Submission Guidance Video Leads to Smoother Submission Experience

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

A new video offers to smooth the route to paper submission.

As part of the preparations for our various special issues, I’ve been working on some new advice for submitting authors on the practical steps they need to take. I strongly believe in diminishing as many of the mechanical barriers to submission as possible, and offering a stepwise guide is one way to address this. While I might not be able to tweak the underlying OJS code on which we run Exchanges[1], there are still at least some ways I can try and make the submission experience easier.

Case in point: While writing the two page ‘here’s what you do next’ guide for the authors, I found myself thinking ‘I wish we had a handy video talking people through the steps involved in manuscript submission’. Such a compulsion might be a holdover from my long-ago days as an academic librarian – I wrote so many printed and media guides back then – but as I said, any barrier is a barrier too many in my book (journal). I thought this would be an easy task, maybe taking a couple of hours or so at most to script, record edit and share.

I was wrong. But you can click on the screenshot below to watch the final video all the same:

You see, as part of the process of writing and creating the guide I had to go through the actual submission process myself with a dummy paper. I have to do a submission when I add the editorial each issue, but I generally don’t pay a lot of attention to what I’m doing – just need to get the paper into our workflows! However, this time going through the process more carefully, and observing each aspect was really helpful because it caused me to notice a couple of elements of our ‘submission wizard’ [2] which I wasn’t happy about.

One of them was the wording on our clickthrough publishing licence’. The phrasing here seemed less than clear in places, and I confess I suspect no one has looked at this since the journal first launched. As a result, after a little fiddling around on OJS I found where I could edit and revise them. Hopefully, now the phrasing is better than it was – let me know your thoughts on this if you have them.

I also discovered a strange glitch which was restricting the article submission types which were visible to non-editors. This isn’t too much of an issue in the editorial process, as we can shift the type easily – but at submission, I suspect this might be off-putting to an author. As I normally look at the site in ‘uber’ editor mode, this is the sort of detail which is easily missed too. In preparing for my video though, I switched to my alt-author account which as a result highlighted the issue! It appeared from what I could see that the article type categories available to authors clearly weren’t as they should be – with some options not displaying – and others erroneously still showing.[3] Certainly, they were far from clear and as far as I was concerned – a barrier to submission!

My apologies to our authors if you’ve experienced this glitch! I’ve no idea when it arose – I’m hoping it’s not been too long, but I have my suspicions. Nevertheless, I can assure you it’s been cleaned up. Now, the options to submit are in our five major formats: peer-reviewed article or review, and editorially revied conversation, critical reflection or book review.

Phew.

With this sorted (and despite a computer that insisted in BSODing me once) the new guidance video still went live last week. And while this might have all taken me much longer than I anticipated to resolve, hey, at least it also means I had an opportunity to hopefully streamline the submission process slightly.

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Endnotes

[1] More is the pity here.

[2] It doesn’t wear a pointy hat, nor an eight-pointed star.

[3] I was fairly sure we weren’t interested in submissions to the special section of the journal published in 2014.

Gareth Johnson : 07 Nov 2023 11:22 |  Tags: Article Guidance Submissions Support Video |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Call for Papers: Becoming a Productive Publishing Scholar

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/announcement/view/53

A new call for papers for the October 2024 issue of Exchanges considers productive authorship.

As you’ve hopefully read in Exchanges’ recent editorial, we have rolled out a new themed call for papers for the regular journal. While we’ve a number of ongoing calls for special issues currently, the Board and me thought it was overdue time to explore a themed section in the journal itself. And what better area to explore than one which we’ve been discussing for the past couple of years in researcher workshops here at Warwick.

• You can read the full text of the call here: Becoming a productive publishing scholar.

However, the short version is: we’re interested in papers exploring the paradigms, praxis or process which academics, at any career stage, encounter when balancing published output against the other demands on their time. Hence, papers on everything from overcoming challenges, through to effective strategic approaches or even ones arguing against the pressure to publish as a measure of academic esteem would be welcome. Critical reflections which examine personal experiences and coping mechanisms would be especially welcome, as these would be very well received by our readership I suspect.

Plus, as an interdisciplinary journal we’re aware that ‘productive publication’ has different meaning and imperatives across the disciplines. That has certainly been a theme we’ve heard about in our workshop discussions from participants. So, as a result, we would be especially interested in papers which either explore publication nuances from within particular disciplines, or those which alternatively offer comparative studies across a range of fields. Likewise, perspectives from early, mid or established career scholars would be equally valid and interesting, as I have no doubt in mind at all that there will be variations and subtleties worthy of exploration.

There’s plenty of time to get involved, or indeed have a chat with myself about potential papers, as the submission deadlines [1] run through to 2024. As always, myself and my editors look forward t reading your submissions! Happy writing.

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Endnotes

[1] There’s a longer deadline for editorially reviewed material like critical reflections, over peer-reviewed pieces.

Gareth Johnson : 01 Nov 2023 08:21 |  Tags: Call Career Esteem Life Output Papers Productive Publishing Work |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Happy Tenth Birthday to Us

With its autumn 2023 issue, Exchanges reaches a decade in print.

Wow.

Here we are at our 26^th overall issue, and a whole ten years from when we first started. It has been a long time to get here from there, and there’s been a whole lot of scholarly water under the publication bridge. Yes, with today’s publication of Vol 11(1), we can officially celebrate reaching the milestone of our first decade – tea and medals all round I think.[1]

In writing the copy for this issue’s editorial, I checked back into the first issue, which was actually published 8^th October 2013, so we’re actually already into our second decade. However, many moons ago we stabilised on an ‘end of October’ publication date – varying between the last Thursday in the month or on occasion the actual 31 October itself. [2] Hence you get this new, birthday issue, today.

Now, I’m not going to belabour the ‘Exchanges story’ here, because I go into the history of the journal in some detail in the editorial – so I’ll save you from a repeat. Instead, here’s the table of contents for the issue so you can go and read the much more exciting articles we’ve got there instead.

Issue links: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/86 or https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v11i1

• Montague-Hellen, B., 2023. Placing ChatGPT in the context of disruptive technology in academic publishing. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(1),1-16. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v11i1.1289.
• De Silva, C., 2023. The Rise of Conceptual Association and Linguistic Register as Advertiser Persuasive Instruments: An Australian study of press artefacts 1800s–1950s. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(1), 17-47. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v11i1.1256.
• Marshall, J., 2023.Sustainability: Getting everyone involved. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(1), 48-65. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v11i1.1219.
• Kowalczyk, A., 2023. Emerging from the COVID-19 Cocoon: A critical reflection on pedagogical changes in Higher Education. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(1), 66-76. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v11i1.1282.
• Khair Allah, R., 2023. Reflections on AI in Humanities: Amplifying the marginalised voices of women. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(1), 77-84. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v11i1.1453.
• Khair Allah, R., 2023. Review: The Body in Twilight: Representation of the Human Body, Sexuality and Struggle in Contemporary Arab Art. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(1), 84-91. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v11i1.1349.
• Johnson, G.J., 2023. Coming Back to Where You Started is Not the Same as Never Leaving: Editorial, Volume 11, Part 1. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(1), i-xxii. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v11i1.1457.

Naturally, now this issue is out the heavy lifting starts on promoting it, its content and of course the brand new call for papers – about which I’ll blog shortly. And then next week, why it’s onto to chasing up progress on all the papers on our other forthcoming special and regular issues. Sadly, for an editor, the end of one issue’s progress is really only the start of the real focussed labour on the next one!

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Endnotes

[1] I settled for tea and a biscuit. Don’t think the Exchanges petty cash stretches to much more.

[2] I work Tue-Thu on Exchanges, so this is the last working Thursday of the month for me normally. Oddly despite the synchronicity with Halloween, we’ve not yet put out a horror or pumpkin spice themed issue. Perhaps this is a gap in the market?

Gareth Johnson : 26 Oct 2023 10:31 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

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

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 50^th 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.

Gareth Johnson : 21 Sep 2023 10:41 |  Tags: Archives Collaboration Conference History Issue Launch Mrc Special |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Crafting Future Themed Calls for Exchanges

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

Can themed calls encourage more submissions to a journal?

This week we hosted the semi-annual Board meeting(s) for Exchanges, wherein all our Board members and associate editors are invited to catch up with events and progress on the journal, and also bring new ideas to the table too. One recurrent theme, for us and indeed most smaller journals, is maintaining the amount of manuscripts we receive for consideration as papers. While Exchanges is blessed with a strong and steady flow of special issues [1], as Chief Editor I am always concerned about the amount of potential content we get which will be potentially appearing in the issue after next.

In the past we used to do semi-regular themed calls, but with the advent of the special issues programme in 2019, these have been largely – if not entirely – phased out. [2] However, after discussions at the Board we agreed it was perhaps a good time to try again. Of course this is where the question arises: for a broadly, interdisciplinary and general journal – what topics would interest the broadest spectrum of potential authors?

There were a few suggestions in the meeting on the day, but as not all of the editors were present I decided to poll them all on their thoughts and ideas – not just for this issue but for future ones too. It’ll be very interesting to see what ideas come forward, and even more fun shaping this into our first themed call for easily a year.

If you’ve any thoughts about the kinds of themed and focussed calls for papers you’d like to see from Exchanges, then please comment below – or get in touch via the journal. I’d love to hear from you!

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Endnotes

[1] A lot of news about developments in this respect coming soon!

[2] The forthcoming autumn issue for example has a number of papers responding to our birthday call.

Gareth Johnson : 07 Sep 2023 10:37 |  Tags: Calls Consultations Papers Submissions Themes Topics |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

For a Few Board Members More

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

One more new Board member brings us up to strength.

Over the summer we had an open call out to early career researchers based at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia to join our Editorial Board. Monash was the first of Warwick's partner institutions we recruited people to the Board back in late 2017, and over the years the team members there have made a stunning contribution to the journal. A couple of the longer standing Monash-originated members stood down from the Board earlier this year, and so the time was ripe to open the books to see if any new blood could be recruited from our Australian partners.

I am pleased to report that Jacob Thomas (Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science) came forward, and has as of the end of August joined the Board. Jacob's going through their induction and training period at the moment, but you'll be please to know you can read all about their career and research over on the Exchanges Board Profiles. And while you're there, why not refresh your memory about all the wonderful people who help make Exchanges the success it is today!

Gareth Johnson : 06 Sep 2023 09:55 |  Tags: Board Members Monash New Recuritment |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Exchanges and the International Advisory Committee Visit ‘23

An international event leads to discussions around the journal for the future.

Last week, the IAS – Exchanges’ host department – hosted a two-day event which incorporated a visit from its august International Advisory Committee (IAC). Despite our regular programme of workshops and symposia facilitated by our associated research fellows, and supported by the IAS, this was the first time we’d had help an event such as this as a department. Consequently, myself and my IAS colleagues were excited [1] to welcome such senior, internationally recognised scholars to Warwick to contribute to discussions, reflections and interactions. Day one was given over to a showcase symposium of presentations from various IAS’ fellows concerning their work, concluding with a poster presentation from a selection of our other scholars. Day two though, this was scheduled to have a greater focus on the work, ambitions and direction of the IAS itself, and to be fair, was the part of the scheduled visit in which I had the most interest.

As, a modest but mighty [2], aspect of the IAS’ activities, Exchanges – as represented by me – had the chance to sit in on these second day strategic discussions between our own Director and the IAC themselves. This was fascinating, as it gave a really clear picture of the direction of travel for the IAS in the coming years, and where our current director would like to see us heading in the decade or so to come. As a report on this part of the visit and IAC discussions will appear from the IAS in due course, I won’t cover it here [3]. However, towards the tail end of these discussions I was fortunate enough to be able to briefly talk to the IAC members about Exchanges and some of the work we do.

Given there was only so much time which could be allocated across two very busy days, we kept the discussions fairly light, although I will say it was a pleasure having the chance to discuss Exchanges with a group of interested scholars and gain a little of their insights. Especially, as readers of this blog and podcast listeners alike will know well, there’s nothing I enjoy more than talking about Exchanges!

Now while there weren’t any drastic revelations or suggestions in these debates, my work and naturally by extension that of our editors, reviewers and authors alike, came in for some justifiable praise from the IAC. In particular, there was an especially warm reception for our ‘developmental rather than metric-chasing’ ethos which the journal embraces. Given this attitude alongside our overarching ‘academic altruism’ ideology lie at the heart of our operations, this felt like a validation of our longstanding efforts.

I am definitely looking forward to talking to the IAC again during next year’s visit. Having explored the basic remit of Exchanges this year, I am hopeful that we could move on to explore some of our more active developments. Perhaps even our ambitions for future growth! I’m hopeful the IAC might have some valuable suggestions for us to consider in achieving these goals too.

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[1] And maybe a little apprehensive.

[2] Probably EIC bias there.

[3] I wasn’t taking accurate enough notes to properly represent these discussions anyway.

Gareth Johnson : 05 Sep 2023 15:38 |  Tags: Discussions Iac Ias Review Symposium Visit |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

50th Podcast Episode: Across Two Professional Worlds

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

Exchanges’ podcast hits its 50^th episode with a very special guest.

It is with some measure of joy I can announce that we have released the 50^th episode of the Exchanges Discourse podcast. I am pleased that over the past three and a bit years we have grown this offshoot of the journal into a thriving and complimentary collection of scholarship, insight and discussion across our contributing community. When we started out I rather feared a lot of the episodes would be me replicating blog posts as a monologue.

While this was initially true as in the early days there were a few of those kinds of episodes, since then we have increasingly transitioned to featuring conversations with our contributing community about their lives, professional work and insights into the broader academic world.

I had originally been planning a reflective 50^th episode, looking back over the past few years of the podcast, but then I got an offer to interview someone on the podcast who hadn’t been an author in the journal – but rather the subject of a past paper. It felt rather serendipitous that this rather unusual guest would therefore occupy the 50^th episode focus, and despite a few hiccups in arranging a suitable interview time we finally came into sync recently.

Here's the episode details and link

Across Two Professional Worlds: In Conversation with Intissar Haddiya: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exchangesias/episodes/Across-Two-Professional-Worlds-In-Conversation-with-Intissar-Haddiya-e27v3a1 [24:34]

For our 50th Episode I’m in conversation with Intissar Haddiya (Professor of Nephrology, Oujda, Morocco) about her twin lives as a practicing scholar and fiction author. Intissar featured as the subject of a recent paper in Exchanges – The Doctor-Writer Experience of Intissar Haddiya – and hence that’s why she’s appearing in discussion with us today. We discuss balancing her professional roles, and how the insights from each help inform her work in the differing sphere. We touch too on her experiences with professional publishing, and the advice she has for other scholars and writers of fiction looking towards their first work.

Given we’re into the summer break season, and then heading into the new academic year, I suspect it’ll be a while before our next episode – so a perfect time to listen to this and catch up on any previous episodes you might have missed!

Gareth Johnson : 15 Aug 2023 08:14 |  Tags: Celebration Episode Interview Nephrologist New Podcast Writer |  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