Editorial

Updates, Activities and Gratitude

The March 2024 issue was my last update about the internal projects and plans for College & Research Libraries. Like other ACRL committees and groups, the C&RL Editor writes an annual report and workplan to share the past year’s accomplishments and the goals for the year moving forward. For transparency, in terms of C&RL’s internal processes and planning, this editorial includes some updates, a few accomplishments, and work plan activities for the 2024-2025 year.

All of this work happens because of the work and guidance from a large community of people which includes the Editorial Board, Book Reviews Editor, Social Media Editor, ACRL staff members David Free and Dawn Mueller, copyeditors, ACRL members, authors, reviewers, readers, researchers, librarians, students, and likely more people I am missing. As I embark on my third year as C&RL editor, I express gratitude in having the privilege to work with and learn from you all in this capacity.

Selected Accomplishments, 2023-2024

• In spring 2024, three Editorial Board members, Michelle Demeter, Adrian Ho and Book Reviews Editor Melissa Lockaby formed a subgroup to collect information, assess, and identify C&RL’s stance on Artificial Intelligence (AI). They will report on their findings and recommendations to the Editorial Board in late 2024/early 2025.
• In spring 2024, the C&RL Editorial Board approved a change in the Author Guidelines to accept submissions that have been deposited in preprint repositories prior to consideration for C&RL peer review. Prior to this change, it was not permissible to submit manuscripts that had already been published.
• The January 2024 issue was a topical issue on Equitable and Scholarly Communications. It was guest-edited by Nathan Hall, Kara Malenfant and Amanda Nichols Hess and served as a follow-up from the ACRL Research and Scholarly Environment Committee’s (ReSEC) 2019 publication “Equitable and Scholarly Communication.”1 ReSEC proposed this issue "to showcase new research on how the academic and research library workforce has accelerated change in the scholarly communications environment. Given the focus of Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications on valuing different ways of knowing, the committee also welcomed adventurous scholarship, and encouraged work on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion as they relate to academic libraries and scholarly communication” (Hall, et al).2
• In November 2023, the Editor participated in an online panel titled “AI and LIS Publishing” with other LIS journal editors from publications such as Portal, Journal of Information Literacy, Journal of the Medical Library Association, Communications in Information Literacy and the Journal of Academic Librarianship. Panelists shared their thoughts, policies and experiences on generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the processes of each journal, respectively. It was a very informative experience and the editors, and now the new incoming editor, Michelle Demeter, continue to meet to discuss and share their projects and other work as journal editors. It has been and continues to be very beneficial to learn with and from other editors.

Selected Work Plan Activities, 2024-2025

• Facilitate a peer review workshop for current and prospective C&RL peer reviewers. With the Editor-Designate Michelle Demeter and representation from the C&RL Editorial Board, all C&RL peer reviewers and ACRL membership and beyond will be invited to participate in an online, synchronous workshop about peer reviewing C&RL submissions. This workshop is intended to provide guidance on peer review expectations, giving constructive feedback for authors and to provide transparency into how peer review responses fit into the process of publication.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force (subgroup of C&RL Editorial Board) continues exploratory work to recommend C&RL policies and other guidance on AI in the journal’s work processes. This subgroup of the Editorial Board will present their findings and recommendations for C&RL AI policy and other guidance to the Editorial Board to discuss and establish new guidance or policy.

Kristen Totleben
Editor, College & Research Libraries
Open Publishing Librarian
University of Rochester

Notes

1. Maron, N., Kennison, R., Bracke, P., Hall, N., Gilman, I., Malenfant, K., Roh, C., & Shorish, Y. (2019), Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future, Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.

2. Amanda Nichols Hess, et al. “Introduction to C&RL Topical Issue: Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications.” College & Research Libraries, vol. 85, no. 1, 2024, pp. 2–6, https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.85.1.2.