Journals RIP?
Image From:
Peachey, J., S. 2004. Conservation of the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation: results of a survey and treatments. In: Recent Setbacks in Conservation, Volume: 8. (2004). Available online: http://setbacks.org/vol8/peachey.pdf
The Death of Journals?
The end of print media is often proclaimed, along with the ludicrous claims that this is due to ‘young people who aren’t reading anymore…’. Now whilst I don’t buy the later of those claims, and don’t believe that printed books are going to disappear any day soon. I do believe that we are increasingly seeing the traditional academic printed Journal loosing its place in the intellectual world.
In this blog post I would like to consider whether preserving such a potentially obsolete communication system is an ethical approach to conservation.
I’d like to thank 1D4TW of openanthropology for some recent tweets that brought two interesting articles to my attention, the first on www.antropologi.info/ entitled Do we (still) need journals? and the second an article on Eurozine entitled Forget Journals.
The Issue:
Although, there are very few journals in conservation, I would hazard a guess that there are normally more submissions than there are spaces for publication creating a backlog of papers that slowly become increasingly dated. Not to mention the seemingly very slow turn around for journals at the best of times. It should also be noted that as the economy worsens, sadly a likely long term scenario (whether or not we survive the current so called “crisis”), it will become increasingly costly to produce and distribute paper journals. Not to mention the incredibly unnecessary use of paper, and the negative impact this has on the environment.
Now; just as a quick side note… please don’t construe these comments as negative in terms of those who contribute to, or are involved in publishing journals - as this would include me – the conservation profession owes a debt of gratitude to the countless hours of work that you all have put into them. A lengthy, monotonous, task I realise is usually incredibly undervalued. Instead consider these as aimed at initiating/continuing an ongoing dialogue – thus far not mentioned on this blog. A dialogue that there is precious little room for within journals themselves.
Experiments in Alternatives:
It is worth mentioning that the journal format itself may not be a problem… and in fact electronic journals have shown us that there is a potential for a more frequent, still peer reviewed, wider ranging journal… and in some instances that it can incorporate new technologies such as “open source”.
Examples of Journals that fit these mysterious online ways:
Outside these necessary peer reviewed journals there are countless newsletters, often these are only online sometime after their initial release, these newsletters vary in style, content, and format, whether these are institutional or association based, such as:
- AIC – Newsletter (archive)
- WCG – Washington Conservation Guild Newsletter (archive)
- ICOM- CC Ethnographic Working Group Newsletter
As well as this there are archives of ‘old’ issues of journals; such as:
- JAIC (archive)
- Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies. (On hiatus – not currently being published).
and of course:
Other Publication Media:
In addition to these there are a growing number of conservation based weblogs (see my links list – please let me know about blogs not listed, I try my best), as well as micro-blogs on twitter. These take various forms:
- Institutional Wide Blogs with Conservation Components
- Conservation Department Blogs
- Project Specific Blogs
- Conservator’s Personal Blogs (such as this one)
In addition there are several experiments in direct discussion, using online discussion forum.
Firstly there is the well established:
and then there are new less established discussion forums such as:
Thoughts?
So, I was wondering what do other conservators think about the future of paper based journals?
In my opinion their days are numbered, and it’s just a matter of when they end, rather than if, and accepting such a change and managing it in a creative way could potentially massively increase the significance of any print journal that is able to do so.
I think journals will however always have some place in the profession, although their format and style may alter. For example; the incorporation of multimedia into journals, or, the potential for immediate discussion with authors via blogs/video conferences/such like linked to the articles, could benefit the profession in ways that more traditional journals are simply unable to do. The possibilities are limited only by our imaginations.
The issue that remains then is how these, Web 2.0 influenced ideas of communication based on collaboration, within newer media forums and publications will be incorporated into the intellectual and practical discourses of conservation. Will we as conservators embrace the potentialities inherent in such new medias, or will we reject them for not living up to a traditional vision of what constitutes the academy?
I don’t know how to do it, but I think that all of the journals & Newsletters should be distributed solely online. I don’t need them clogging up my real bookshelf. That’s where I put books and photographs.
I’d like to have “information” on a virtual bookshelf where I can search it easily.