FW: Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon

[Krafft, John M.]

From: Martin Eve [martin at martineve.com]
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 5:50 AM
 
Dear all,

In light of Jeff’s recent email [about the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of V.], 
it now seems the right time to unveil
a project which we hope will enthuse and excite a great number of you.
We have been working, over the past few months, to put together a new,
very different, journal of Pynchon scholarship.

The journal aims to publish high quality, rigorously reviewed and
innovative scholarly material on the works of Thomas Pynchon, related
authors and adjacent fields, free-of-charge at point of access to
institutions and independent scholars by being a Gold, Libre Open
Access journal. We aim to review and publish material received within
five months by abandoning the traditional “issue” model in favour of a
rolling system and to, consequentially, fare well under research
assessment metrics. The journal is entitled Orbit: Writing Around
Pynchon, with ISSN number 2047-2870 and hosted at
https://www.pynchon.net .

The journal is online-only and free at point-of-access. This ensures
that availability is not a problem given institutional budget
concerns. It has also been shown, in several studies, that Open Access
publications obtain higher citation rates because of this openness
(see: http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html ), which should
be of value to anybody concerned about citation metrics in research
assessment frameworks. We are also abandoning the traditional “Issue”
format for all but special cases, meaning that we have a Volume and
Issue number assigned, in advance, and articles are added to the
current volume as soon as they are ready. In this way, we hope to
thoroughly review and publish articles within a five month timeframe.

We have several mechanisms in place for archival and safeguarding
purposes. Once our first “issue” is published, Orbit will be archived
and preserved through the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe)
system pioneered by Stanford University. See:
http://lockss.stanford.edu/lockss/Home for more info. This distributed
network of libraries and university systems will each keep a copy of
every article published in Orbit. Should Orbit cease production, or be
unavailable for technical reasons, LOCKSS will automatically and
transparently provide access through institutional catalogues and
resolvers. In addition, we recommend that all authors lodge a copy of
their article with their institutional repository. Orbit will
furthermore deposit articles with the British Library (the UK deposit
library) as per http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/legaldep/. These
three backup archival sources, incorporating multiple physical
locations worldwide, backed by reputable institutions, provide
continued worldwide reach in the event of folding/downtime via an
internationally recognised mechanism.

In relation to how this journal will work alongside Pynchon Notes, for
which we have nothing but the utmost respect and gratitude, we have
been in touch with Duffy and John throughout. The journals work on
very different principles; we are online-only, while PN remains in
print, but we certainly felt, in light of Jeff’s message, that 2013
would be a good point for the two projects to work together to make a
positive contribution to this momentous occasion and we remain in
dialogue on this front.

The sheer volume of material and number of people working on Pynchon
was the justification for this project in our minds. We hope that this
excites you. Please find our first CFP below and we hope you’ll
consider helping us begin by submitting your work for our launch next
Spring. Likewise, if you are interested in acting as a peer reviewer,
please get in touch.

Best wishes,

Martin Paul Eve, Doug Haynes and Sam Thomas

Editorial Board:
Hanjo Berressem, Simon de Bourcier, David Cowart, Luc Herman, Zofia
Kolbuszewska, Sascha Pöhlmann, Birger Vanwesenbeeck


Call For Papers

Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon, a new Open Access, peer reviewed
e-journal of scholarly work pertaining to the writings of Thomas
Pynchon and adjacent fields, seeks articles, reviews and letters for
publication.

Thomas Pynchon is an American writer of novels, short stories and
occasional journalistic pieces whose influence upon the contemporary
American writing scene is virtually unparalleled, leading Harold
Bloom, in recent correspondence, to write: “certainly he is still the
most important writer alive”. Topics for consideration could include,
but are by no means limited to:

    Comparative studies with related authors
    Novel theoretical contexts for Pynchon’s work
    Pynchon’s literary influence
    Biographical criticism
    Transatlantic/Transpacific connections
    The Great American Novel
    Historiographic meta-/historical fiction
    Political implications of Pynchon and his contemporaries’ work
    Gender and sexuality in Pynchon
    Pynchon’s publishing process/archival work and source materials
    Pynchon’s music and songs
    The shape and/or phases of Pynchon’s career and its evolving contexts
    The Pynchon scholarly community itself, including online
developments (eg. P-Wiki, PYNCHON-L)



All submissions will undergo a strict, double-blind peer review
process and will also be subject to scrutiny from our international
expert editorial board. Accepted submissions will be made available as
an online publication (https://www.pynchon.net ISSN: 2047-2870),
assigned a DOI number and archived for posterity with both the British
Library’s online deposit service and, subject to approval, the LOCKSS
network.

Submissions should be made online, in MLA bibliographic format, at:
https://www.pynchon.net/submit

To be included in the first batch of articles (Spring 2012), please
ensure submission by 1st November, 2011.

--
Martin Paul Eve
University of Sussex

T: +44 7985235572
E: m.eve at sussex.ac.uk
W: https://www.martineve.com