ACADEMIC JOURNAL AS BLOG
GETTING TO THE ESSENCE OF ACADEMIC PUBLISHING
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Tectonic Shits in Academic Journal Culture
The Internet is catalyzing great changes in the world of learning.
One of these changes is the increasing drive it is generating to return scholarship to its roots as a collaborative endeavour between scholars and students, reducing the reach of the mercantile industry that has grown around scholarship.
A current drive is on identifying the essence of scholarly culture and proceed to that, cutting out middlemen, specifically publishers.
One demonstration of these changes is in the culture of the academic journal, as represented by the advent of the academic journal as blog.
Trends in academic journal publication have moved on from exclusive publication in hardcopy to digital formats and even beyond the more recent conventional digital formats to embrace blogging as a journal platform.
Examples of this innovation may come complete with a scholarly essence of academic publishing, the standards setting process of peer review, vetting of articles for publication by scholars, before eventual publication in the blog functioning as an academic journal.
I get the impression that some academic content is being adapted for the phone application market, specifically by Oxford University Press, I think.
An academic journal is a presentation of research by scholars that is published periodically.
That is all there is to it, no more, no less.
It can be published on amala leaves [a Nigerian food, wrapped in leaves for selling to customers], on banana leaves, on papyrus, in hard copy, as a glossy magazine like Playboy or Ebony, or TIME magazine, in digital form, or any other form that may be conceivable.
Its format of publication is secondary to its content.
Quality and Peer Review
Academic journals ensure a high standard of quality by making sure the articles submitted to them for publication are vetted by assessors That process is called peer review, peers being fellow scholars in the relevant field.
Academic Journals as Blogs
This basic description in terms of content implies that one may use a blog as an academic journal.
This can be done by simply uploading the scholarly material on to the blog.
Finish. Nothing more to it.
Blogging thereby moves on from being used solely as informal structures to also acting as carriers of the most rigorous academic content.
Kinds of Academic Journals as Blogs
One could adapt the journal format to different kinds of blogs.
The two major blog formats, to the best of my knowledge, are Wordpress and Blogger.
Al-Noor : The Boston College Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Journal uses the Wordpress blogging platform.
Reconfigurations : A Journal for Poetics and Poetry, Literature and Culture uses the Blogger platform.
This is how Reconfigurations describes itself:
EDITORIAL PROCESS
All submissions to Reconfigurations are evaluated via double-blind peer-review: each work is sent anonymously to two readers for independent assessments. Solicited materials, including book reviews, also undergo this procedure. In most cases, members of the journal's Editorial Board evaluate submissions, but sometimes external reviewers contribute to our editorial process. Results following split-votes are determined by the Editor. Average time from submission to evaluation and reply: seven weeks or less.
All submissions to Reconfigurations are evaluated via double-blind peer-review: each work is sent anonymously to two readers for independent assessments. Solicited materials, including book reviews, also undergo this procedure. In most cases, members of the journal's Editorial Board evaluate submissions, but sometimes external reviewers contribute to our editorial process. Results following split-votes are determined by the Editor. Average time from submission to evaluation and reply: seven weeks or less.
Seye Abimbola, giving an example of innovative journal publishing between the traditional and the blog format, cites F1000 Research , which is actually closer to the traditional model of the digital journal in providing PDF copies.
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
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