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Plea for survival






Dear Forensic Community:

I have received a couple of backchanneled castigations for posting numerous
pleas for subscriptions to the Southern Journal of Forensics on the "L."
If this has caused anyone any inconvenience, please accept my sincerest
apologies.  However, please also understand that I am committed to doing
whatever is necessary and reasonable to keep the Journal alive.  If it
takes several messages to get the community's attention, then so be it.
Please allow me to explain.

We started the Journal two years ago.  I had traveled to numerous speech
conventions and tournaments and always heard the same complaint from
members of the forensic community -- I'm facing tenure and/or promotion and
the committee demands "publish or perish," but there are very  limited
opportunities to publish serious debate/IE research.  There are only a
handful of "national" journals that will even consider "debate" monographs.
No one, even our own colleagues, seem to take what we do seriously.  Hence,
the Journal was born in an attempt to open the publishing opportunities for
the forensic community.

We are dedicated to the publication of articles which are of interest to
the forensic community.  We are, essentially, YOUR journal.  Comm
Monographs, QJS, HCR, Journal of Bus Comm are all great journals, but they
will not publish the work that interests you and furthers your career. If
we, as a professional community, cannot point to our independent body of
published research in journals dedicated to our area, then we cannot
legitimize our life's work in the eyes of our colleagues. We will be doomed
to the identity of an extra curricular activity good enough for the
justification of a temporary position rather than the status of a
foundational communication skill important enough to justify the works of
Plato, Aristotle and a host of others.

In short, when we fail to support the publication of research in our field,
we are dooming ourselves to a second-class citizen status.

Obviously, this journal means a great deal to me.  I have covered the
financial loses incurred by the Journal over the past two years from
personal funds, which amount to a little over twenty-one hundred dollars.
Sadly, if we cannot get enough financial support from the community, the
Journal may fold.

Some other things to consider:

- We are a fully referred journal with a national circulation.  We put out
a quality product; and thus, tenure and promotion committees, as well as
prospective employers, should give your work the credit it deserves.  I
have already had  letters from authors saying how much the publication
helped their situations.  It can only help you if it survives.

- Our Board and Associate Editors are some of the most highly respected
minds within the forensic community.  As a group, they have authored
numerous textbooks and literally hundreds of articles.  This assures you
that the quality of the publication will be well respected by our
colleagues and peers.

- Among our supporters (Board Members, Associate Editors and subscribers)
we number both the outgoing National President and President Elect of Pi
Kappa Delta, the President of the Southern States Speech Communication
Association, a former national President of Phi Rho Pi, and numerous state
and regional current and former officers and representatives in every major
forensic organization in existence.  This not only demonstrates the level
of support for this publication, but the potential job networking
opportunities for YOU, as a subscriber and contributor are outstanding.
Again, this is a benefit that you will only reap if we survive.

- Your students' education will be greatly enhanced by exposure to critical
thinking and cutting edge philosophy within the forensic field.  I have
already heard several teams running kritics and topicality standards quoted
from publications in the Journal.

- We are totally dependent upon subscriptions.  Unlike other equally worthy
publications in our area, we have no membership dues or organizational
budgets to sustain us.

Finally --

Even though budgets are depleted and our attentions are focused on next
year, we need your commitment now.  We need to obligate ourselves to a
printer, to authors who have submitted manuscripts, to reviewers who are
donating their time and experience and to our subscribers for the coming
year.  In order to do that, we must have a reasonably accurate expectation
of our financial resources.  We need YOUR commitment now.  PLEASE -- don't
put this off.  Take the few minutes necessary to let us know of your
intent.  If you are a faculty member or a DOF, send your intent to commit
to my e-mail and I will bill you.  If you or your budget cannot afford a
subscription, perhaps your department or library could.

Subscription information is "enclosed" below.  Thank you for your time and
careful consideration.

Respectfully,

Jack E. Rogers, Editor
The Southern Journal of Forensics


jrogers@mail.uttyl.edu

Regular subscriptions $35.00
Departmental, Library subscriptions $60.00
Make checks payable to The Southern Journal of Forensics
Mail To: Jack Rogers, Dept of Communication, 3900 University Blvd., Tyler,
TX 75799
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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