Journal Committee

  • Campagne d’adhésion d’avril: Pleins feux sur Oeuvres et Cultures Transformatives

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Monday, 7 April 2014 - 6:03pm
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    Tremplin – Organisation d’oeuvres transformatives – Campagne d’adhésion – du 3 au 9 avril

    Qu’est-ce qui vous enthousiasme des études académiques du fandom?

    “Ce qui m’enthousiasme,” dit Karen Hellekson en 2008: "une revue académique qui accueille, au lieu de rejeter ou moquer ouvertement les études aficionados en tant que sujet... qui prend pour acquis la notion que les fans contribuent quelque chose de grande valeur à notre culture, ce qui devrait être analysé.”

    Cette revue est Oeuvres et Cultures Transformatives (OCT): gérée, révisée, modifiée et soutenue par des membres de l’OTW et des fans comme vous.

    OCT est une revue avec des contributions de spécialistes des études aficionados au niveau international. Editée par Hellekson et Kristina Busse, l’OCT a produit 15 éditions à présent, où figurent des contributions fascinantes au sujet des fanvidéos, des activités laborieuses des fans (organisation de conférences, administration de sites, etc.), et même Supernatural.

    Voici une deuxième raison pour vous enthousiasmer: l’OCT est entièrement gratuite et l’a toujours été. Les revues académiques sont traditionnellement réservées à ceux qui sont affiliés à des universités. Souvent, on doit payer de US$30 à $45 pour avoir accès à un seul article. Mais la notre est une revue Open Access Gold exclusivement en ligne: l’accès est gratuite pour les lecteurs. De plus, notre license Creative Commons donne le droit à n’importe qui d’imprimer les essais gratuitement. Ce sont les principes essentiels de l’OCT, permettant son but de connecter le monde académique avec les fans à travers une communauté et de l’accessibilité. C’est pour cela que la revue possède un espace non-académique ouvert au fans pour se joindre à la conversation, à travers la section Symposium dans chaque édition.

    En 2013, la OCT a obtenu plus de visibilité et une meilleure position dans l’académie pour ses articles. Hellekson a dit que “c’est une grande victoire pour l’OCT et une reconnaissance de la haute qualité des travaux que l’on publie,” ainsi qu’un très bon signe pour l’académie en ligne.

    Récemment, les éditeurs Hellekson et Busse ont travaillé sur la création d’un volume indépendant de la revue qui rassemblerait plusieurs des textes fondateurs de l’académie au sujet du fandom. Toutes les redevances du Recueil des études des Fan Fictions (The Fan Fiction Studies Reader) vont directement à l’OTW!

    Alors, qu’est-ce qui suit? L’équipe de l’OCT maintient son bon travail - l’édition 16 est déjà prête, avec la numéro 17 en route - et envisage de s’étendre dans d’autres domaines des études aficionados, qui incluraient plus de fandoms non-occidentaux et non-médiatiques, tels que les fandoms de musique ou de sport, ainsi de d’“expérimenter avec de nouvelles formes de l’académie numérique.”

    Vous apporter l’OCT est un parcours tenace. Les éditeurs, l’équipe, et les spécialistes travaillent surtout en coulisse: solicitant des essais de haute qualité, les révisant, et publiant chaque édition à l’heure, révisée et composée à la perfection. Pour la communauté OCT, chaque édition est un monument, le produit de centaines d’heures de travaux académiques réflexifs et absorbants.

    Si vous êtes aussi enthousiasmés, considérez soutenir les études aficionados de libre accès et de haute qualité de l’OCT — s’il vous plaît contribuez aujourd’hui!

     

  • Huhtikuun jäsenhankintakampanja: valokeilassa Transformative Works and Cultures (Transformatiiviset teokset ja kulttuurit)

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Monday, 7 April 2014 - 6:01pm
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    Askel askeleelta – Transformatiivisten teosten järjestö – Jäsenhankintakampanja – 3. - 9. huhtikuuta

    Mistä sinä innostut fandomien akateemisessa tutkimuksessa?

    "Olen todella innoissani siitä," sanoi Karen Hellekson vuonna 2008, "että meillä on tieteellinen julkaisu, joka torjunnan tai pilkan sijaan toivottaa tervetulleeksi faniuden tutkimukseen keskittyvän työn … ja oletusarvoisesti katsoo, että faniuden kulttuuriimme tuoma lisä on tutkimuksen arvoista."

    Helleksonin mainitsema julkaisu on Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC). Sen vertaisarvioinnista, toimituksesta ja tukemisesta pitävät huolen OTW:n jäsenet ja sinunlaisesi fanit.

    TWC:hen ovat kirjoittaneet fanitutkimuksen akateemikot ympäri maailman. Julkaisusta on tähän mennessä ilmestynyt 15 numeroa, jotka Karen Hellekson ja Kristina Brusse ovat toimittaneet ja joiden sisältö on keskittynyt moniin kiehtoviin aiheisiin fanivideoista fanien työpanokseen ja Supernatural-sarjaan.

    Tässä toinen syy innostua: TWC on ollut ensimmäisestä numerostaan asti lukijoilleen täysin ilmainen. Perinteisesti tieteelliset julkaisut ovat olleet vapaasti saatavilla vain ihmisille, joilla on yhteyksiä yliopistoon, ja muiden on täytynyt maksaa 30-45 Yhdysvaltain dollaria saadakseen yhden ainoan artikkelin luettavakseen. Meidän julkaisumme on kuitenkin vain internetissä ilmestyvä Open Access Gold -julkaisu, mikä tarkoittaa, että se on lukijoiden vapaasti saatavilla ja luettavissa. Lisäksi Creative Commons -lisenssimme takaa, että kuka tahansa saa vapaasti jakaa julkaisun artikkeleita eteenpäin. Nämä ovat TWC:n perusperiaatteita, joiden avulla TWC saattaa yhteen akateemikkoja ja faneja yhteisöllisyyden ja avoimuuden kautta. Tästä syystä julkaisun jokaisessa numerossa on Symposium, ns. avoin palsta ei-akateemisille faneille, jolla he voivat jakaa mielipiteensä.

    TWC sai artikkeliensa ansiosta enemmän näkyvyyttä ja tukevamman jalansijan akateemisessa yhteisössä vuonna 2013. Hellekson kutsui muutosta "suureksi voitoksi TWC:lle ja hatunnostoksi julkaistujen tekstien laadukkuudelle" ja sanoi sen olevan hyvä merkki verkossa toimivan akateemisen yhteisön kannalta.

    Hellekson ja Busse toimittivat hiljattain kattavan teoksen fandomia käsittelevien akateemisten tekstien kulmakivistä. Kaikki tulot The Fan Fiction Studies Reader -kokoelmasta menevät suoraan OTW:n hyväksi!

    Mitä seuraavaksi? TWC:n vetäjät jatkavat hyvää työtään - numero 16 on jo valmiina ja 17 pitkälti työn alla - ja aikovat levittäytyä muihin fanitieteen alueisiin mm. urheilu- ja musiikkifandomeihin länsimaiden ja median ulkopuolelle sekä "tehdä kokeita digitaalisen tieteen uusien muotojen löytämiseksi".

    Matka TWC:n tuomiseksi sinun ulottuvillesi vaatii sisua. Toimitus, tiimin jäsenet ja akateemikot tekevät suurimman osan työstään kulisseissa, missä he pyytävät ihmisiltä tasokkaita artikkeleita, vertaisarvioivat ne ja lopulta saattavat jokaisen ammattimaisesti oikoluetun ja taitetun numeron ulos aikataulussa. TWC:n yhteisölle julkaisun jokainen yksittäinen numero on saavutus, koska se on satojen intensiivisten, pohdintaa herättävien työtuntien tulos.

    Jos sinäkin innostuit, harkitse TWC:n korkealaatuisen ja vapaasti saatavilla olevan akateemisen fanitutkimuksen tukemista—ja lahjoita tänään!

     

  • Ledenwervingscampagne April: Schijnwerpers op Transformatieve Werken en Culturen

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Monday, 7 April 2014 - 6:00pm
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    Stap voor Stap – Organisatie voor Transformatieve Werken – Ledenwervingscampagne – 3-9 april

    Wat maakt jou opgewonden over academische studies in/over fandom?

    “Dit is waar ik opgewonden over ben:” zei Karen Hellekson in 2008, “een academisch tijdschrift dat fanstudies als onderwerp verwelkomt, in plaats van weigert of openlijk bespot… dat het idee dat fans iets waardevols aan onze cultuur leveren wat behoort te worden geanalyseerd, als iets logisch ziet.”

    Dat tijdschrift is Transformatieve Werken en Culturen (TWC): geleid, getoetst, bewerkt en gesteund door OTW-leden en fans zoals jij.

    TWC is een tijdschrift met bijdragen van fanstudiewetenschappers uit de hele wereld. Het wordt uitgegeven door Hellekson en Kristina Busse en heeft tot nu toe 15 nummers, opgeleverd, met fascinerende contributies over onderwerpen uiteenlopend van fanvids tot fanarbeid tot Supernatural.

    Hier is nog een reden om opgewonden te worden: TWC is vrij toegankelijk en gratis voor iedereen, en is dat al vanaf het begin. Academische tijdschriften zijn over het algemeen afgesloten en alleen beschikbaar voor mensen met connecties aan een universiteit. Vaak moet je US$30 tot $45 betalen voor toegang tot een enkel artikel. Maar dat van ons is een online-only Open Access Gold-tijdschrift: gratis voor de lezers. Bovendien zorgt onze Creative Commons-licentie ervoor dat iedereen de essays gratis mag kopiëren. Dit zijn de basisprincipes van TWC, die helpen het doel - het verbinden van academici en fans door gemeenschap en toegankelijkheid - te bereiken. Dat is waarom het tijdschrift ook ruimte heeft voor inbreng van niet-academische fans, door middel van de sectie Symposium in iedere uitgave.

    In 2013 verwierf TWC een bredere bekendheid en hogere academische status voor de artikelen. Hellekson noemde dit “een groot gewin voor TWC en een bevestiging van de hoge kwaliteit van het werk dat we uitgeven,” alsook een goed teken voor online academia.

    Recentelijk werkten redacteuren Hellekson en Busse ook aan het samenstellen van een boek dat een aantal fundamentele academische teksten over fandom bundelt. Alle royalties van De Syllabus van Fanfictiestudies (The Fan Fiction Studies Reader) gaan rechtstreeks naar de OTW!

    Wat volgt? De staf van TWC gaat door met haar goede werk - uitgave 16 staat al klaar, en 17 is goed op weg - , is van plan uit te breiden naar andere gebieden binnen het fanonderzoek, zoals niet-Westerse en niet-media fandoms als sport en muziek, en “te experimenteren met nieuwe vormen van digitale wetenschap.”

    TWC naar jou brengen is een moeilijke reis. De redacteuren, teamleden en wetenschappers werken vooral achter de schermen: ze zoeken essays van hoge kwaliteit, toetsen ze, en zorgen ervoor dat iedere uitgave op tijd de deur uit gaat, vakkundig gemonteerd en gezet. Voor de TWC-gemeenschap is iedere uitgave is een mijlpaal, het product van honderden uren van fascinerend en tot nadenken stemmend academisch werk.

    Als jij ook enthousiast bent, overweeg dan TWC’s hoogwaardige, vrij toegankelijke wetenschap te ondersteunen - doneer vandaag!

     

  • 四月会员招募:聚焦衍生作品和文化

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Monday, 7 April 2014 - 5:57pm
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    进身之阶:4月3-9日OTW再创作组织会员招募

    是什么让你对同人圈的学术性研究感到兴奋?

    “这就是让我感到兴奋的地方了,” Karen Hellekson在2008年时说道, “比起抵制和过分的嘲讽,一本更加认同将同人研究作为话题学术期刊……这就像是给定了一个概念,认为同人爱好者为我们的文化做出的贡献值得被剖析。”

    这份期刊就是衍生作品和文化 (以下简称为TWC):由同你一般的OTW再创作组织成员进行运营,同行审阅,编辑和支持。

    TWC是一份汇聚全球同人研究学者们投稿的刊物。由Hellekson与Kristina Busse编辑,TWC至今已经出版了15期,特别收集了一些相关于同人视频同人工作邪恶力量等话题的令人着迷的稿件。

    这里还有另外一个令人兴奋的理由:TWC从一开始就是完全免费面向公众的。传统的学术期刊以大学背景的人群为受众。在通常情况下,阅读一篇文章就需要支付30到45美金。但我们是一本仅有在线模式的公开期刊:读者可以免费访问我们的文章。另外,我们的“知识共享”版权允许任何人免费再版我们的文章。附在TWC的版面后的基本原则,实现了让研究者与同人爱好者通过社区与资料库紧密连接在一起的目标。因此,这份期刊在每期的讨论会环节上为非学术性爱好者设立了一个开放的平台,让他们能够加入讨论。

    在2013年,TWC因其文章得到了更多的关注与更高的学术地位。 Hellekson将其称为“TWC的一次大胜利与对于我们高质量的出版物的认同”,这也是在线学术环境的一种好兆头。

    最近,编辑Hellekson和Busses也在筹划一本收录关于同人圈的基础学术性文章的文本。所有的从同人小说研究读者 获得的版税收入将直接捐给OTW再创作组织!

    所以,接下来的是?TWC员工正继续进行着着他们优秀的工作——第16期期刊已经完工,而第17期已经在筹划中——并且计划将内容延伸到同人学术的其他领域中。其中将包括更多的非西方和非影视同人,例如体育与音乐同人,还有“体验数字学术的新形式”。

    要将TWC带到你眼前是一个需要坚韧不拔的过程。编辑,团队成员和的学者们在屏幕后进行着大多数的工作:征求高质量的文章,审阅它们,准时地出版每一期期刊,熟练地编辑和排版。对于TWC社区来说,每一期期刊都是一个里程碑,是数百小时的全神贯注的结晶,是可以发人深省的学术著作。

    如果你也同样的为此感到兴奋,考虑支持TWC的高质量、开放获取的同人学术成就——请点击现在就进行捐赠

     

  • حملة شهر أبريل للعضوية: إلقاء الضوء على مشروع الأعمال و الثقافات التحويلية (Transformative Works and Cultures)

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Monday, 7 April 2014 - 5:55pm
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    المُرتكزات - حملة مُنظمة الأعمال التحويلية للعضوية - ٣-٩ أبريل

    ماذا يُثير حماسك حول الدراسات الأكاديمية في الفاندوم؟

    "هذا ما يُثير حماسي،" قالتها كارين هيلكسون عام ٢٠٠٨: "مجلة أكاديمية ترُحب، بدلاً من أن ترفض أو تسخر علناً، دراسات عن المُعجبين كموضوع … تقبل فكرة أن المُعجبين يقومون بتقديم شيء قيم لثقافتنا يجب أن يتم تحليله كأمر مُسلم به."

    هذه المجلة هيالأعمال و الثقافات التحويلية (TWC): يقوم بتشغيلها، مُراجعتها، تحريرها، و دعمها أعضاء OTW و مُعجبين مثلك.

    TWC هي مجلة قائمة على مشاركات من علماء الدراسات عن المُعجبين حول العالم. يقوم بتحريرها هيلكسون و كريستينا بوس. لقد قامت بإنتاج ١٥ عدد حتى الآن، متضمناً مشاركات رائعة في مواضيع تتراوح من فيديوهات المُعجبين إلى جهد المُعجبين إلى سوبرنتشرل (Supernatural).

    هناك سبب أخر لإثارة حماستك: TWC هي مجلة مجانية للجميع، و كانت منذ بدايتها. المجلات الأكاديمية غالباً ما يكون الوصول لها منحصر على ذوي الإنتماءات الجامعية. و غالباً عليك أن تدفع ما يتراوح بين ٣٠ دولار و ٤٥ دولار لتستطيع الوصول لمقال واحد. و لكن مجلتنا هي مجلة أونلاين فقط و تم نشرها وفقاً لمعايير الوصول المفتوح الذهبي (Open Access Gold): مجانية للقراء من نقطة الوصول. و بالإضافة إلى ذلك، مبدأ المشاع الإبداعي (Creative Commons) لحقوق النشر و التأليف لدينا يسمح لأي شخص بإعادة طباعة المقالات مجاناً. هذه هي المبادئ الأساسية التي تعمل بها TWC لتتمكن من تحقيق هدفها في ربط الأكاديمين و المُعجبين عن طريق الإتاحة و المجتمع. لهذا السبب المجلة لديها مكان مفتوح للمُعجبين الغير أكاديمين للتفاعل، من خلال قسم المنقاشة في كل عدد.

    في ٢٠١٣، TWC تمكنت من الحصول على تعرض أوسع و مكانة أكاديمية أكبر لمقالاتها. قالت هيلكسون إن هذا هو "مكسب كبير ل TWC و إعتراف بالجودة العالية للأعمال التي ننشرها" و أيضاً إشارة جيدة للأوساط الأكاديمية على الإنترنت.

    مؤخراً، المحررون هيلكسون و بوس قامتا بتجميع مجلد يجمع عدة نصوص أكاديمية تأسيسية عن الفاندوم. كل الاتاوات من مختارات من الدراسات عن المُعجبين (The Fan Fiction Studies Reader) تذهب مباشرة ل OTW!

    ما هي الخطوة التالية؟ ما زال يعمل بجد طاقم TWC — لقد قاموا بالفعل بالإنتهاء من ١٦ عدد، و العدد رقم ١٧ في الطريق — و يخططون لتوسيع نشاطاتهم إلى مجالات أخرى من الدراسات عن المُعجبين، متضمنةً المزيد من الفاندومس الغير غربية والتي لا تخُص الميديا مثل الرياضة و الموسيقى، و "إختبار أشكال جديدة من الدراسات الرقمية."

    رحلة جلب TWC لكم هي رحلة محفوفة بالصعاب. المحررون، أفراد الفريق، و الدارسين يعملون عموماً خلف الكواليس: لإلتماس مقالات عالية الجودة، مُراجعتها من قبل الأقران، و إخراج كل عدد في وقته، بعد أن تم تنقيحه و طباعته بخبرة. في مجتمع TWC، كل عدد هو مَعلم، نتاج مئات ساعات من العمل الأكاديمي يستحوذ و يثير التفكير.

    إذا كنت مُتحمساً، أيضاً، فقم بالتفكير في دعم عمل TWC في الدراسات عالية الجودة و المفتوحة الوصول عن المُعجبين — من فضلك قم بالتبرُع اليوم!

  • April Membership Drive: Spotlight on Transformative Works and Cultures

    By Priscilla Del Cima on Monday, 7 April 2014 - 5:52pm
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    Stepping Stones: Organization for Transformative Works Membership Drive, April 3-9

    What gets you excited about academic studies in fandom?

    "Here's what I'm excited about," said Karen Hellekson in 2008: "an academic journal that welcomes, instead of rejects or overtly mocks, fan studies as a topic ... that takes as a given the notion that fans provide something valuable to our culture that ought to be analyzed."

    That journal is Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC): run, peer-reviewed, edited, and supported by OTW members and fans like you.

    TWC is a journal with contributions from fan studies scholars all over the world. Edited by Hellekson and Kristina Busse, TWC has produced 15 issues so far, featuring fascinating contributions in topics ranging from fanvids to fan labor to Supernatural.

    Here's another reason to get excited: TWC is completely free to the public, and has been from the beginning. Academic journals are traditionally locked to people with university affiliations. Often you have to pay US$30 to $45 for access to a single article. But ours is an online-only Open Access Gold journal: free for the readers at the point of access. Plus, our Creative Commons copyright lets anyone reprint the essays for free. These are essential principles behind TWC, enabling its goal of connecting academics and fans through community and accessibility. That's why the journal also has an open space for non-academic fans to chime in, through the Symposium section in every issue.

    In 2013, TWC obtained wider visibility and greater academic standing for its articles. Hellekson called this "a big win for TWC and an acknowledgment of the high quality of the work we publish," as well as a good sign for online academia.

    Recently, editors Hellekson and Busse also worked on getting together a volume collecting a number of foundational academic texts about fandom. All royalties from The Fan Fiction Studies Reader go straight to the OTW!

    So what's next? TWC staff is keeping up the good work—issue 16 is already locked, with 17 well on the way—and planning to branch out into other areas of fan scholarship, including more non-Western and nonmedia fandoms like sports and music fandoms, and to "experiment with new forms of digital scholarship."

    Bringing TWC to you is a tenacious journey. The editors, team members, and scholars mostly work behind the scenes: soliciting high-quality essays, peer-reviewing them, and getting out every issue on time, expertly copyedited and typeset. For the TWC community, every issue is a landmark, the product of hundreds of hours of absorbing, thought-provoking academic work.

    If you're excited, too, consider supporting TWC's high-quality, open-access fan scholarship — please donate today!

     

  • OTW Produces Fan Fiction Studies Reader

    By Claudia Rebaza on Tuesday, 25 February 2014 - 9:39pm
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    Banner by Diane with the outlines of a man and woman speaking with word bubbles, one of which has the OTW logo and the other which says 'OTW Announcement'

    The OTW is proud to announce the release of The Fan Fiction Studies Reader. The brainchild of Transformative Works and Cultures editors Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, the reader is a reprint collection of many key works in the field of fan studies. The Reader is intended for classroom use, but it will also be of interest to people in the field of fan studies.

    All royalties for The Fan Fiction Studies Reader will go to the OTW. The OTW supported the project by paying fees for the essays' reprint rights. (In the case of many such anthologies, these payments are provided by the academic institutions that employ the editors.) Karen and Kristina have written a general introduction as well as brief overviews for each of the book's four sections. Because of their interest in open access publishing, Karen and Kristina have placed their introduction and the headnotes in the public domain, effective in 10 years' time.

    The essays, which are organized into four thematic sections, address fan-created works as literary artifacts; the relationship between fandom, identity, and feminism; fandom and affect; and the role of creativity and performance in fan activities. Fan works, considered as literary artifacts, pose important questions about the nature of authorship, the meaning of originality, and modes of transmission.

    The Fan Fiction Studies Reader is part of the University of Iowa's newly launched fan studies line. Their university libraries' special collections department also works with the OTW's Fan Culture Preservation Project, which preserves fanzines and other nondigital forms of fan culture.

  • October Membership Drive: Support for open-access fan scholarship

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 6:33pm
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    The following post was written by Lesann, a staffer in our Development & Membership Committee

    Twice a year, during drive time, OTW does its best to remind supporters and (hopefully) future supporters of what the organization is working on, how it is cutting edge and important. In order to do this, staffers in OTW interview the heads of different OTW projects. This time, I had the privilege of speaking with the editors of Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), the OTW's academic journal.

    In one of our emails back and forth, content editor Kristina Busse said, "we really just do our work to bring out 3 full journals with 5-10 full peer reviewed essays, 5-10 symposium pieces, and a couple of book reviews on average each." It struck me, upon reading this tongue-in-cheek comment just how much volunteer work that means for herself and the entire journal team.

    Three full journal issues a year, with five to ten peer reviewed essays each, would be no small feat even in an academically supported environment, where a university press is supporting the process and there is a built-in community of available peer-reviewers. What the team for TWC manages, is to overcome the lack of established academic infrastructure and consistently provide a respected journal of superlative quality. That is huge.

    Like the OTW's other projects, TWC is free to everyone. There is no requirement of subscription, payment, or any type of contribution to consume the journal pieces, and perhaps even transform aspects of them. Like all OTW volunteers, everyone who works for the journal contributes their time and skills for free: from the editorial staff and production staff to the academic peer reviewers, who assure the journal’s reputation within the field.

    An academic journal that is free to any and all readers is a rare thing. To give some idea of how valuable a resource TWC is, a similar academic journal on fan studies charges individual subscribers $105 USD a year, a typical price for a 12-month subscription to a peer-reviewed journal in the field. Libraries also benefit by having TWC as a part of their holdings (but not an additional cost in their journal budget).

    Even with all the hours of donated time, there are some financial costs associated with producing TWC. In an earlier post we mentioned the Web hosting costs for the server that houses the journal. Because TWC is online only, it also requires a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for each of its articles. Editor Karen Hellekson describes DOIs as "insurance against switching infrastructures." A DOI, as explained by the MIT library site, "identifies an individual article (like a serial number) such that a permanent URL can be created." In other words, should TWC ever need to move to a new online platform, having a DOI subscription will save hours upon hours of volunteer time, as well as prevent interested readers from being unable to find the content they seek. The OTW pays an annual subscription fee of $275 for this service, plus a $1 fee for the DOI of each individual journal article.

    Transformative Works and Cultures strives to provide fresh and thought-provoking material for fans and non-fans alike. The next two issues, scheduled for March and June 2014, will focus on fan labor and fan materiality, respectively — both topics to which many fans can relate.

    To help support the production of original, open-access fan scholarship, please consider making a donation today. Thank you!

  • Transfomative Works and Cultures releases No. 14

    By Claudia Rebaza on Sunday, 15 September 2013 - 8:41pm
    Message type:

    Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) today released general issue No. 14. The Open Access Gold online multimedia journal has collected scholarly essays, personal essays, and book reviews that seek to bridge fan and academic writers and readers. TWC is published under the umbrella of the nonprofit fan advocacy group Organization for Transformative Works.

    This issue will celebrate the anniversary of TWC’s founding issue in September 2008. Looking over their five years, general editors Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson describe how the journal has expanded in focus and responded to changes within fan cultures and fan studies alike. They describe how how the issue “indicates our own expansion to include ever-wider arenas in which fans engage even as we remain focused on the communities and activities that gave rise to this discipline and to this journal in the first place.”

    The essays in this issue range from the past to the future, from focus on specific fan engagements and fandoms to general Internet structures and linguistics. Juli J. Parrish's "Metaphors We Read By: People, Process, and Fan Fiction" and Simon Lindgren’s "Sub*culture: Exploring the Dynamics of a Networked Public" looks for useful model to describe fan communities while Craig Norris and Lori Hitchcock Morimoto look at international media reception and fan tourism. Finally, Emily Regan Wills and Kevin Veale study particular aspects of large fandoms, The X-Files and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic respectively. In all the essays, the relationships among fans, fandom, and the fannish objects are central as is the awareness of geographic and temporal differences.

    The Symposium section allows fans and academics to offer shorter ideas and readings. Here the journal offers two personal responses: Whitney Philips describes her enjoyment and investment in Troll 2 and Shannon K. Farley looks over her personal scholarly history to establish the connection between fan fiction and translation studies. Mel Stanfill and Katherine E. Morrissey address recent fannish debates, especially in the wake of the Kindle Worlds announcement, to discuss the role of artistic and communal ownership and the definitions of fan and fan works themselves.

    The issue concludes with the reviews of three important books, Accordingly, we include in this issue Melissa Click's review of Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green's Spreadable Media, Josh Johnson's review of Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi’s Reclaiming Fair Use, and Amanda Retartha's review of Anne Morey's important Twilight collection Genre, Reception, and Adaption in the Twilight Series.

    For 2014, TWC has planned two themed issues, "Fandom and/as Labor" (guest edited by Mel Stanfill and Megan Condis) and "Materiality and Object-Oriented Fandom" (guest edited by Bob Rehak), as well as No. 17, a general nonthemed issue slated to appear September 15, 2014.

  • Become a peer reviewer for TWC!

    By Claudia Rebaza on Sunday, 28 July 2013 - 5:40pm
    Message type:

    Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), the OTW's scholarly journal, is looking to expand its pool of volunteer reviewers, especially for our Symposium section. If you are interested in peer reviewing for TWC, please come over to the site, sign up, and create a profile as Reviewer.

    While we tend to solicit peer reviewers for the full essays from within academia (and fan studies scholars specifically), pretty much any fan who loves meta is a good match for a potential Symposium reader. So we want to spread the word and the work :)

    You'll be asked to fill out some information (such as uni affiliation if applicable), but, most importantly, there's a field in the software where you input your interests and expertise.

    Once you've created a reviewer account, please e-mail us to tell us who you are, how you found us, and what you are specifically interested in. We use the journal's database to find reviewers, but it is often easier when we have spoken to reviewers already and know a bit about them. Then we'll contact you when a manuscript comes in that fits your expertise, and ask if you can review it.

    If you have any questions about reviewing; if you want to know more about submitting essays, Symposium pieces, or book reviews; or if you there's something specific you want to know about TWC, please feel free to contact us by emailing editor (at) transformativeworks (dot) org. You may also want to take a look at the recent spotlight on TWC which discusses our production process.

    We look forward to having you join the Journal Team!

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