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September 21, 2023
MRC at 50 – Conference & Special Issue Contribution Launch
Writing about web page https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/
MRC anniversary celebrations set the scene for an exciting future journal volume.
Yesterday I attended the 50th anniversary symposium in honour of the Modern Records Centre (MRC) at Warwick. If you’re not been previously aware of the MRC and its work, the website and indeed the Centre itself is most certainly well worth a visit: if only to marvel at the variety and breadth of their collections. This diversity was a key element reflected across the spread of topics discussed at yesterday’s event. Speaker’s talked about their research which had all been generated – in part or in its entirety through usage of the MRC’s collections. From sex workers to trade unions through the French Resistance, disability and cycling: it was an undoubted smorgasbord of themes.
I recall, many years ago and in a previous post at Warwick, I had the opportunity to be walked through the MRC’s archive itself by the then Archivist. It was a rare opportunity to get ‘up close and personal’ with the ephemera, communications and collected papers of many significant figures in political, social and national history alike. Certainly, being that close to historical documents was a thrilling moment.
Since its founding though, the MRC has clearly had an impact far beyond Warwick itself. This was undoubtably reflected through the international scope of the discussions and presenters represented yesterday. I shan’t try and capture the essence of the day: there was so much to take in. Plus, I suspect offering this kind of perspective is an element which the special issue call we informally launched yesterday will do to a greater degree.
An archive of thinking and research to honour the archive itself!
Hence, we will be approaching all of the presenters, and a few other selected people too, over the coming weeks to invite them all to contribute a paper to this forthcoming special commemorative issue of Exchanges. I can assure readers that if its contents are anything like as engaging as yesterday’s talks, then you are in for a real treat! We hope to bring you the issue sometime in early to mid-2024, so watch out on our social media for more news as we get closer to the launch date.
My thanks to Pierre Botcherby and the whole MRC team for inviting Exchanges to form a modest but valuable marker of the MRC’s first 50 years of success!
A copy of the call for papers is now available.
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For more information on the MRC’s work or collections, visit warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/ or contact archives@warwick.ac.uk. For more about the forthcoming special issue, contact Exchanges at exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk.
July 19, 2023
New Special Issue – Celebrating 50 Years of the Modern Records Centre
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/special-issues
Wouldn’t you know, it’s another special issue announced!
Following hot on the heels of our other special issue project announcement, I am delighted to announce that we have a second new special issue in production. This time we are partnering with the Warwick Modern Records Centre (MRC) as part of their 50th Birthday celebrations, to produce a volume incorporating reflections, insights and narratives inspired around the MRC’s work over the decades. I am especially pleased as the lead collaborator, Pierre Botcherby, is someone I worked closely with on the Then & Now Special Issue a year or so back.
The special issue is going to specifically driven by the papers and speakers who appear at the MRC’s birthday conference (The MRC at 50: Research Informed and Inspired by the Modern Records Centre) this September (20th), and will be primarily critical reflections. The idea being in this way we can more rapidly produce the issue, and share it with the world before too many months have gone by. I am also pleased to note we’ve already recruited three associate editors to work on the issue, and am looking forward to training and working alongside them on the issue.
Naturally, more news on this and the conference over the next month or so, but for now, and just before your EIC heads off on a couple of weeks of leave, it is fantastic to have these two new and exciting projects in the offing!
July 04, 2023
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 25th 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.
March 29, 2023
Special Issue: Anthropocene and More–than–Human–Worlds Published
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/45
Issue 10.2 of the Exchanges journal is another special one.
Myself and colleagues are delighted to announce the publication of the latest special issue of the Exchanges journal. This issue contains contributions inspired by and from participants to the associated British Academy funded research project and workshop series. The workshops, centred around the theme of the 'more-than-human-world' ran online during late 2021 and saw scholars from around the world come together to talk about, and develop, their writing practice, around the project's area of interest.
Many of the participants also took the opportunity to contribute to this associated special issue, and I am grateful to each of them for their efforts in this regard.
For your ease of reading – here’s the issue’s table of contents:
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Exchanges Volume 10 Issue 2 (March 2023): https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v10i2 & https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/45
Price, C., 2023. Saying Goodbye and Fighting for the Future. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 1-4. Available at: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v10i2.1343.
Cicholewski, A., 2023. Empathy as an Answer to Challenges of the Anthropocene in Asian American Young Adult Science Fiction. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 5-25. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.958.
Tarcan, B., Pettersen, I.N., & Edwards, F., 2023. Repositioning Craft and Design in the Anthropocene: Applying a More-Than-Human approach to textiles. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 26-49. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.973.
Price, C., 2023. Do we need Artificial Pollination if we have Multispecies Justice in the Anthropocene? Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 50-73. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.966.
Westgate, J., 2023. Corals, Geo-Sociality, and Anthropocene Dwelling. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 74-105. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.979.
Vieira, N., 2023. Whales Lost and Found. Rescuing a history of biodiversity loss in early modern Brazil. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 106-130. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.976.
Srivastava, S., 2023. Res(crip)ting the Gaze: Agency and the aesthetics of disability in ‘Animal’s People’. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 131-143. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.1127.
Melian-Morse, A., 2023. Teaching to Care for Land as Home: Thinking beyond the Anthropocene in environmental education. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 144-162. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.969.
Ressiore, A., & van de Pavert, M., 2023. Caring with the Non-Human: Reciprocity in market gardening. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 163-176. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.972.
Price, C., & Chao, S., 2023. Multispecies, More-Than-Human, Non-Human, Other-Than-Human: Reimagining idioms of animacy in an age of planetary unmaking. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), 177-193. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.1166.
Johnson, G.J., 2023. I’ve Seen the Future, and it Will Be: Editorial, Volume 10, Part 2. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10(2), i-xii. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v10i2.1340.
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Naturally, my great thanks to Catherine Price and Amy Gibbons as special issue lead and associate editor on this issue. Plus, thanks to my editors and reviewers who also helped us bring this issue to publication.
Should you be reading this and think ‘Could Exchanges help us publish a special issue?’ – please do get in touch! We are more than happy to talk you through the processes and offer advice, without any commitment. However, as past collaborators will tell you, it can be an enriching and rewarding experience for everyone involved!
November 10, 2022
Early–Stage Researchers – Special Issue Invitation Launched
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/special-issues
A new special issue project is launched, tying into a researcher developmental course.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Warwick’s Leadership and Management Development Course on reflective practice for early-stage researchers. The course, which is being run three times this year aims to generate some discussion and exchange of experience between researchers who are early in their career and are looking to broaden their understanding of the wider research landscape. Yesterday’s session was focussed in on writing and publication, which was why I was there: to offer insights into the art of peer-reviewing and editing journals.
While only a relatively small cohort of delegates, there were some excellent and perceptive questions and insights shared, and I think considerable interest in what I had to say! The course will be running with two further researcher cohorts this academic year, and I’ll be popping up in each of these as well. It certainly is nice to interact with some scholars I’ve not met before, and who for once, aren’t directly linked to the IAS. I am also looking forward to learning more about new researchers’ perceptions of academic authorship and scholarly publications too.
Synergistically we’ve also partnered with the LMD [1] to launch a special issue call tied to this course. In it, delegates are being invited to submit critical reflections around their research practice inspired by or promoted by the course contents themselves. Naturally, we hope a few of the course participants might also get involved as associate editors for the issue too, so we’ll see how that develops over time. I suspect there will be some very interesting papers submitted to the issue on the basis of what I heard yesterday.
Special Issue - Early-Stage Researcher Reflections: [Anticipated Publication - 2023]
This special issue is devoted to participants within the three cohorts of the Warwick Leadership and Management Development course for developing early-stage researchers. Course delegates are being invited to submit critical reflections concerning their own research practice. These are expected to be inspired by their experiences, insights or considerations arising from the course contents and discussions with their peers. Manuscripts may opt to provide a holistic overview of the researchers’ experiences or choose to focus in on particular aspects of their life and work.
Find out more about all our past, present and future (!) special issues here:
https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/special-issues
My thanks to Dr Harriet Richmond of the LMD for the invitation to get involved in this course, and for proposing the special issue too!
Endnotes
[1] Which I now realise is also the same acronym as Life Model Decoy in the MCU
August 03, 2022
New Special Issue: The Lonely Nerd
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/42
I am understandably delighted to announce that the latest issue of Exchanges is now live. This is our fourth special issue, and focuses in on experiences of lonely nerds around the world, along with explorations of their representation, perception and isolation within various media forms. I will confess it’s with a slightly heavy heart that I released this issue – mainly because it has been such a genuine pleasure to work with Ben and Filippo as the special issue leads. But, also because I’ve enjoyed many stimulating and enjoyable exchanges with many of the authors whose work appears in the issue too.
On the other hand, considering this issue started life with a conversation in November 2019, part of me is very grateful we have finally reached the finish line. In part because it releases the articles into the world, but mainly because after all this time it is great to have a little closure on the project. Only a little, because once I finish my promotional work on the issue launch, I move on to (hopefully) a number of podcast interviews with authors in the issue about their work. And after that, my focus is squarely returned to our next regular issue’s preparations as well.
Nevertheless, for this afternoon at least I’m going to back in the afterglow of the issue release and the lovely words of praise I’ve been receiving from some of the authors. Makes the job well worthwhile! Just a pity none of us are local so we could gather for a small celebratory drink or something as a capstone to the publication. Ah well, one day!
Meanwhile, to aid your reading, here’s a table of contents for the issue with DOI links to each and every article, along with the entire issue file too.
Volume 9 No 3 (2022) – Special Issue Lonely Nerd: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3
Table of Contents
Gareth J Johnson. Going Where My Heart Will Take Me: Editorial, Volume 9, Part 3. pp. i-xii. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.1186.
Filippo Cervelli & Benjamin Schaper. Socially Inept?: The perceived loneliness of nerds. pp. 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.946.
Benjamin Schaper. Conquering the Meatspace: The lonely nerd in David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010) and Baran bo Odar’s Who Am I (2014). pp. 11-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.866.
Janée Burkhalter. ‘Gus, don’t be the comma in Earth, Wind & Fire’: Understanding Psych’s (sometimes) lonely blerd Burton Guster. pp. 30-45. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.869.
Alena Cicholewski: ‘A place where everybody is a legendary hero… and a total dork’: Representing the American nerd community as an antidote to loneliness in G. Willow Wilson’s Ms. Marvel Comics (2014-2019). pp. 46-61. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.861.
Sharon Coleclough. So Many Ways to be an Outsider: ‘Nerdism’ and ethnicity as signifiers of otherness. pp. 62-83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.859.
Rebecca Lewis. The Simultaneity of Loneliness and Popularity in Dear Evan Hansen. pp. 84-103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.864.
Daniele Durante. From Misfit to Guide: Toward a corrective depiction of Otaku and Hikikomori in Japanese videogame Persona 5. pp. 104-123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.854.
Natalia Rumak. Sherlock and Shārokku: ‘Nerdy’ detectives in the West and in the East. pp. 124-144. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.860.
Kwasu David Tembo. Social and Spatial Representations of the Nerd in Donnie Darko. pp. 145-161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.917.
Carolin Fleischer-Heininger. Loneliness as the New Human Condition in Murakami Ryū's In za miso sūpu: Otaku-ness, space, violence and sexuality. pp. 162-184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.893.
Christopher Smith: Consumable Bodies, Consumable Self: The queer potential of otaku subjectivity in Kio Shimoku’s Genshiken. pp. 185-202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.855.
Filippo Cervelli. Saved by the Nerd: Otaku and the space of family in Summer Wars. pp. 203-225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v9i3.887.
June 15, 2022
Team Pluralities Sits Down For a Chat
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/special-issues
A few thoughts stemming from today’s small editorial meeting
Today I hosted my first on campus meeting in well over two years. It’s great to be back on campus for once and to see actual real people in the flesh too [1]. Of course, as all my editors are scattered around the country [2] technically I could have hosted this meeting from my home office, as no one other than myself was here in person. Nevertheless, I will admit, it was a real treat to sit down at my office meeting table for once and conduct a meeting like the pre-COVID days. My home office is nice enough, but it certainly doesn’t have the same ambiance as my campus dwelling.
Today’s meeting was a chance for the associate editors working on the gestating pluralities of translation special issue to catch up along with exchanging advice and offering insight into the progression of their respective manuscripts. Thanks to special issue lead Melissa Pawelski, we were treated to a detailed exploration of reviewer feedback formatting. Given the linguistic scholarship in the meeting (not so much me) we also had a chat about the importance of shaping the affect of feedback through subtle changes in phraseology.
Initial reviewer feedback to authors from Exchanges has always been lightly mediated. This helps ensure clarity and priority of focus and task for authors is paramount. Additionally, through this operational approach we can help ensure any, inadvertently, abrasive statements from reviewers can be modestly ameliorated. ‘Reviewer 2’, we are looking at you here.[3]
It was certainly good to hear that usual issues with locating and recruiting reviewers aside [4], things seem to be progressing well on each of the manuscripts for the issue. We are perhaps still a way from being able to name a publication date - all the papers are currently going through the review phase – but I’m hopeful as we move towards the back end of 2022 a destination date might well come into view.
It was also good to have a chance to interact with some of my editors – it always is frankly – and connect a little more with them as people. Hopefully all the associate editors benefitted from the discussions, and for my own part I certainly came away feeling I’d learned one or two new things about my team too.
My thanks as always to all our reviewing community for their valued contributions to the journal!
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Endnotes
[1] With apologies to my family who are also real, but I have rather seen a lot of them.
[2] And indeed the world, if we consider all of them
[3] There have likely been reviews I’ve written that I suspect I was clearly ‘reviewer 2’ for some authors – sorry!
[4] Pretty much Exchanges SOP for editors.
November 17, 2021
Writing for Academic Journals (Part 2)
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/special-issues
The second workshop in the Anthropocene writing development special issue project tackled peer review and exposed some of the common fears of early scholar authors.
Today was the second of my two part writing for academic journals workshops. I’ve been providing these sessions as part of the Anthropocene and more than human world project, which is tied to the special issue of Exchanges by the same name we have scheduled for 2022. It’s rather a lovely and mutually beneficial arrangement: I deliver training to a group of early career scholars from around the world in academic writing, and in return they all contribute articles to an issue of the journal. Given this helps satisfy both our journal’s primary mission of exposing new scholarly discourse from emerging voices, and provides the opportunity to support their authorial development, I couldn’t be more pleased to be involved. Plus, as those of you reading this who know me, I’ve never been one to shy away from the opportunity to speak publicly about academic publishing! [1]
I was originally invited to give a single three to four hour session as part of the workshop series. However, I concluded given these were being delivered online, and because I am well aware how fatiguing it can be to engage with training for even an hour, let alone for four via Teams, splitting them into two shorter sessions was a more satisfying solution. I think, reading between the lines in the comments from the participants that they recognised and were appreciate of this too.
Whereas the first workshop looked at creating impactful titles and abstracts, before moving on to building the framework of your draft article, today’s second session moved beyond these themes. Hence, we looked at elements such as effective editing, polishing and proofreading, alongside dealing with and responding to peer review feedback. There’s always lots to say about peer review, and I know it’s one of the areas many new scholars approach with considerable trepidation, so it is always worth exploring some more. In this way though, the two halves of the workshop were specifically designed to take the delegates on a journey from inception to delivery of their published article. Albeit in a slightly compressed mode. [2]
Additionally, by splitting the workshops in half, I was able to give the delegates the best part of two months to absorb and reflect on the first workshop experience, and begin to develop their article drafts. As a result, I designed this second session to run a little shorter because I wanted to give more time over to addressing the attendees’ questions and authorial concerns informed by this writing developmental experience. I am delighted to report they certainly didn’t disappoint as there were some excellent questions and comments, and I regret we couldn’t have been in the same room to continue some of these over a coffee and cake afterwards. [3]
One of the two hands-on exercises I had the delegates work through today, was intended to offer a moment of catharsis and revelation. In this they exposed their fears and trepidations concerning writing an article - any article - at this early stage of their academic career. I’ll be picking up on and returning to these comments and suggesting a few answers in a subsequent post and episode of the podcast. What was satisfying to spot, and I hope comforting for the delegates, is none of these fears were unexpected ones. Each were exactly the sort of thing I would expect to be hearing from relatively inexperienced authors.
I came away from the session invigorated and delighted by the discussions, and I hope some of that transferred to the delegates as well – it is always difficult to tell conclusively via teams. However, from the exceptionally positive comments and those delegates I spoke to during the session, I think I can file these workshops under the heading: major success.
Personally, I have considerable confidence that both workshop sessions will have gone some way to answering the delegates’ concerns. Alongside this I hope they will have strengthened the delegates’ resolve, confidence and self-belief that they can and will be able to write excellent articles which have something significant to say. Because, having read their abstracts, I firmly believe each and everyone of them does!
My thanks to Dr Catherine Price for leading on the project, and inviting myself and the journal to participate, and of course each and every delegate for their good humour, patience and engagement with the practical exercises! I await your articles with not inconsiderable interest.
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[1] Or, to be fair, speak loudly publicly anyway.
[2] At the back of my head there’s a weeklong summer school which would seek to decompress what was covered in these workshops, and actually deliver a publishable paper at the end of it. I think I’ll hang on until post-COVID times to look into that though.
[3] Note to potential collaborators, provide me with coffee/tea and cake and I will talk for hours with and about publishing and early career scholars.
October 07, 2021
Call for Abstracts: The Effect of Plurality in Translation
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/32
Once more Exchanges is working towards a special issue - this time on a linguistics topic. Find out about the ways in which you can contribute to it.
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Well, here’s some wonderful news – here at Exchanges editorial command we have celebrated the start of the new academic session with the announcement of another special issue call for contributions. If you’ve been keeping track of all our special issues, you’ll note this is the sixth one we’ve had in development since early 2019, giving us a hit rate of 2/year. Considering we are normally configured to publish two issues a year, this represents an exciting (and mildly challenging) 50% increase in our operations.
It’s good to be nice and busy!
You can read all about the call via the link below, but here’s a taster of what it’s all about. Take note of that deadline as it’s going to come around sooner than you expect! Looking forward to seeing lots of lovely abstracts coming in over the next few weeks.
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Call for Abstracts: The Effect of Plurality in Translation
Exchangesis delighted to announce a new call for contributions to a future special issue with a theme of The Effect of Plurality in Translation. Abstracts are sought for consideration by a 1st November 2021deadline. This special issue of the journal seeks contributions from students at master’s and doctoral level as well as from early career academics, who prioritise an interdisciplinary perspective in their research projects.With the desire to make space for reflections on plurilingual diversity and the challenges arising therefrom for translation, this issue is intended to constitute a collection of articles in which knowledge and ideas are shared for the purpose of improving practices of reading, writing, teaching, and translating.
o be considered as a contributor for this issue, please submit a 300-word abstract, accompanied by your name and institutional affiliation via email to Melissa Pawelski, melissa.pawelski@warwick.ac.ukby Monday 1st November 2021. Please make sure to include ‘Exchanges Special Issue’ in the subject line. Should your contribution be accepted, you will be asked to submit your full paper, by Monday, 14th March 2022
For more information on the call, author guidance or questions – please visit: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/32
October 05, 2021
Writing for Academic Journals Workshop
Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/special-issues
A week of so ago I had the pleasure of running a session entitled ‘Writing for Academic Journals’. This was the first of a two part workshop I’m running as part of The Anthropocene and More-Than-Human World workshop series, a British Academy funding project. As avid readers of the journal and this blog will be aware, this is an early career focussed programme wherein various speakers are running workshops for a small group of emerging scholars, with the aim of producing content for a future special issue of Exchanges. Despite my inner critic suggesting ‘What do I know about writing for journals?’ at times as I worked on preparing my session, I am delighted to report the session was somewhat of a smash hit with the audience.
Very much looking forward to part two in November where we’ll be returning to looking more at the peer-review elements and revisions to manuscripts part of the submission and publication experience. Given the high level of interaction and positive response to the first workshop, I’m hoping the second part experiences the same reaction. Moreover, I’m hoping too that by then the participants are well on the way towards producing their submissions for the journal!
Incidentally, you’ll be able to hear more about the project when the next episode of the podcast goes live, as I was in conversation with Dr Catherine Price yesterday concerning it.