Tag: open access journals

New Collection on ‘Deliberation Amid Deep Conflict’ from the Journal of Deliberative Democracy now available
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New Collection on ‘Deliberation Amid Deep Conflict’ from the Journal of Deliberative Democracy now available

The Journal of Deliberative Democracy has published a new thematic collection on the theme of ‘deliberation amid deep conflict’. Societies marked by deep divisions post challenges for deliberation. They may have entrenched interests, power inequities and a history of ill-will and misconceptions – yet deliberation also potentially transforms intergroup conflict and promotes reconciliation, mutual respect and cooperation.

Drawing on articles from the last ten years, this collection spotlights the functions, practices and limitations of democratic deliberation during conflict, exploring how deliberation can cultivate recognition and understanding of opposing views within the political system, how it can promote peace, stability and integration in deeply divided societies, the importance of adapting deliberative democracy to local contexts, and the need for empirical investigation by researchers in order to contextualise assumptions about deliberation’s impacts. 

You can access the collection here.

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New Joint Editor-in-Chief for Anthropocenes – Human, Inhuman, Posthuman Announced

Angela Last, Lecturer at the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at the University of Leicester, has joined David Chandler and Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos as joint Editor-in-Chief of the University of Westminster Press journal, Anthropocenes – Human, Inhuman, Posthuman.

Dr Last is an interdisciplinary scholar who started off in Fashion, where she became interested in environmental and social justice issues in relation to design.  After working outside academia for several years, she subsequently completed a PhD in Geography at the Open University, UK. Her research focuses on human-environment relations, and specifically the politicisation of these relations. This research necessitates continued interdisciplinary work, whether in teaching, research or outreach, and she will bring this experience to her work for Anthropocenes. For example, Angela has been working on environmental sound art events, fashion workshops, and taught on the MA in Art & Science at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London.

Her main aim in joining the journal is to forward the idea of ‘anthropocenes’ as a multiplicity of relations that humans have with their environment, kin, cosmos, or however they frame their relation, and not simply as ‘Anthropocene’ according to the current (still relatively ambiguous) geological interpretation. She notes, ‘the current planetary emergency requires many of our relations to change, which needs urgent discussion, and for this to be as geographically wide as possible.’ While traditional academic journals have some obvious limitations in terms of reach and economics, Dr Last envisages that Anthropocenes can make creative contributions to the debate by staging interdisciplinary conversations and publishing these in a variety of formats.

Anthropocenes is a fully open access journal, with no fees to authors or readers.  It launched in 2020 and has readers in over 130 countries. Articles publish as they are ready to avoid delays in making work publicly available, and the journal actively encourages multimedia and non-traditional submissions including creative writing, audio and visual work.  The journal is currently open for submissions – find out more at anthropocenes.net.  You can follow Angela Last’s work on her blog Mutable Matter.

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Call for Editors – Journal of Deliberative Democracy

The Journal of Deliberative Democracy is pleased to invite expressions of interest for the editorship of the journal. The new editorial team is expected to serve from April 2023 to April 2026. Multi-institutional and multi-country bids are encouraged but not required.

Established in 2005 (originally as the Journal of Public Deliberation) the journal is a forum for the latest thinking, emerging debates, alternative perspectives and critical views on deliberation. It publishes on all theoretical and methodological traditions and aims to broker knowledge between scholars and practitioners of citizen engagement.  Supported by the NewDemocracy Foundation, the International Association for Public Participation and the University of Westminster, the journal is fully open access, with no fees for authors or readers.  Articles are made available as soon as they are ready to publish in order to prevent delays in making content publicly available, and the journal also publishes themed Collections. 

The journal also publishes The Deliberative Democracy Digest blog.

Published by the University of Westminster Press, the journal is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCO and the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, and is included in Science Open.  It has a global audience across 190 countries and achieves average usage figures of over 16,000 per month.  This is an opportunity to oversee the next stage of development of this established and respected journal on a topic of increasing importance internationally.

General responsibilities of the Editor include:

  • Assisting in the peer review of scholarly submissions via the Janeway manuscript submission system
  • Overseeing new Collections
  • Being the focus of editorial activity in their speciality, working to enhance the journal’s visibility and reputation in the field
  • Actively recruiting authors to contribute to the journal
  • Assisting in the framing of journal editorial policy and development of the journal
  • Assisting in the appointment of other editorial team members, ensuring members reflect the diversity of the field and the range of perspectives within the community
  • Attending Editorial Board Meetings
  • Representing the journal and promoting it wherever possible

EOIs should not be more than 500 words and should cover the following topics:

  • Names and institutional affiliations of the proposed editorial team
  • Reasons for editing JDD
  • Priorities for the JDD in the next three years
  • Plans for the Deliberative Democracy Digest
  • Institutional resources available to support the journal (JDD is funded by the newDemocracy Foundation, IAP2 and the University of Westminster Press but identify possible support from your institution/s like teaching relief, financial and other in-kind resources).

The journal invites EOIs to be submitted on/by 30 October 2022. 

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in November.  

All enquiries and EOIs should be directed via email in the first instance to:

Philippa Grand

Press Manager

p.grand@westminster.ac.uk

Momentum at a New University Press: Revisiting the UWP Story
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Momentum at a New University Press: Revisiting the UWP Story

Reflecting on the merits of consistent publishing activity and its multiplier effects – some reflections on UWP’s growth on the Ubiquity Press blog from the University of Westminster Press: ‘Thanks a Million: Momentum at a New University Press‘

Interesting to compare with the view in September 2015 ‘Setting up a University Press in the Digital Age’ and again as recently as May 2019, ‘Setting up a University Press in the Digital Age Revisited‘ when a fuller UWP timeline was presented.

Still unconfirmed but possible we will be able to announce in July 1.25 million views and downloads to end June but we have to wait for the data which may or may not confirm that!

Andrew Lockett, Press Manager

200 authors contribute to UWP books and journals

200 authors contribute to UWP books and journals

Another landmark reached.

Over 200 unique authors or editors have contributed to UWP books and journals from over 30 countries.

The top 10 countries in order of author numbers are: UK, USA, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Germany with China, China (Hong Kong), Ireland, Netherlands and Russia in joint 10th place.

From the University of Westminster 21 authors or editors have contributed to our publications more than once, with 16 authors from other universities or locations also contributing multiply.

Our travel-loving Press Manager has visited all but 7 of the countries but would like to have to add more to his bucket list which UWP has reached that currently includes Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Japan and South Africa.

Does this top 10 geographical profile match our open access audiences? Not quite but not far off either. We’d have more authors from Turkey and a few more from Greece, Mexico, Indonesia and South Korea perhaps but overall it would be hard not to say that there was a strong correspondence.

From our main website we can see readers have popped up (though not too frequently) in Yemen, South Sudan, Niger, San Marino and in the US commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Northern Pacific. With our WPCC journal ( a separate site) this week there have been strong showings from Zimbabwe, Australia, Singapore and Nigeria.

Open access offers quite a lot of insights to distract the publisher but demonstrates the ability of a small publisher to extend a reach and have a greater ability than a purely print publisher to understand a little more of where there readership is hailing from.

UWP 2019 catalogue out

UWP 2019 catalogue out

Delighted to announce the arrival of UWP 2019 catalogue. Forty-six pages of books and journals. All UWP published titles are open access.

Following our first book title published in October 2016 Critical Theory of Communication by Christian Fuchs, we are now listing 44 with over 13 titles published or firmly scheduled in our flagship Critical and Digital Media Studies series.

There are books in Media Studies, Politics/Theory, our Law and the Senses series, Geography, History and Education. And some details of our published two journals Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture and Entertainment and Sports Law Journal.

You can download, then view the catalogue here.

uwestminsterpress.co.uk