Logging On

Cheryl E. Ball and Beth L. Hewett, Co-Editors

In this issue, the Topoi section of Kairos is pleased to showcase two webtexts about digital scholarship, which connect to the Praxis section’s theme on tools for composing digital scholarship and the inaugural publication of the Inventio section, the aim of which is to highlight the intellectual labor of composing and reading scholarly webtexts. It’s a meta-theme on digital scholarship IN digital scholarship for this issue!

Topoi 12.1 Overview

In Topoi, we are pleased to be (re-)presenting a text that was originally published as part of a 2003 multi-journal special issue on digital publishing. Steve Krause’s webtext, “’Where Do I List This on My CV?’ Considering the Values of Self-Published Web Sites,” was included in that issue as a selection from CCC Online. Since that time, CCC Online changed formats, and the link from the special issue became an ironic 404. But because Krause’s piece was one of the first online scholarly texts to discuss the issue of self-publication on the web, the editors of Kairos asked Krause if we could republish it, including some updates that would address changes in web publication (such as blogs) that have occurred since he wrote his original text in 2002. We are grateful that he agreed and grateful to Collin Brooke and CCC Online for allowing us to reprint the piece here. We also owe a big thanks to Topoi Assistant Editor Mike Edwards for working so closely with Krause to ready his text for this issue as well as for designing a logo for the Topoi section that corresponded with our digital scholarship emphasis.

As a counterpart to Krause's text, Allison Warner's "Constructing a Tool for Assessing Scholarly Webtexts" presents the author's process of making a tool for assessing the scholarly value of online journal publications. Warner argues that in order to understand more fully how an online text can be recognized and valued for its scholarly legitimacy, it is crucial to explore the nature of peer-reviewed, online scholarship. The assessment tool presented in this webtext is comprised of questions that help to reveal commonalities and deviations in the function and value of traditional scholarly conventions toward defining an emerging genre of online scholarship.

We are honored that Warner’s study uses Kairos webtexts as data; her study serves as an example of the kind of research that responds to our resolution in 11.2 "to find ways to help readers interpret the kinds of cutting-edge texts that Kairos has and will continue to publish." Warner’s webtext is part of a larger study that investigates the scholarly nature of online texts toward facilitating their acceptance within English Studies as evidence of scholarship for professional advancement purposes--in other words, for tenure, promotion, and review (TPR). It is critical to all scholars in rhetoric, composition, and technology studies that their works have measurable and tested ways of being evaluated for TPR purposes.

In Other News

Warner's and Krause’s texts dovetail nicely with the launch of Inventio, the journal’s new section. As Madeleine Sorapure and Karl Stolley write in their introduction, “Inventio focuses on the decisions, contexts, and contributions that have constituted a particular webtext. As we envision it, Inventio authors will be able to include, alongside or integrated with their finished webtexts, materials that help them articulate how and why their work came into being….The overall goal of Inventio—which is also a key goal of Kairos—is to advance the composition and appreciation of smart, insightful, scholarly webtexts.” We hope you are as excited about this new section as we are, and moreover that you will contribute to it.

Speaking of contributions: We want to bring your attention to another logo contest the journal is sponsoring. We want your logo designs, and you can read more about the contest and submission guidelines in the CommLink announcement column. The deadline for logo submissions is November 1, 2007.

If a logo design contest doesn’t suit you, then tell us what does! Kairos is seeking contributions for a special issue of manifestos, to run next May. We are pleased that Scott Lloyd DeWitt is serving as a guest editor for that issue. See the call for manifestos for more information on submitting. The deadline is September 15, 2007.

And, as always, the Topoi section of the journal has an open call for full-length, scholarly webtexts on any topic. Check out our submission guidelines and query the editors if you have questions or want to run submission ideas by us. We are always eager to talk with potential authors!

This issue also features CFPs for an edited collection on rural literacies and individual presentations for the Qualitiative Research Network at the CCCCs.

Finally, the journal would like to announce several staff changes. We say a sad farewell to Gail Corso (Reviews Co-Editor), Tony Atkins (Communications Co-Editor), and Colleen Reilly and Joyce Walker (Praxis Co-Editors). We are grateful to these long-time section editors who have helped make Kairos a wonderful journal to work for and to read, and we wish them the best of luck in their new endeavors! Joyce will stay on through the next issue to train the new Praxis Co-Editors, Envera Dukaj and Alex Reid, whom we welcome heartily. We also say a warm howdy to Deb Morton, who is joining us as Communications Co-Editor. We hope that our readers send good wishes to both outgoing and incoming editors the next time you see them (virtually or f2f).

Best,

Cheryl Ball and Beth Hewett

Vol. 12 Iss. 1 Fall 2007