Call for Proposals: AEJMC Magazine Division Research Paper Co-Authorship Program for Practitioners and Research Faculty

In the disciplines of communication, experienced practitioners often find themselves in the academy for the first time, teaching courses in the things they know how to do best. In the case of Magazine Division members, that means they teach students how to make magazines.

But sometimes when these professors of practice come to the university, they find themselves thinking differently about the magazine industry. They ask questions about the practice of magazine making that might take a disciplined approach to answer. These faculty are capable of doing that research, of course, though occasionally they just don’t speak the language of academic research because nobody taught them how. At the same time, magazine researchers sometimes find themselves in a research rut. Maybe they have been out of the industry for enough time that they no longer feel connected, or maybe they just want fresh eyes to look through.

The AEJMC Magazine Division Research Paper Co-Authorship Program aims to bring together these professors of practice and the research-trained division members. The program will encourage them to produce scholarship that will meet the standards of academic research and provide experienced researchers with new avenues of investigation.

The first iteration of this program will pair a handful of professors of practice with research faculty interested in magazines, with a goal of presenting either finished work or work-in-progress at an invited research panel at the AEJMC 2015 conference in San Francisco. (We will also consider allowing early-career faculty and those looking for mentoring in new research methods to present proposals, though in the first year, preference will go to practitioners.)

The first stage of the process asks professors of practice to submit their ideas and research faculty to express their willingness to work with another faculty member. We envision a true collaboration, where each co-author brings his or her expertise to the process. If this project goes well, we hope to devote a special issue of The Journal of Magazine and New Media Research to the resulting research, perhaps with accompanying essays about the collaborative process.

For now though, we ask professors of practice to nominate themselves as potential participants and to send in their magazine research ideas. We also ask research-trained faculty willing to be research partners to submit their names and interests. All responses will be collected by the Executive Committee of the Magazine Division, and we will arrange the pairings.

To get started, complete the application form here. Applications are due by October 31, 2014. We will begin matching participants as soon as we have enough applications, and will contact all applicants no later than November 15, 2014.