Publications Committee Notes

Chad Morris
Publications Committee Chair
Roanoke College

The Publications Committee is especially grateful this month for the editors, assistants, and SfAA staff who have kept Human Organization, Practicing Anthropology and SfAA News rolling despite the turbulence of recent months. Moreover, we’re grateful to the members who have submitted quality content so that we all may learn from the good work you’re doing. It has been natural to wonder about good times to submit articles given other disruptions to our schedules, but I’m pleased to share that now is a particularly good time to submit content. Practicing Anthropology, especially, is looking forward to receiving volunteered papers, suggestions for organized thematic issues, or creative pieces that highlight work done by our members and community or workplace partners. Now’s the perfect time to reach out to Lisa Jane Hardy (lisa.hardy@nau.edu) with your ideas. As always, each of our journals welcomes submissions from anthropologists and other applied social scientists across the globe and across domains of application. The submission portals and journal catalogues can be found here: https://www.appliedanthro.org/publications. If you haven’t checked out the most recent issues of HO (anthropological responses to COVID) and PA (writing as a form of practice and insights from anthropologists writing op-eds), you really should! 

While you’re perusing the website you may also wish to check out the recording of our “Rewards of Being a Journal/Newsletter Editor” webinar: https://www.appliedanthro.org/publications/rewards-being-journalnewsletter-editor-webinar. The event was well-attended and speakers provided rare insight into the publication process, both for those submitting articles and for those who aspire to editorship. Along those lines, our active search for the next editor/s of Human Organization is ongoing. I welcome all questions and expressions of interest. If you have thoughts about members who would make especially good editors, let me know that, too: cmorris@roanoke.edu. The new editorship will begin 1/1/23, and outgoing editors Nancy Romero-Daza and David Himmelgreen look forward to helping ease the transition. If you’re at all interested, let’s talk.

Finally this month, your Publications Committee continues to move forward with the process of envisioning a solid future for our Society’s publications. We have added an Advisory Group to our committee and appreciate their thoughtful feedback and ideas already. In the coming weeks all members will have the opportunity to provide some thoughts on our publication direction via survey. Please be open and candid in your responses, as they will help us better serve the membership and expand our reputation and scale as a society benefitting all practitioners of the applied social sciences. Have ideas or feedback to share with the committee? Feel encouraged to reach out: cmorris@roanoke.edu.