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Better technology, more communication

Amy Ferrer

Communications and technology are paramount for any modern
organization, and the APA can do much better in these areas than we have in the
past. And I promise you, it’s my mission—and the mission of the APA board of
officers, the association’s main policy-making body—to do better.

First, the big news. As we announced just before the
Thanksgiving holiday, the APA is seeking a new logo and branding, in
conjunction with a new website. We’ll be developing that new website as part of
our transition to an association management system that will offer much of what
so many people have been demanding: online membership application and renewal,
online meeting registration, and more resources and functions for users. The
new website should launch in the spring.

We’re also preparing to join the 21st
century with a Facebook page and Twitter profile so that you can communicate
with us more directly. And if you’re a member, you may have already noticed
that you’re receiving emails from us just a little more often—we won’t flood
your inbox, but we want to make sure you’re getting the information you need
and want from us in a timely manner.

We’ve got more ideas for the longer term—an APA blog, more
interactive online communities, and mobile applications, for example—but we’re
taking care of the basics first.

We’re also working on new approaches to our publications,
including moving more of them online. We know that many of you aren’t satisfied
with the current delivery method for the Proceedings
& Addresses (that is, by snail mail), and we’re working on plans to
provide that content to you in new and more useful ways. We aim to highlight
the content in our newsletters more prominently, and we’re reviving defunct and
out-of-date publications (the Guide to Graduate Study in Philosophy,
for example) and contemplating new ones (such as email bulletins).

The board of officers is now considering proposals from
publishers for an APA journal, and we are in the process of setting up a
committee to develop the journal’s editorial structure and nominate its
inaugural editor(s). The journal will aim to address a number of issues for the
profession, not the least of which will be to increase conversation across the
dividing lines and sub-disciplines of philosophy, providing an opportunity for
better communication not only between the APA and the philosophical community
but also within the profession itself.

These modes of communication are largely new to the APA. Our goal is simply to provide the best services that we can to our members and the philosophical community. I hope you’ll continue to communicate with us as these efforts move forward. You’ve shown a lot of patience with the APA (though I know many of you lost that patience long ago), and I can’t fully express how much we appreciate your continued interest in and support of the APA’s work. We take very seriously these efforts to prove ourselves to you all over again.

We welcome your feedback—we want to know what kinds of communications and technology you want to see from the APA.

As is standard practice on this blog, signed comments only:  full name and valid e-mail address required.

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15 responses to “Better technology, more communication”

  1. Helen De Cruz

    We are very grateful for the improvements you've already implemented at the APA website and the conference. There has been some recent discussion on our blog (NewApps) that a general philosophy journal, published by the APA would be a very welcome addition. A couple of reasons why an APA journal would be good for the profession and for the APA.
    – many scientific societies, also in philosophy (e.g., PSA, SCP) have their own journal that they publish and provide to members as a service. The journal would provide an extra incentive to be a member of the APA, even when not on the market or presenting at one of its meetings. It's also nice for non-academic members to have a journal they can read (quarterly) as part of their membership, given that individual subscription prices of journals are often quite high.
    – the acceptance rates of general philosophy journals (e.g., Noûs, PPR, JPhil, Phil Review) are tiny, around 5% or lower. Amazingly, the acceptance rates at Science and Nature (between 6 and 8%!) are higher than those of high-prestige philosophy journals. This indicates there is certainly room for another general philosophy journal. The APA's reputation and wide spread would help this new journal gain a good reputation quickly, and you would also (I imagine) be able to get a high-quality editorial board together.

    Reply
  2. Don Rutherford

    Thanks, Amy, for taking the time to post here and to provide members with a little more information about your background and connection to the world of philosophy. I had a question about the proposed APA journal. If the board of officers is considering proposals from publishers does that mean that the journal will not follow an open-access model along the lines of Philosophers' Imprint? If so, that seems to me a shame, because it will put the APA behind the curve in terms of where the world of academic publishing, especially journals, is going. By sponsoring its own open-access journal, the APA could set an example for how scholarly communication can and should happen, bringing some needed positive publicity to the APA.

    Reply
  3. Roberta L. Millstein

    These sound like great new ventures! Thank you for taking them on with so much enthusiasm. If we would prefer to contact you directly, what is the best way to do that?

    Reply
  4. Paul Remm

    I hope that the improvements will be good. It would be good if the website was a place one would actually go for information (on say conferences or projects, journals and some data on them, and so on). Not that there is no information now, but it is not conveniently located or searchable or complete.

    Reply
  5. Ram Neta

    Academic web sites tend to suffer from two distinct but easily fixable problems: the first is that they are not easy to update (witness the all-too-common Drupal site, which requires IT chops to update), the second is that the content of the update is determined by people (like me and many other faculty) who don't know how to present information on a web site in a way that is perspicuous and memorable to their audience. The first problem is fixable by the use of some of the super-easy out-of-the-box web site building products just released in the past year, and the second problem is fixable by contracting a skilled part-timer to update the web site as needed. Best wishes for a successful new communications effort!

    Reply
  6. Matty

    I'm all in favor of the new logo and branding. For what it's worth, though, the design professionals with whom I have shared the APA's request for proposals think that the offer of $2,500 is unreasonably (and even absurdly) low for the amount and kind of work requested. See, for instance, the reaction of the designers at Typophile: http://typophile.com/node/98184.

    Reply
  7. Amy Ferrer

    Thanks, all, for these thoughts.

    @Don Rutherford: Providing an open access option is very important to the APA in developing our journal. All of the proposals we are considering use a hybrid open access model.

    @Roberta L. Millstein: Email is the best way to reach me directly: aferrer@udel.edu

    @Matty: We know our project budget is small, but as stated in the RFP, we're more than willing to consider proposals over that amount—we just need the budget to be explained in the proposal so we understand what we are getting for the additional cost. The APA's finances are tight, but we do want to pay a fair wage for the project, and if we receive a proposal that convinces us we should increase the budget, we will find the money to do so.

    Reply
  8. Matt Brown

    I second Don Rutherford's suggestion that the APA explore Open Access publishing for the proposed APA journal. Traditional journal publishing is a moribund system. The APA needs to set an example, within and beyond the discipline, that Open Access is the way to go. It is not just a matter of convenience, financial sense, or technological possibility, but also a step in the direction of social justice.

    Instead of pursuing traditional publishers, the APA should be pursuing partnerships with university libraries and foundations, as well as public grants, to get an Open Access initiative off the ground.

    Reply
  9. Neil Levy

    Let me just clarify what the APA is proposing, Amy – by "hybrid open access" do you mean a system whereby authors pay a publication fee, like PLOS? Perhaps one option would be to have publication free for members of the APA, thereby encouraging people to join.

    Reply
  10. Helen De Cruz

    As Roberta Millstein and I have been discussing, a real lacuna in the present-day general philosophy journal market is a general philosophy journal that does not focus too much on metaphysics and epistemology. If we look at the top general philosophy journals, a very large portion of each issue is taken up by metaphysics and epistemology – as a result good work in areas like feminism, philosophy of race, aesthetics, philosophy of cognitive science, etc. do not get published there often, but get published in specialist venues that are only/mainly read by specialists in those subfields.
    It would be great for our profession if the APA journal were to take special care to make sure that those areas of philosophy, which are now regarded as less central, would also be represented in the journal. There is no journal quite like this, but I think it would be great for our discipline. It would help some areas of philosophy to get broader attention than they get today.
    This could be easily done if the editorial board represents a broad range of scholars, e.g., feminist philosophers, who could find suitable referees for papers in those areas.

    Reply
  11. Matt Brown

    I posted my comment before Amy Ferrer's response to Don showed up. I applaud the APA for looking into OA models, though I'm curious what sort of "hybrid" models are under consideration. The sciences often use a "hybrid" model on which the article is posted as OA if the article author pays a fee (usually $2,000-$3,000), whereas the rest of the articles are closed, payed for by traditional subscriptions. (If the journal doesn't reduce their subscription price based on the number of OA articles, they are also essentially "double charging" the scholarly community.) This model would be unworkable for philosophy for (what I would hope are) obvious reasons. What sort of "hybrid" models are under consideration by the APA?

    Reply
  12. Amy Ferrer

    The APA is only in beginning negotiations with publishers, and we will certainly take the concerns expressed here about open access into account. However, as these negotiations are confidential, I can't say anything more specific at this point.

    @Helen De Cruz: It is very much a priority for the APA that our journal be inclusive of the full diversity of philosophical study. An ad hoc committee has just been set up to propose the editorial structure and basic editorial policies of the APA’s new journal and to nominate the founding editor(s). The board of officers has asked this committee to keep the priority of inclusiveness in mind throughout its work.

    Reply
  13. Roberta L. Millstein

    I am really pleased to hear that the APA is seeking to create a diverse and inclusive general philosophy journal! It is well-needed.

    Reply
  14. Mike Perry

    One thing I wish the APA would do is record (audio? video?) the sessions at their annual meetings and then make the recordings available online (Youtube?). Maybe I'm underestimating the cost of doing this, or maybe there are other problems I'm not thinking of, but it seems doable, and it would allow so many more people to "attend" these events!

    Reply
  15. Adam Hogan

    @ Mike Perry: Great suggestion.

    @ Amy Ferrer: In addition to Facebook and Twitter, you should consider a Google+ page; lots of academics on Google+.

    Reply

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