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 To that end, the journal also welcomes unpublished works in translation.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@ucla.edu