[JoPP-Public] Future of Journal of Peer Production (JoPP): the end of the line?

Mon Nov 5 03:35:53 CET 2018

Hi Andrew, all

Thanks for your message. Briefly (I don't want to pre-empt other responses):

1.Someone signaled on the jopp-ed list that they may have an idea for jopp#14. More on this asap.

2.Really appreciate your thoughts on OA journals / political economy of scientific-scholarly publishing. As you know we are planning to have a special section in jopp#13 for OA journals. Could be good opportunity to assess where we're at and articulate some ideas / interventions to move forward re Elsevier / OA labour...?

cheers

Mathieu

________________________________
From: JoPP-Public <jopp-public-bounces at lists.ourproject.org> on behalf of Andrew Murphie <andrew.murphie at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 5, 2018 10:51
To: Journal of Peer Production's general and public list
Subject: Re: [JoPP-Public] Future of Journal of Peer Production (JoPP): the end of the line?

Hi Mathieu,

We're facing the same kinds of questions at the Fibreculture Journal. We're keeping on keeping on the for moment but we'll see what happens next year. A while back we were almost thinking of an issue on this very issue .. current state of OA publishing, why it's become difficult, the life cycle of journals that are fully OA etc etc .. why the potential has not yet actualised in anything like the way it could ...

Something on the future of Scholarly Comms (a term that perhaps becomes redundant when I think about it ... )

Watched Paywall last night. All through my partner and I were talking about something that seemed not to quite come up .. which is the question of labour .... "the modes of peer production" I guess. Although I think JoPP has dealt with this some in #10. I know this has been a huge issue at FCJ. We've all burned out at some stage with the work (and complete lack of credit even in university workloads .. universities love journals but seem to think journal issues just pop out of the ground by themselves like mushrooms).

It's also, I have to say, been quite hard to FCJ to make a transition into doing things differently, more in tune with what we see as contemporary events, largely because forces keep pulling us back to traditional forms of credit etc when it comes to the form and process of the work.

I know other journals and so forth have faced similar issues.

Among these and other questions (very prevalent throughout Paywall, and certainly in my mind as editor of FCJ since at least 2008 ... the first ERA ranking exercise ...and now with UNSW where I work's own "journal rankings" exercise) ... is the whole politics of infrastructure—reactionary we well know—that has developed around publishing now ... at exactly the same time that OA and much more beyond this in terms of "scholarly comms" has thrived, in what I'm calling a "third media revolution" (most of publishing has become even more stubbornly "second media revolution" that is, the reproduction and distribution of representations, e.g. the printing press but also the like of social media) ...

So one idea (and I hesitate as I'm beyond time poor) might be a cross many OA venture (as in venture communism) celebration, exploration into the beyond, and also critical evaluation of the contemporary state of whatever-it-is-that-scholarly-comms-is-becoming. This could also be seen as an activist intervention into the state of things, e.g. the politics of scholarly infrastructure, but also, rankings and research organisations especially (think of e.g. Plan S here, although I've recently heard that the "fix is in" on this .. at least in the UK, with Elsevier no less part of the discussions now being undertaken) ... Interventions of commercial consultants, etc. Our entire university is now run via "rankings" etc. Tied of course to the future of the university or whatever-it-it-universities-are-(un)becoming .. then there would be questions about forms of comms and scholarly comms and processes through this; data, media and comms and (to my mind) the almost total lack of understanding of any of these except in the most outmoded and frankly limited way on the part of research organisation and infrastructure high and low , etc etc.

None of this means that JoPP should continue, if it has served its purpose. Probably just thinking on my feet. And it could go on without it (which sensibly would leave those who have made JoPP work so well with some time of their hands to do other things. As someone who has spent far too much time on an OA journal, to the detriment of my other work, I can say it is sometimes a good idea to let things go).

andrew

On Sun, 4 Nov 2018 at 19:59, Mathieu O'Neil <mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au<mailto:mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au>> wrote:

Hi all

Steve and I have been working on JoPP #13 OPEN to be released in the first half of 2019. After that, it's anybody's guess.

JoPP#14 should come out in the first half of 2020 but for that to happen someone(s) has to come up with a concept - and CFP!  Maurizio proposed something around the commons/STS a while back but this has not translated into concrete action (yet).

If no-one is willing / able to continue the JoPP journey it may be time to plan for officially entering hiatus mode after JoPP #13.

Perhaps the Journal has served its purpose - raised awareness and knowledge of peer production, linked with makers/activists, fostered a community - and something else needs to take its place?

Or, someone(s) want(s) to keep the project moving forward. If that is the case, please say so. CFP for JoPP #14 should go out soon.

Personally I've co-edited two of the last four issues (#10 and upcoming #13) and have a lot on my plate in the coming year. I might have issues to explore in JoPP in the future, but not now.

cheers,

Mathieu

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Andrew Murphie - Associate Professor
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