and teaching diary for academic year 23/24 is looking very spartan currently – I’ve only one event fixed. So, I’m open to offers or requests…

Gareth Johnson : 15 Jun 2023 09:09 |  Tags: Collaboration Culture Peer-Review Programme Research Training |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Episode – The Textures of Research: In Conversation with Berilsu Tarcan

Writing about web page https://open.spotify.com/episode/21ZeAct9Negsa9qzQFTK67?si=P0RZT3hKQHuQHyGyKEx1dg

A new podcast episode tackles issues around publishing design and textile based research practice.

With great delight I can reveal we've released the latest episode in our Exchanges discourse podcast series. In this new episode I talk to past journal author Berilsu Tarcan (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), about the paper she co-authored Repositioning Craft and Design in the Anthropocene: Applying a More-Than-Human approach to textiles as part of our recent special issue. We discuss the challenges of publishing design and artefact related research, as well as exploring Berilsu’s current research focus. We close with considerations and advice for authors looking to submit their papers to Exchanges and other academic journals.

Listen in here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/21ZeAct9Negsa9qzQFTK67?si=P0RZT3hKQHuQHyGyKEx1dg[32:36]

For those of you who are pressed for time and would like to skip to the salient portion of the episode - here's a time index to aid your navigation.

Episode Index

• 00:00: Opening
• 00:52: Introduction
• 05:55: Article Perspectives & Insight
• 14:34: Current Research Activities
• 19:00: Publication Feedback Experiences
• 25:00: Article Publication Advice
• 31:06: Closing Conversations
• 31:50: Outro

Gareth Johnson : 24 May 2023 10:51 |  Tags: Anthropocene Design Discourse Episode Exchanges Podcast Research Textiles |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Podcast: Chatting with https://open.spotify.com/episode/6HHuETdXCalvt1yz0zOMA2?si=Ik5OAv–nTQ–jmy8VDd

Writing about web page https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/In-Conversation-with-Francesca-Brunetti-e1k9v63

And we’re back with the second of our two recently recorded episodes of the Exchanges Discourse podcast. This time I’m in conversation with Francesca Brunetti, currently based at the ISI Florence, Italy but shortly moving to an exciting new post. Listen to the episode here:

> In Conversation with Francesca Brunetti

This episode we talk to scholar, artist and past-Exchanges author, Francesca Brunetti (ISI Florence, Italy), about her paper Delicious Bodies, Beautiful Food, Powerful Pleasure, which appeared in the most recent issue of the Exchanges journal (V9.2). Along the way we touch on desire and pleasure, food and sex, and cultural perceptions of the southern Italian women. We also talk about some of Francesca’s work in progress, alongside her advice for new authors too.

The Exchanges Discoursepodcast is available on Anchor.fm, Spotifyand most major podcast platforms.

My thanks to Francesca for coming on and talking with us. Obviously, if you’d like to be featured in a future episode, well the best way to do that is to be a featured author in Exchanges. Find out here how to submit your paper to us!

Gareth Johnson : 22 Jun 2022 16:00 |  Tags: Art Discourse Episode Exchanges Italy Podcast Research |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Volume 9 Issue 2 of Exchanges is NOW Available

Writing about web page https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i2

We are delighted to announce the publication of the Spring 2022 issue of Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal. This is our 21^st issue overall, and as a regular issue of the title, contains a range of articles, critical reflections and conversations on a broad spectrum of topics. It is, like all our past issues, entirely open access and free to read at point of publication.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i2

PDF: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/46/46

Page: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/46

This is the twenty-first issue of Exchanges, published in April 2022. This issue contains a variety of articles from different corners of the disciplinary academic traditions, from authors around the globe. Article topics within include: schizoanalytic cartographies, post-urban life in the Alps, factual divergence and expert trust, challenging stereotypical representation of Italian women, environmental epiphanies, disability representation in the media; along with two extended conversations with noted scholars. The issue’s editorial by the Editor-in-Chief briefly introduces the issue and provides an overview of the articles published within it. It also highlights two opportunities for participation through a reader survey and an anniversary call for papers on ‘authentic interdisciplinary’, alongside the regular open call for contributions to future issues. Ways for readers and authors to engage with the journal in-between issues are also highlighted.

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As always, my thanks to all the authors, reviewers and editors who helped make this issue possible. Hopefully, the next issue you’ll be seeing will be one of our especially exciting special issues. Watch this space for news, or sign up to be an Exchanges reader and get emails directly.

Gareth Johnson : 29 Apr 2022 10:00 |  Tags: Exchanges Issue Journal New Publication Research |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Podcast Episode: A Conversation with…Doro Wiese

Writing about web page https://anchor.fm/exchangesias/episodes/A-Conversation-withDoro-Wiese-etulpf

Delighted once more we have a new episode of The Exchanges Discourse live for your listening pleasure. This time I'm in conversation with Dr Doro Wiese about her work and publications. Doro’s one of our WIRL-COFUND fellows, based in the IAS and the School of Languages and Culture, and I will confess was an absolute to delight to chat with. I only regret I didn’t keep the recording going, as we talked almost as long once the interview finished about reviewing activities and the foibles therein. Possibly, we’ll need to come back to that in a later episode.

A Conversation with...Doro Wiese

I’m also please to say I’ve got one future guest already signed up for after the Easter break, and a couple of others who are looking to find gaps in their schedules to chat with me on the record. Of course, we also have a new batch of IAS fellows coming along in April, so who knows, we may have some of these bright sparks looking to have a podcast chat as well.

Naturally, while we’ve been a bit ‘Warwick centric’ with the podcast guests, we always welcome approaches from academics near and far to come on the show. Drop me a line if you’d like to talk about your publishing, to an interdisciplinary audience with an interest in early career scholar development.

Gareth Johnson : 31 Mar 2021 15:59 |  Tags: Author Episode Interview Podcast Publication Research |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Call for Publications – In–between Spaces

Writing about web page https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/exchanges/cfp-exchanges_may_2019.pdf

In case you missed it in the editorial of the latest issue [1], our latest call for papers is now out. On top of our ongoing open call for papers from all disciplinary traditions, we’ve made one of our frequent thematic calls too. For the Spring 2020 issue, we particularly welcome submissions which will contribute to a themed section on in-between spaces. As scholars we are often focussed directly upon examining and understanding specific objects, cultures, properties or thinking. Yet, there is also incredible value in considering what lies between, outside or around our subject focus.

That’s why we’re looking for authors to submit all manner of research articles, critical reviews or interviews which address some aspect of in-between spaces, however you or your disciplinary field opts to conceptualise them. I’d be particularly delighted to see submissions of dialogues between multiple authors from different fields tackling the same idea from different perceptual or intellectual standpoints.

To read more details about our calls, see the online paper. Or alternatively get in touch with any of the editorial board to discuss your ideas further. We really, really look forward to receiving your submissions.

[1] What!? You’ve not read the latest issue of Exchanges? Better correct that before you read on, I can wait. https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/issue/view/25

Gareth Johnson : 09 May 2019 15:15 |  Tags: Call For Manuscripts New Papers Research Submissions |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Another new poster

I've been tinkering on the side improving the standard poster we have for promoting Exchanges. Fair to say this one isn't going to win any graphic design awards, but it does nicely encapsulate what we do here at Exchanges command. Should anyone want a printed off copy to display in their offices, common area or library, please drop me a line and I'd be delighted to send you one (or more).

Signed copies are, of course, extra.

Gareth Johnson : 28 Jan 2019 16:21 |  Tags: Advert Poster Publications Research |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Developing Audiences

I spent most of yesterday attending the Post-Graduate Researcher Showcase event, not particularly to view posters or hear about research, but rather to try and raise Exchanges profile as a publication destination. I had a few interesting conversations, but I remain in two minds about whether the event provided an appropriate ROI from my attendance. Doubtless, time will tell if we have any submissions from attendees, although given the increasing decoupling of Exchanges from the ‘Warwick’ brand, appealing for local author submissions represents an arguable retrograde step for engaging with our audiences. The free lunch was very nice though, and I was quite flattered to be invited in the first place.

That said, time away from my computer with only a pen and paper to hand, gave me an opportunity to do some reflecting about Exchanges’ audience [1]. I’ve been thinking our audience and readership pretty much from before I started working on the journal, and I’ll confess some recent conversations I’ve had, have very much brought this into focus. Partly, my current thinking stems from a very interesting conversation I had on Monday night with my former PhD Director of Studies [2], but discussions with some of the PGR showcase delegates have also contributed. Guess it was worth me being there!

During my talk with my ex-Director, I explained about Exchanges, what the journal has been, how it came about, the behind the scenes operations, along with the kinds of articles we publish, topped off with a broad brush overview of our mission and intent. His first reaction, after one of his characteristically long, inscrutable silences, was to ask:

‘But who would read a journal like that?’

I think it is a fair point, well made. Many scholars have an observable tendency to read the same journals on a regular basis, often those which they themselves and their recognised peers publish in. True, they will go off-piste as the result of, say, a literature search, automated alert or following a conference interaction, but their intellectual grazing habitus [3] tends to be conservative in construction. Certainly, in my own earlier research, this conservatism was a recognisable trait, with respect to adoption of open-access praxis and journal interaction [4]. Indeed, likely where scholars do seek out other papers, chances are they go directly to their item of interest (article level access) and are less likely to consume or even be aware of the rest of that issue’s articles (journal level access) [5]. Moreover, given Exchanges is an explicitly interdisciplinary title, and scholars arguably less concerned with reading papers outside their field, a consideration emerges that in terms of developing a greater audience for the title, Exchanges faces an uphill battle.

All of which brings my back to my colleague’s question, which I’d expand from considerations of only ‘readers’ to include ‘contributors’ as authors or reviewers alike. Yes, Exchanges has survived for 5 commendable years within a publication field which continues to proliferate new journals, and markedly many similarly scholar-led titles. I’m intellectually opposed to considering publishing as a ‘marketplace’ construct, as this represents a concept too besmirched by the ideological baggage of capitalism. That aside, objective pragmatism still suggests the title operates within a non-fiscally constructed competitive environment. Within such an environment, and when accounting for our growth aspirations, our accrued intellectual esteem capital and ECR targeted USP may not be sufficiently attractive to continue operating in our traditional mode.

Simply put, we have no extant privilege or authority to expect contributors and readers to come to us. And a journal with no audience, no readers or contributors, quite simply represents an untenable scholarly endeavour.

You can, perhaps, begin to see now why the question of audience is one which concerns me as Exchanges’ Editor-in-Chief. I believe there is work to be done, both from exploring what the literature can tell us about developing a journal’s niche, but also in understanding who our audiences might be. I suspect the audience, such as it is for Exchanges today, is not the sole community whom we’d ideally embrace moving into the future.

Thus, in answering these conundrums, there are questions which our prior audiences can help answer, alongside explorations of potential or aspirational future scholarly reader and contributor communities too. I strongly suspect there are also linked topics to examine concerning the knotty questions of metrics and impact, which clearly resonate with questions around readership and contributor audiences. I would hope there are some exciting revelations which may emerge from this effort, and hence it’s a task I’ll be working on for the coming few months alongside the production of the future issues.

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[1] It also provided some time to work on some data protection planning as well, but I’m not sure the readers of this blog would be that thrilled by that segment of thought.

[2] We were supposedly planning our next paper and also a conference presentation for later this year.

[3] Bourdieu, P., 1993. The Field of Cultural Production. Cambridge: Polity Press

[4] See Chapter 7: Johnson, G.J., 2017. Through struggle and indifference: the UK academy's engagement with the open intellectual commons. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

[5] Anecdotal, perhaps, but I’m making this assumption, based on two decades of observations from working with scholars and research students within academic support roles, and my own research interactions.

Gareth Johnson : 21 Jun 2018 12:44 |  Tags: Audiences Marketing Research Reviewing |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem