Towards a History of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (1998-)
By Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek
<http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/totosycv.html>
1. The advantages of a peer-refereed, full-text, and public-access journal published online emerge from the observation that with the development of new media technology it is in the interest of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences to employ new media technology and online publishing. The internet and the world wide web are viable avenues to serve the dissemination and transfer of knowledge to the benefit of scholarship, the individual scholar, as well as the general public.
2. As associate director of the University of Alberta's Research Institute for Comparative Literature (RICL; see at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/riclhistory(1985-99).html>), in 1995 I built a home page for the Institute for information and research in comparative literature, including material such as an international directory of comparatists, various bibliographies, links, and a webpage of information about the University of Alberta Department of Comparative Literature. The RICL web site has been online on the server of the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts at (<http://www.ualberta.ca/ARTS/ricl.html>) from July 1995 to September 1998. In September 1998 I began with the organization of a peer-refereed free-access full-text journal in the humanities and social sciences published online and in March 1999 the new journal, CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal went online on the server of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Alberta at <//www.arts.ualberta.ca/clcwebjournal/>. Material available previously in the RICL website, such as the international directory of comparatists and various bibliographies, have been carried over into the Library of CLCWeb, now at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library.html>. Of note is that webpage of the University of Alberta Department of Comparative Literature on the RICL website preceded the webpage of the Department and that in February 1999 its material has been carried over into the official website of the Department, reconstituted as the Department of Comparative Literature, Religion, and Film/Media Studies at <http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/comparative_studies/>. Of note is also that since 1997 the the University of Alberta Department of Comparative Literature underwent several mergers and resurrections and that as of 2003 it ceased to exist as a department. It is now located -- as a component "comparative literature" -- within the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts as a Program of Interdisciplinary Studies.
3. In more detail, the background of CLCWeb is as follows. From 1989 to 1997, first as assistant later as associate director of RICL, my tasks included as assistant and later as associate editor the publication of the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée (CRCL/RCLC) and the publication of a monograph series published by RICL (for its list of books published, see <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/books.html>). In 1989, when appointed as assistant editor of CRCL/RCLC and at which time the publication of the journal has been three years late owing to the lack of funding, I converted the publication of the journal to the desktop mode using Wordperfect and bitstream fonts for camera-ready copy printed on a Hewlett-Packard laser printer (while under my editing and publishing the journal's publication was on time, four times a year). The expertise acquired during the years of publishing the journal from editing, the procedures and processes of evaluation of manuscripts, the journal's finances including its marketing and the writing of grant applications, the training of editorial assistants to the technical aspects of desktop publishing, etc., have proven invaluable and of benefit to both the CRCL/RCLC and myself. It is in this period -- the 1990s -- that new media technology allowed for much innovation in scholarly publishing such as the conversion of the CRCL/RCLC from traditional printing processes (expensive and cumbersome) to desktop publishing resulting in the reduction of the costs of the journal's publication by up to 80%. In addition, graduate students assigned to me to train in all aspects of the journal's publication gained marketable skills and from the several dozen editorial assistants over the years a good number found work in the publishing industry in Canada and elsewhere, part time and full time. By the mid-1990s the world wide web burst on the scene and in 1995 I placed material for work in comparative literature in the website of the Research Institute for Comparative Literature at <http://www.ualberta.ca/ARTS/ricl.html> (the website was active 1995 to 1998). In 1997 I left RICL and the CRCL/RCLC and decided to take advantage of new media technology and the web to start a new journal for work in comparative literature and comparative cultural studies. Further, my objective to publish a new journal was to create a forum whose intellectual direction would reflect my own interests where I combine tenets of the discipline of comparative literature with tenets of cultural studies. And last but not least, the founding of an online journal allow me to practice my commitment to the humanities where access to knowledge is free to anyone and anywhere with a computer and internet connection. Indeed, the publication of a peer-reviewed full-text online journal in the humanities in general and in comparative literature and comparative cultural studies in particular remains exceptional in that among the large number of journals in the humanities world wide there are less than a handful such published online in full-text and in public-access (for a list of journals in comparative literature, see <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/journals.html>; for a list of journals in culture and media studies, see <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/mediastudiesjournals.html>).
4. After consultation with colleagues in a number of countries, it became obvious that the launching of an online journal would make sense indeed and that such a journal would fill a gap on the landscape of scholarship in the humanities in culture understood broadly and including (comparative) literature, cultural studies, media and communications studies, and related disciplines. In consequence, an advisory board and associate editors group was struck, application for an ISSN number was processed with and obtained from the National Library of Canada (1481-4374), the listing, archiving, and mirroring of the new online journal with the National Library of Canada at <http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/e-coll-e/index-e.htm> -- in 2004 renamed Library and Archives Canada with the archive at <http://www.collectionscanada.ca/electroniccollection/> -- has been arranged, etc. After invitations to colleagues to participate in the launching of the journal with papers and after the evaluations and the editing process of the papers received, the first issue of CLCWeb was placed online in March 1999. The University of Alberta Faculty of Arts server provided the URL and the necessary server space for the web location of the journal. The University's Help Desk and the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts Technologies for Learning Centre (TLC) at <http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/TLC> provided occasional technical help for the journal and its functions such as the moderated listserv of CLCWeb.
5. The aims and scope of the journal include both established traditions of the discipline of comparative literature and current innovations in the humanities such as cultural studies, that is, the intellectual direction of the journal is holistic, pluralistic, and interdisciplinary. For the bases of the intellectual direction(s) of the journal, see Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "From Comparative Literature Today toward Comparative Cultural Studies," Comparative Literature and Comparative Cultural Studies. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2002. 235-67., Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "The New Knowledge Management: Online Research and Publishing in the Humanities" in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 3.1 (2001): <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb01-1/totosy01.html>, and Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "From Comparative Literature Today toward Comparative Cultural Studies" in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 1.3 (1999): <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb99-3/totosy99.html>. While work in and with contextual approaches for the study of literature and culture are favored and actively sought after, no submission is rejected a priori as long as the editor, the members of the advisory board / associate editors, and outside assessors determine, in blind peer review, the intellectual and scholarly value of a submission for publication: for the aims and scope of the journal in detail, link to <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/aims.html>, for procedures of publication go to <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/proced1.html>; for procedures of submission link to <htttp://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/proced2.html>; at Purdue University Press, the journal's description is at <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/journals/default.asp>. Briefly, CLCWeb is a scholarly journal in the humanities and social sciences in the fields of comparative literature, cultural studies, communication and media studies, culture and literary theory, interdisciplinary studies, and comparative cultural studies; it is peer reviewed; it is published quarterly by Purdue University Press <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/> and Purdue University Libraries <//www.lib.purdue.edu/> online in full text and in public access; annuals with selected papers from the year's work are published in the Purdue Series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies (see <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/series/compstudies.asp> & <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/ccs-purdue.html>). CLCWeb is archived in the Library and Archives Canada Electronic Collection (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) at <http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca>, it participates in the Stanford University LOCKSS preservation program of electronic publications <http://lockss.stanford.edu/>, and it is mirrored on website of the British Comparative Literature Association <//www.bcla.org/clcwebjournal/>. From March 1999 to April 2005, CLCWeb was also mirrored at and hosted by ICAAP: The International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication <http://www.icaap.org/> (Athabasca University); however, owing to the implementation of new technical requirements, ICAAP was unable to accept URLs of the journal with parentheses such as <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb01-2/biblio(americas).html> and thus the journal's participation in the ICAAP program became no longer possible. CLCWeb is member of the US-based Council of Editors of Learned Journals <http://www.celj.org/> and it is listed with and linked to in DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals <//www.doaj.org/>. Publications in CLCWeb are indexed in the annual International Bibliography of the MLA: Modern Language Association of America (online, CD-ROM, and hard-copy) <http://www.mla.org>, in the Humanities Index <http://www.hwwilson.com>, and in the American Humanities Index <http://www.whitston.com>; the indexing of the journal's material in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index with ISI: Institute for Scientific Information <http://www.isinet.com/isi/> is pending. CLCWeb is listed and linked to electronic directories and in the pages of online resources of university libraries world wide.
6. In addition to papers and book review articles, the journal maintains a Library with bibliographies, selected research material and syllabi, an international directory of scholars in the field, a moderated listserv, etc., at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library.html>. The journal's structure of the advisory board / associate editors is non-traditional in that instead of the traditional two-tier structure where members of the advisory board include established scholars, "stars," of the field, that is, such members give renommee to the particular journal via the value of name recognition but are otherwise, in the rule, members of the advisory board are not involved with the journal, CLCWeb's structure of advisory board / associate editors is meant to work as a team -- a combination of renown and senior scholars as well as junior scholars -- whose members are involved in the assessment of work submitted for publication, in the solicitation of new work for publication, in the promotion of the journal, and generally in providing ongoing commentaries about the journal and all its functions. The journal's online history in web traffic statistics can be accessed at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/stats/index.html>.
7. During its inception in Canada, the set-up and start-up of CLCWeb including all technical aspects such as the design of its index page occurred without external or internal funding. Attempts have been made to obtain funding from Canada's SSHRC: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (new technology and learned journals program). However, the SSHRC insisted that CLCWeb, similar to the requirements for traditional hard-copy journals, must have 200 paid subscribers and the argument that the journal is online and in the mode of public access did not carry weight. And the argument of the high web traffic of the journal already with only two issues online or the argument to accept the "hits" on and "session use" of the journal's material in lieu of paid subscriptions as a demonstration of its use in the scholarly community did not persuade the SSHRC to consider funding. The University of Alberta Department of Comparative Literature considered the journal a "personal effort" and no financial support or support "in kind" such as graduate student assistantships were offered although the Department expressed intellectual and moral support for the journal. As far as the Department is concerned, the situation re the journal was deemed appropriate because the Department felt it would not be able to support two journals at the same time, i.e., the CRCL/RCLC housed in the Department and then the new CLCWeb.
8. By January 2000 following considerations of and plans for the development of CLCWeb and its legitimization in the world of scholarship, in cooperation with the journal's advisory board / associate editors possibilities were explored to relocate the journal from the Faculty of Arts at the Uiversity of Alberta to a university press. After several months of contacts, e-mail exchanges, and discussions with up to a dozen university presses and virtual libraries across North America and Europe, the editorial board of Purdue University Press <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/> approved the relocation to Purdue University and the publishing of CLCWeb by Purdue University Press <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/>. Purdue's decision is remarkable and far-sighted for several reasons. All other presses and even those who expressed avid interest to host and publish the journal ceased to be interested upon my insistence that the journal should remain in the mode of public access (presses interested initially suggested that the journal would have to be published in the paid-subscription mode). Purdue, on the other hand, accepted the argumentation that CLCWeb should remain in the public-access mode because of principles applicable to humanities scholarship such as social responsibility, the notion of the internet and the web as a democratic venue for the globalization of knowledge, scholarly communication, and knowledge transfer. Of course, the question of funding if all online journals were in the mode of public access is valid and an issue debated continuously. However, the argumentation for the mode of public-access online journals in the humanities and social sciences -- despite the fact that such scholarly journals online are very few to date -- includes the proposition that income for the press by offering CLCWeb in the public-access mode is generated by name recognition for the press based on the high web traffic of CLCWeb. Thus, with issue 2.3 (September 2000), CLCWeb is published by Purdue University Press and Purdue University Libraries. The journal and all its functions incl. its Library (e.g., the international directory of comparatists, bibliographies, etc.) and its moderated listserv for news and announcements in comparative literature and culture are supported and assisted in the technical domain by Purdue University Libraries <//www.lib.purdue.edu/> and Purdue University Press <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/>. Since 2002 technical assistance with matters of web design and systems operations are provided by University of Halle-Wittenberg Media and Communication Studies new media technologists Florian Hartling (2002-2003), Rasmus Schwinghammer (2003-2004), Michael Ginolas (2003-2005), and Clemens Krebs (2004-).
9. The members of the journal's advisory board / associate editors are <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/editor.html> Herbert Arlt (Vienna, Austria), Mark Axelrod (Chapman University, USA), Thomas Bacher (Purdue University Press, USA), Paolo Bartoloni 2003- (University of Sydney, Australia), Remo Ceserani (University of Bologna, Italy), F. Elisabeth Dahab (California State University Long Beach, USA), Roumiana Deltcheva (Montréal, Canada), Babis Dermitzakis (University of Athens, Greece), Elizabeth A. Flynn 1999-2004 (Michigan Technological University, USA), Patricia D. Fox 1999-2004 (University of Indiana Bloomington 1999-2002 and University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, 2002-2004), Armando Gnisci (University of Rome, Italy), Colin B. Grant 2003- (University of Surrey, United Kingdom), Sneja Gunew (University of British Columbia, Canada), Marko Juvan (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Bart Keunen 2002- (University of Ghent, Belgium), Benton Jay Komins (New Orleans, USA), Jose Manuel Losada Goya (University Complutense Madrid, Spain), Sophia A. McClennen (The Pennsylvania State University, USA), Aldo Nemesio (University of Torino, Italy), Peter Petro (University of British Columbia, Canada), Charles Ross 2005- (Purdue University, USA), Anthony Julian Tamburri (Florida Atlantic University, USA), William Thornton 1999-2003 (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan), Elka Tschernokoshewa 1999-2004 (Institute of Sorbian Studies, Germany), Reinhold Viehoff (University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany), Wang Ning (Beijing Language and Culture University, China), Pablo Zambrano (University of Huelva, Spain), and Vera Zubarev (University of Pennsylvania, USA).
10. As a peer-reviewed forum of scholarship and in a form that combines traditional scholarship and practices and new media scholarship and technology, the journal offers the possibility of training and involvement in the study of the humanities in general and in comparative culture and media in the particular. Thus, owing to the nature of new media scholarship and publishing, editorial assistants of the journal can be located physically anywhere. For these reasons of service to the humanities and the profession and of course as assistance needed in the work of the journal, CLCWeb appoints junior faculty and advanced graduate student editorial assistants, librarians, and book review editors for periods renewable-terms of one academic year (for the tasks of appointees link to <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/aims.html>). The appointment of graduate student and junior faculty editorial assistants, librarians, and book review editors under ongoing consideration, to date the following assist(ed) CLCWeb <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/editor.html>: Steven Aoun (Monash University, 2000-2002), Wendy C. Nielsen (University of California Davis, 2000-2002), Xianfeng Mou (Purdue University, 2002-2003), Claire Callaghan (University of Maryland & Catholic University of America, 2003-2004), Marta Guirao (University College London, 2001-2004 and University Complutense Madrid, 2004-2005), Patricia I. Vieira (University of California Santa Barbara, 2001-2002 and Harvard University, 2002-2006), Joyce Yee (Northumbria University, 2003-2004), Yilin Liao (Purdue University, 2003-2005), Luz Angelica Kirschner (Pennsylvania State University, 2005-2006), and Agate Lisiak (University of Halle-Wittenberg, 2006-). Book review editors of the journal are Wendy C. Nielsen (University of California Santa Barbara, 2002-2003 and Montclair State University, 2003-2004) and Henry J. Morello (The Pennsylvania State University, 2005-).
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