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Welcome! @Gastronomica is thrilled to join the @ASFS_org @afhvs_org #foodstudies20 Twitter conference with a panel titled, “The Barriers of Academic Journals, and How to Break Them”
This panel was planned as an interactive session, a conversation between members of the editorial collective and the audience, so please do feel especially free to chime in with comments and questions!
#foodstudies20
#foodstudies20
@Gastronomica is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, international #foodstudies journal published by @ucpress and managed by an editorial collective. More about us here:
https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica
#foodstudies20
https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica
#foodstudies20
Our collective encompasses a diverse group of scholars and professionals spanning across disciplines and institutions across the globe (some of whom are on Twitter!). Meet them here:
https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/pages/editorial
#foodstudies20
https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/pages/editorial
#foodstudies20
Today, we will be sharing one of our ongoing initiatives to tackle the barriers of academic journals, but we’d also love to hear your ideas and suggestions, both during and after this conference #foodstudies20
The origin of this panel goes back to the very beginnings of the editorial collective. Our initial conversations about @Gastronomica’s future evolved very much around the continuing structural inequities and barriers to entry in the academic publishing landscape #foodstudies20
These barriers disproportionately affect women, scholars from marginalized, “minority” backgrounds, and those from the Global South working in institutions outside North America and Europe #foodstudies20
What do we mean by “barriers?”
Looking at the literature on scholarly publishing, we found that barriers to entry exist at several stages of the submission process
#foodstudies20
Looking at the literature on scholarly publishing, we found that barriers to entry exist at several stages of the submission process
#foodstudies20
Most of the data we have concerns gender inequalities: Female scholars are less likely to submit to journals for peer review & fewer of their articles are published in journals across the natural/social/medical sciences & the humanities #foodstudies20 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsa053910
There is also evidence that female-authored papers are subjected to greater scrutiny than male-authored papers during peer review @erinhengel #foodstudies20
http://www.erinhengel.com/research/publishing_female.pdf
http://www.erinhengel.com/research/publishing_female.pdf
Qualitative research suggests that women are less likely than men to consider their work significant enough for publication, and to revise and resubmit their rejected submissions #foodstudies20 https://books.google.de/books/about/Women_Writing_the_Academy.html?id=0WFZAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
Once published, articles authored by female scholars risk being cited less frequently than articles by male authors and are perceived as being of lesser quality than male-authored papers #foodstudies20 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1075547012472684
Similar and additional challenges are faced by authors of color. Although there is less data on racial and ethnic differences in publishing, there is a growing body of evidence of structural inequities affecting authors of color
#foodstudies20
#foodstudies20
For example, this study of NIH funding found that black applicants reported fewer papers, had fewer citations, and published in journals with lower impact factors #foodstudies20 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205929
There is also evidence to suggest that elite institutions are disproportionately represented in major humanities publications #foodstudies20
https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/publication_power_and_patronage_on_inequality_and_academic_publishing/
https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/publication_power_and_patronage_on_inequality_and_academic_publishing/
These inequalities often converge in the case of scholars from the Global South who work in institutions outside North America and Europe #foodstudies20
@Gastronomica is committed to countervail these forces in a number of ways. One of the most important is our Acquisitions Cluster
https://gastronomica.org/2020/01/16/introducing-our-new-acquisitions-team/
#foodstudies20
https://gastronomica.org/2020/01/16/introducing-our-new-acquisitions-team/
#foodstudies20
The Acquisition Cluster seeks to proactively recruit more voices, including early career scholars, authors of color, authors with disabilities, female authors, queer authors, & authors from previously underrepresented institutions, places, and research areas
#foodstudies20
#foodstudies20
We try to do this by engaging authors at conferences and food-related events and by directly reaching out to potential authors through email or social media
#foodstudies20
#foodstudies20
Most importantly, members of the Acquisitions Cluster work with authors on an individual basis throughout the submission process by providing constructive feedback before submission and throughout the review process
#foodstudies20
#foodstudies20
While the Acquisition Cluster is actively conducting outreach efforts to authors, authors are also encouraged to make themselves known to us. We look forward to hearing from potential authors as a way to continue to enrich and expand this journal
#foodstudies20
#foodstudies20
Currently, Acquisitions Cluster members are @MelissaFuster, @LisaHaushofer, James Farrer and Simone Cinotto. You can simply reach out to us via email or Twitter DM. Here’s some more info on the Acquisitions Cluster including contact info:
https://gastronomica.org/2020/01/16/introducing-our-new-acquisitions-team/
#foodstudies20
https://gastronomica.org/2020/01/16/introducing-our-new-acquisitions-team/
#foodstudies20
There are reasons to be optimistic. Our 20.3 issue on food & #COVID19--for which we received 185 submissions from 19 different countries--is evidence of how large our reach in authorship, and audience, can be (Issue 20.3 will be out in late August!) #foodstudies20
Finally, this is an ongoing effort in its early stages. We’d love to hear your questions, comments, and suggestions, so do respond to this thread or contact us in your own time
#foodstudies20
#foodstudies20
Thanks so much for reading this far, and we look forward to hearing from you! Also make sure to check out the other fascinating #foodstudies20 panels on here today!
