5 May 2023
March 1988 saw the publication of the first issue of Serials: The Journal for the Serials Community. The editor said, “We hope to create a journal, with a mixture of articles and news items, which will appeal to all types of members of the Group, whether librarians, publishers, subscription agents, binders, and all others having an interest in serials.” He went on to add that they were taking advantage of currently available desktop publishing software to enhance the appearance of the journal, using their Amstrad PC1640 microcomputer. Twenty-five years later, that all sounds a bit quaint, and it is a reminder of how times and technology have changed.
In 2011, Serials became Insights: the UKSG Journal. The name is the result of a competition won by Jane Harvell, at the University of Sussex. Other changes followed, in 2014 the journal became fully open access, and the UKSG committee agreed to cover the publishing costs in their entirety so that our authors do not have to pay APCs. The boards of many organisations where the journal is a member benefit, really struggle with this type of decision, but we were delighted when the UKSG Trustees quickly determined that free access and free publishing fitted the UKSG mission to encourage the exchange of ideas on scholarly communication.
In November 2017, the editorial board agreed to switch from publishing issues to continuous publication. It was a little scary at first, but it accelerated article publication times and means a better service for our authors and readers.
Not only has our business model and publishing method changed, but what we publish has changed too. Back in the day, we published articles, but also profiles, interviews, a feature called ‘a day in the life of..’ and a section called ‘People’ with all the latest news about appointments, promotions and retirements. As one rather harsh critic put it – ‘part journal, part village newsletter’. Today we only publish peer-reviewed articles, these are opinion pieces, research articles, commentaries, reviews and case studies. At one time we commissioned most of our articles, but today, the majority of our articles are unsolicited submissions. We think this indicates the growing reputation of Insights as a venue for articles about scholarly publishing.
Being a co-editor of the journal is a real privilege - we get to collaborate with a great editorial team and stellar authors. We have authors who are thought leaders and their perspectives stimulate discussion and the exchange of ideas. We have authors who are at the forefront of new developments, and their case studies are enabling others to build on their work. We also have authors who share unexpected and diverse insights. For example, recently we learned how using Lego®can encourage creative learning in the academic library, and in 2021, we got top tips on success, happiness, fulfilment and impact when starting a new role.
We hope you will help us celebrate Insight’s silver jubilee, by taking a look and reading the work of some of our brilliant authors. You might also be tempted to celebrate by submitting your own article, we’d love to hear from you.
Steve and Lorraine
Co-editors of Insights