[JoPP-Public] Response to ephemera

[Mathieu O'Neil]

Hi all

The ephemera journal has asked jopp to respond to a questionnaire for their upcoming issue. The responses below have already been approved by the jopp ed team. If anyone has any comments or objections to them please advise by next Tuesday 13 April.

Thanks!
Mathieu

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I would like to invite you to write 1 page on the Journal of Peer Production along the following topics:

-What is your initiative about?
First, exploring the relationship between peer production and social change. We understand peer production as a mode of commons-based and oriented production in which participation is voluntary and predicated on the self-selection of tasks. Notable examples are the collaborative development of free and open source software, of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, and of open hardware projects. We have published special issues on value and currency, shared machine shops, law, work, feminism, urban planning, and policy, amongst others. These included contributions from researchers, activists and artists.
Second, developing alternatives to academic publishing. Our approach to peer reviewing is informed by Whitworth and Friedman’s criticism of academic publishing as a form of competitive economics in which 'scarcity reflects demand, so high journal rejection rates become quality indicators.' This self-reinforcing system where journals that reject more attract more results in a situation where 'avoiding faults becomes more important than new ideas. Wrongly accepting a paper with a fault gives reputation consequences, while wrongly rejecting a useful paper leaves no evidence.'

-How does it challenge mainstream publishing/academia?
All the articles are in the public domain. For peer reviewed articles, we publish the reviews - which can remain anonymous or not - as well as the original submission of the article. We have established a system of 'signals' indicating the article’s quality so that we can publish imperfect articles more quickly whilst also protecting the journal’s reputation. The journal also circumvents prohibitions on sharing copyrighted or embargoed content, such as pre-prints of chapters from the Handbook of Peer Production (2021).

-How are you organised?
We have an editorial team and a wider scientific board. All governance decisions are debated on our publicly accessible and archived mailing list.
http://peerproduction.net/about/participate/

-What challenges you face?
Lack of resources, burn-out, infrastructure.

-How to transform publishing/academia/society?
There are of course many ways to achieve social change…
>From a scientific journal perspective, at the local workplace level, the value of autonomous editorial work should be better recognised by research institutions; open access and open data should become the norm; dependence on the costly “bundles” of publishing conglomerates which gather access to researcher-produced scientific journals as well as services such as impact metrics (allowing institutions to climb up the rankings) should be challenged at every opportunity.
Societally, the work of the P2PFoundation, P2PLab, Commons Transition show the way. We need more organisations and initiatives that can operate as a conduit between peer production and traditional institutions. In the context of widespread automation leading to increasing rates of unemployment, we must develop the means to gain more space and recognition for volunteer work and the commons sector from states and firms.

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