Anyone who has ever been a student will no doubt remember with dread the wasted hours trawling through decades of back issues of journals only to discover that the elusive issue on which you had pinned so much hope was, after all, useless. It is therefore a mosr pleasurable experience some years on to sink one's teeth into a journal written not for academic vanity or as a printed valium substitue but rather to entertain its readers and widen their knowledge into corners no one realised possible. Step forward Asian Affairs, whose most recent issue contains articles on topics as diverse as Iranian visitors impressions of Hanoverian Britain, to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
I should at this point declare my slight bias on this issue: I recently joined Asian Affairs' editorial board. I am indeed proud to be associated with such an august publication but, sadly, I cannot as yet take any credit for its quality. The journal was first pulished the best part of a century before my birth, and my contributions to date number one short book revieew and some suggestions on marketing. There is in my mind the a nascent idea for a proper article, the subject of which I shall no doubt explain in due course, but that is a matter for another time.
The content of Asian Affairs is indeed an intriguing read and one I would promote to you, but my reason for blogging about it was not as a simple PR exercise but rather to talk a little about how journals are put together. I believe Asian Affairs is quite typical in its structures and procedures, if not in its content.
Few organisations these days publish their journals in-house: it is simply too expensive, and marketing can be done far more effectively when it is outsourced to a larger parent publisher. The content of Asian Affairs is sent to, or commissioned by, it editorial board at the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (the RSAA) and then type set, printed, publicised and distributed by Taylor and Francis.
The editorial board, which is comprised of 15-20 members, meets three times a year at Canning House on Belgrave Square. Each meeting requires a review of the most recently published issue, discussion of which can range from opinions on font size and most appropriate transliteration of foreign words, to critiques of contributing authors and their work.
The board is then given a preview of the article subjects for the next issue and given the opportunity to comment. Whilst the editor has made the preliminary selection,the board is thereto flag up any issues relating to content or contributing authors that falls within their partiular area of expertise. The editor can call upon any member of the board to peer review n article before it goes to print,and also to clarify any areas of confusion. Lastly,the board is there to discuss and make judgement calls about sensitive subject matter, including potential libel or copyright infringement.
In addition to the six core articles and RSAA news, Asian Affairs also publishes asignificant number of book reviews for new books with a focus on Asia. The book reviews editor distributes new books for review, and also request foreign academics, iplomats and otherswith a professional interest in Asia to contribute. This section of the journal serves therefore as an invaluable overview of new titles (the good, the bad and the ugly) with succinct, expert commentary that often adds something to the original text.
Whereas in the past you would have had to retreat to the library to access journal content,publishers are slowly creeping into the digital century. Digital subscriptions now far outnumber print ones, and the trend looks set to continue. You can download PDF files of Asian Affairs more recent articles (the entire back catalogue may take a little longerto digitise) and the abstracts are searchable with Google Scholar. I cannot as yet download each issue to read on my Kindle on the bus, but no doubt we will get there in time.
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