The following was submitted to the AoIR executive as a report from a subcommittee addressing publishing issues for AoIR. I draw your attention in particular to the new arrangement with the journal Information, Communication and Society (ICS) to publish a special issue of invited AoIR conference papers. /Caroline

AoIR Publishing Subcommittee Report

Members

Caroline Haythornthwaite (Chair) <haythorn@uiuc.edu>, Monica Murero <murero@eircom.net>, Axel Bruns <a.bruns@qut.edu.au>, Lori Kendall <loriken@uiuc.edu>, Ted M Coopman <coopman@u.washington.edu>

April 25, 2007

The subcommittee met online to discuss AoIR and publishing. Discussion centered on issues of supporting future scholars in their publishing activities; publication possibilities for AoIR conference papers; and supporting Internet Research in general. The subcommittee came to the following conclusions and recommendations:

1. Discussion of an AoIR journal: To be revisited next year

An AoIR journal is a good idea, but as a committee we felt there are currently too many practical limitations for implementation including management, sponsorship and volunteers. We recommend reconsidering this next year.

2. Publishing from the AoIR conference: New ICS special issue arranged

The AoIR annual has ceased publication. We have been able to arrange with the journal Information, Communication and Society (ICS) to publish a special issue of selected AoIR conference papers each year, to appear in January of the following year. Editorship for this year is Caroline Haythornthwaite (for AoIR) and Barry Wellman (N.American editor of ICS). Future editorship will be for a 3 year, renewable post, to be decided and confirmed by ICS and the AoIR executive. Papers are selected in the following way: the AoIR chair selects 25-30 abstracts for consideration. The special issue editors review these and choose a limited set (around 10) to be invited to write a full length paper, due approximately 6 weeks before the conference (Sept. 1st for 2007, dates will be adjusted according to the date of the conference each year). Editors will provide feedback and select the final 7-8 papers for the special issue (exact number of papers on ICS editors and page limits for an ICS journal issue). Those authors will have until 2 weeks after the conference to submit revised versions. Papers that are acceptable but delayed and/or exceed the number ICS can publish will be accommodated in a later issue.

3. An annual AoIR conference workshop on writing and publication: Recommend for 2007 and each year after

We recommend the establishment of a yearly workshop to be held at the AoIR conference particularly focused on issues of writing and publication of the type of work accepted for the AoIR conference. This responds to concerns for support for students and new faculty about how to get their AoIR-related work published. The workshop would be organized by one or two volunteers based on a special call for proposals for the workshop, and/or by special arrangements made by the AoIR executive committee as decided by the executive. We recommend the first of these be held at the 2007 conference.

------------ ---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820