Peer pressure and the press

Being the editor of a new academic journal is nothing like I thought it would be.

Whilst I set out from egalitarian principles I have come to realise that the exigencies of peer review means that I have had to reject more potential articles than I would have liked.

This partially explains the delay of the second edition (which is in preperation)

Anyone who has been involved in trying to get published will realise the gestation period is a long one. That is out of my hands, because one is dependent not only on overcoming ones own inertia, but the sometimes long response times of others in the chain.

It has been  tempting to slip in an article of my own (no questions asked, I am the editor after all) but that will not do, albeit the first edition does showcase a short essay of mine, it is there for historical more than current relevance along with reprints (can one talk about reprints in a digital context?) of other important work, which is part of the journals ethos as well as new papers.

Anyway this bloggy blogatory whatever style of writing won't do, and I have had to reject an article of my own, even though it can be found on a bona fide academic repository. It's just not good enough.

The article in the next edition that does bear the Author's authorship has had to be considerably rewritten to pass muster, even though it has been presented orally in an international context.

I am afraid the second edition of Autonomy will be nothing like as compendious as I had hoped, but I shall have to get over that, I guess it takes time to build it up and there are articles currently coming up for peer review or under consideration that just are not ready for this edition, delayed though it is.

What is the impetus for getting it together at last? Well the summer has been a long vacation for me, my allotment has made the most demands, and the round of NAS meetings the next after that.  The NAS is out of the way now I have retired, I shall only be having four meeting a year after this. My doctorate can wait, (who needs it?) but people at my Uni have been asking questions about Autonomy, so I had better get a move on. Anyway vanity publishing apart, no edition would be complete without an editorial and that is even more difficult to write than a paper or a review, because that requires me to actually read the stuff that has been submitted and approved for the current edition.

Which reminds me, I don't know about anyone owing a cock to Asclepius, Aesculapious or whatever his name was (Socrates would probably know) but I had better get round to invoicing the NAS for the first commercial transaction of the Autreach Press. Well this enterprise does need to be self supporting doesn't it?

And yes folks, for all you doubters, although it is hosted in my web space, which I pay for, it is nonetheless an authentic registered journal with an editorial board and peer reviewers.