Get Involved with the JSRNC Editorial Team

by Issrnc Admin · September 22, 2020

Dear ISSRNC Members and Conference Participants and JSRNC Contributors and reviewers:

I write to enquire about your possible interest in joining the editorial team responsible for producing the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture.

When the ISSRNC was established in 2006 we began planning for our then fledgling journal. We have published quarterly since 2007 and are about to wrap up our 14th volume.

Over the last few weeks, two of the journal’s long-time anchors and co-editors, Joseph Witt and Luke Johnston, informed us that they needed to step aside. Both have been with the JSRNC (and indeed, with the ISSRNC and other field-building endeavors) from the beginning. I do not have the words to adequately express my gratitude for the quality of their contributions or my sadness at their departure.

I am happy however to announce that Joseph Wilson and Mark Peterson have agreed to come on as co-editors. Both have been involved with the journal in various capacities for some time, and Mark is nearing the end of his term as President of the ISSRNC. Meanwhile, Sarah Werner will now serve as Senior Book Review editor and, thankfully, Amanda Nichols is continuing as
our uber-competent Managing Editor. We are also fortunate to have gained a talented new editorial assistant, Brady McCartney, who recently matriculated here at UF in our religion and nature graduate program.

Changeovers like this remind us that it is important to plan ahead – and that means bringing additional depth, talent, and fresh eyes onto our editorial team and familiarizing them with the processes so we will be ready next time we have big shoes to fill.

We’ve been able to spread the work widely and lightly over the years, with Assistant and Associate editors doing much of the essential work communicating with authors and making recommendations to lead editors about whether submissions merit publication. I would like to buttress those ranks in the near term.

We’d like to invite you to consider joining us.

Those interested in Assistant or Associate level editor positions should have rigorous training in a relevant scholarly discipline, clear interests in the journal’s subject matter, and excellent command of written English. Past editing experience is preferred for Associate editors, but it is not an absolute requirement for Assistant editors who will have the opportunity to develop their
practical editing skills over time.

In the near term, we would like to consider the right person for a lead co-editor role, or as coeditor for book reviews. Ideally, such scholars would have a strong religion and nature background, broad scholarly range, and previous experience as an academic editor. Our editorial team has flexibly defined roles, accommodating individual editors’ academic interests and expertise. Having several talented co-editors who collaborate effectively increases the quality of the output and makes the workload much more manageable, and enjoyable, for everyone.

Consequently, I’m on the lookout for both emerging and established scholars who might have the editorial chops, and the life space, to join Joe and Mark as co-editors, or Sarah on the book reviews editing team. We welcome especially those whose scholarly backgrounds or research complement our existing strengths in the humanities and sciences.

If you are potentially interested, please contact our Managing Editor Amanda Nichols and me with any questions you might have. If you’re definitely interested please send us a copy of your CV, a brief statement about how your own distinct perspective, as wells your writing and editing experience, could contribute to the journal. Please also provide us a sense of how much you would like to participate (recognizing that folks tend to move up the ranks over time).

Although I am writing directly to you as an ISSRNC member, conference participant, JSRNC contributor or reviewer, it may be that you know a qualified individual who would be a good fit for our editorial team. If that is the case, please feel at liberty to forward this message to that person.

With best wishes to all of you in your scholarly and personal lives,