About the Journal

 

About

ISSN 1749-9771 (Online)

FORUM was founded in 2005 by a group of postgraduate students in the School of Language Literature and Culture at the University of Edinburgh. The founding members consisted of Lisa Otty, Claire Altree, Joseph Hughes, Frauke Matthes, Matthew McGuire, Beth Schroeder and Keith Hennessey Brown (website creator and manager). The primary motivations for these founders to create a postgraduate journal was the desire for learning and developing new or existing academic skills as well as for developing and fostering a sense of community and exchange primarily within the Edinburgh LLC postgraduate community but also further afield. Whilst FORUM has grown and adapted over the years, it also stays true to the original values of the founding members who founded  FORUM in the spirit of learning, inclusiveness, openness and fun!

The intertwining of learning aspects with social or community aspects has been a crucial and enduring tenet for FORUM . FORUM was conceptualised as space in which to help postgrads develop and gain confidence in their academic skills within a congenial and supportive atmosphere. Indeed, FORUM has not only developed a reputation for publishing articles of high academic standards but it has also earned a reputation for being a warm and welcoming place to send in your first ever academic article for publication. FORUM also aims to enhance links and exchange between postgraduate journals. 

William Christopher Brown, a lecturer at the University of Minnesota and previous contributor to FORUM , recently drew attention to the importance of postgraduate journals and the positive effect which FORUM in particular had on his experience of publishing his research in his article ‘Developing Professionally through Graduate Student Publications’:

‘Of all of the CFPs for journals that I found, I kept coming back to a then-new peer-reviewed online journal called Forum: The University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts. [...] Recognizing a connection between my own research interests at the time and the interests of my peers at another institution allowed me to push beyond the psychological blockages. Instead of focusing on myself and my own apprehensiveness at the idea of publishing, I began to think in terms of communicating with peers I had never met. I no longer viewed my writing as a part of the classroom or as a potential line on a curriculum vitae. Instead, I viewed my writing as an opportunity to connect with others.’

For more see William Christopher Brown , ‘Developing Professionally through Graduate Student Publications’, In Progress, 2 (2012) <http://inprogressjournal.net/inprogressjournal.net/Developing_Professionally.html>.

FORUM has also been a wholly online and open-access journal since its inception in 2005. 

Getting Involved with FORUM

FORUM is proud to be run by postgraduate students from the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh.

If you are not already involved and would like to be then here is how to become a member of the FORUM Journal team!

Sign up now by emailing us at editors@forumjournal.org - once you've confirmed your email address, you'll be added to our reviewers mailing list and receive information about future meetings, socials and editorial opportunities. You can also keep up to date with meetings, socials, training sessions and other Edinburgh-based FORUM events on our facebook page.

We'll be delighted to answer your questions and are happy to hear from anyone interested in working on FORUM. 

Peer Review Workshop 2012 with Dr Frauke Matthes

Why join FORUM?

FORUM is a well respected peer-reviewed on-line journal. We take a multi-disciplinary approach to the realm of arts and culture and consider contributions from across the spectrum of the humanities. Published biannually, each edition focuses on a selected theme, provoking discussion and debate whilst maintaining an overall coherency. FORUM provides a platform for the exchange of intellectual ideas, encouraging postgraduate participation in contemporary critical debates.

What's involved?

Initially, you can become a Reviewer and provide feedback on submitted articles; this is the crucial peer-review element of the journal. You can also go further than this and serve as an Article Editor. This involves liaising with the author in order to advise on changes that may be needed to make their paper publishable.

If you are particularly keen, you may wish to act as an Issue Co-Editor. Co-Editors write the call for papers, publicise FORUM, contact senior scholars specialising in the issue theme for guest articles, and organise the process of reviewing and creating the journal. 

FORUM has also recently set up the new roles of Social Media Manager and Treasurer.

If you are interested in any of these roles please do get in touch with the co-editors for further information. 

All these roles impart quality experience of academic publishing and look good on your CV. But more than that, FORUM makes you part of a team, bringing a social side to research life. 

FORUM is a student-led, peer-reviewed, Open Access journal. All content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, unless otherwise stated. There are no fees to access or publish in the journal.

 

Aims & Scope

FORUM is a peer-reviewed journal for postgraduate students working in culture and the arts. Our objective is to create and foster a network for the exchange and circulation of ideas. The journal's interdisciplinary approach encourages contributions from across the spectrum of the arts and humanities. Each edition focuses on a selected theme, provoking discussion and debate whilst maintaining an overall thematic coherency. FORUM's objective is to provide a platform for the exchange of intellectual ideas, encouraging postgraduate participation in contemporary critical debates; our student-led team works to foster a network for the exchange and circulation of ideas within the wider postgraduate community. We seek submissions that take innovative approaches and challenge the boundaries of conventional disciplines.

 

Publication Frequency

FORUM publishes one issue per year. Each edition focuses on a selected theme. Special issues are occasionally published in addition; these are linked to FORUM conferences. 

 

Journal Policies

Please see the Journal Policy page for information on preservation, copyright, licensing, open access, permissions, and privacy.

 

Indexing

FORUM is indexed in the following databases: