Have your say on the future of A&M
19 Sep 2017
Future management and publication of Archives and Manuscripts
Archives and Manuscripts (A&M) is the professional and scholarly journal of the Australian Society of Archivists, publishing articles, reviews, and information about the theory and practice of archives and recordkeeping in Australasia and around the world. Its target audiences are archivists and other recordkeeping professionals, the academic community, and all involved in the study and interpretation of archives.
For much of its history A&M was self-published and distributed as a member benefit or for journal subscribers. The standard production was 2 issues per volume. Since January 2012, publication and distribution of A&M moved to Taylor & Francis (T&F) as a print & digital publication with three issues per year making up each volume.
The current contract with T&F is due to end on 31 December 2018 and Council must make a decision whether to continue with the current arrangements until 2021. The decision provides the opportunity for a review of the current contract, and the Council has published a discussion paper on the Future management and publication of A&M.
Replies
Looking through the options paper, it would seem a good choice to proceed with Option 3. Although a greater cost would need to be carried in the short term, this choice would bring greater engagement and contribution from the archives community in the long term. Many practitioners are not academics, but are skilled writers due to works created for their own organisations. Further, practice often brings to light possibilities outside of the academic sphere. In recent discussions at Curtin University, students were made aware of gaps in LCIM (libraries, archives and records) knowledge due to a lack of contribution from practitioners. Such contribution would still be subject to peer review, resulting in a continuing high quality publication.