[Sighfis-l] Call for Papers: Why is the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies needed today?

[Rory Litwin]

Call for Papers: Why is the Journal of Critical Library and Information
Studies needed today?

The Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies is a peer-reviewed
open access journal which addresses the need for critical discourse in
library and information science and associated domains such as
communication and media studies. It critically engages the cultural forms,
social practices, the political economy, and the history of information and
information institutions. It also seeks to broaden the methodological
commitments of the field and to broaden the scope of library and
information studies by applying diverse critical, trans-disciplinary, and
global perspectives. The journal engages issues of social and cognitive
justice and the historical and contemporary roles of documentary,
information, and computational technologies in creating, mediating,
surveilling, and challenging personal and social identities in cultural and
political economies of power and expression.

For its inaugural issue, the JCLIS will focus on why such a journal is
needed, as a platform for critical discourse in LIS. JCLIS seeks to publish
research articles, literature reviews, and possibly other essay forms (up
to 7000 words) that use or examine critical perspectives on library and
information studies. Some of the issues that might be addressed are: What
are the current gaps in disciplines and discourses that make the JCLIS
necessary? How can scholars speak to past silences in research and thinking
in information studies? What is “critical perspective” in library and
information studies research? What ethical or political commitments might a
critical perspective entail? What do critical perspectives look like in
practice?

The theme for the inaugural issue is broad by design in order to encourage
diverse perspectives in describing, analyzing, and providing insight into
how and where library and information studies might intersect with ethical,
philosophical, and/or political concerns, interpretative or speculative
approaches to analysis, or experimentation with novel, unique, or
exploratory research designs that might be marginalized or excluded from
mainstream library and information studies research. JCLIS aims to be a an
inclusive platform for library and information studies research,including
locally specific research designs and investigations as well as research
that adopts a more global or international frame of inquiry. To that end,
the journal also welcomes unpublished works in translation. Deadline for
receipt of manuscripts is Monday, August 31st, 2015, for Winter 2015
publication.

Possible topic areas may include (but are not limited to):

– What is/are critical library and information studies? What might
distinguish critical approaches?
– The use of a particular critical perspective for research into topics
relevant to library and information studies
– Different notions of critical approaches and perspectives, and their
relations to information and knowledge studies and research
– When and why are critical approaches timely? How does its timeliness or
not apply to today’s problems of information and knowledge?
– Applications of critical approaches in information institution,
organization, or community contexts of practice.
– How critical approaches or methods might relate to other contemporary
topics within library and information studies: open access, patron privacy,
evolutions in scholarly communication, digital humanities, etc.
– How are critical perspectives included or excluded from empirical or
engineering methods in the information and library sciences?
– Descriptions and reflections on methods for conducting library and
information studies research with a critical approach. What is the
relationship of method to critical activity?
– Critical perspectives on race and ethnicity in LIS, and/or the need for
critical perspectives in LIS research.
– How might postcolonial theory expand the scope and methods of LIS
research?
– Critical approaches for investigating militarism and the politics of
information.
– Development/Implementation of information services for diasporic
populations.
– What has been the relation of critical theory to the LIS tradition and
its modes of historical, qualitative, and quantitative research?
– What is the relationship of critical theory to LIS education and to LIS
research?
– Failures and shortcomings: how can critical perspectives inform and
improve library and information studies?
– Gender and identity within LIS: how might critical perspectives or
approaches be used to explore or investigate them?
– #critlib and alternative platforms for critical professional conversation
– Library and information studies vs library and information science: What
are the differences?

Guest Editors for Volume 1, Issue 1
Ronald Day, Indiana University – Bloomington
Alycia Sellie, Graduate Center, City University of New York

Journal Editors
Associate Editor: Emily Drabinski
Associate Editor: Rory Litwin
Managing Editor: Andrew J Lau, UCLA Extension

Editorial Board
Amelia Acker
Melissa Adler
Howard Besser
Michelle Caswell
Jonathan Cope
Ronald Day
Jonathan Furner
Patrick Keilty
Joyce Latham
Lai Ma
Jens-Erik Mai
Marlene Manoff
Melissa Morrone
Lilly Nguyen
Safiya Noble
Ricardo Punzalan
Toni Samek
Alycia Sellie
Rebecka Sheffield

Description of the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies
The mission of the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies is
to serve as a peer-reviewed platform for critical discourse in and around
library and information studies from across the disciplines. This includes
but is not limited to research on the political economy of information,
information institutions such as libraries, archives, and museums,
reflections on professional contexts and practices, questioning current
paradigms and academic trends, questioning the terms of information
science, exploring methodological issues in the context of the field, and
otherwise enriching and broadening the scope of library and information
studies by applying diverse critical and trans-disciplinary perspectives.
Recognizing library and information studies as a diverse,
cross-disciplinary field reflective of the scholarly community’s diverse
range of interests, theories, and methods, JCLIS aims to showcase
innovative research that queries and critiques current paradigms in theory
and practice through perspectives that originate from across the humanities
and social sciences.

Each issue is themed around a particular topic or set of topics, and
features a guest editor (or guest editors) who will work with the managing
editor to shape the issue’s theme and develop an associated call for
papers. Issue editors will assist in the shepherding of manuscripts through
the review and preparation processes, are encouraged to widely solicit
potential contributions, and work with authors in scoping their respective
works appropriately.

JCLIS is open access in publication, politics, and philosophy. In a world
where paywalls are the norm for access to scholarly research, the Journal
recognizes that removal of barriers to accessing information is key to the
production and sharing of knowledge. Authors retain copyright of
manuscripts published in JCLIS, generally with a Creative Commons
Attribution (CC-BY) license. If an article is republished after initially
publication in JCLIS, the republished article should indicate that it was
first published by JCLIS.

Submission Guidelines for Authors:
The Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies welcomes
submissions from senior and junior faculty, students, activists, and
practitioners working in areas of research and practice at the intersection
of critical theory and library and information studies.

Authors retain the copyright to material they publish in the JCLIS, but the
Journal cannot re-publish material that has previously been published
elsewhere. The journal also cannot accept manuscripts that have been
simultaneously submitted to another outlet for possible publication.

We welcome:

Research Articles (no more than 7000 words)
Literature Reviews (no more than 7000 words)
Interviews (no more than 5000 words)
Book or Exhibition Reviews (no more than 1200 words)

Citation Style
JCLIS uses the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition as the official
citation style for manuscripts published by the journal. Footnotes and
reference lists should conform to the guidelines as described in the Manual.

Submission Process
Manuscripts are to be submitted through JCLIS’ online submission system.
This online submission process requires that manuscripts be submitted in
separate stages in order to ensure the anonymity of the review process and
to enable appropriate formatting.

The main text must be submitted as a stand-alone file (in Microsoft Word or
RTF)) without a title page, abstract, page numbers, or other headers or
footers. The title, abstract, and author information should be submitted
through the submission platform.

Abstracts (500 words or less) should be submitted in plain text and should
not include information identifying the author(s) or their institutional
affiliations. With the exception of book reviews, an abstract must
accompany all manuscript submissions before they are reviewed for
publication.

For questions about the submission process and guidelines, please contact
the JCLIS managing editor: andrewjlau at ucla.edu
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