Self-reflections: the development of JCAS as reflecting trends in African publishing

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Notes

1. It is appropriate at this point to acknowledge the enormous contribution made to the journal from the time it arrived at Rhodes University in 1992 until late 2010, when she retired, of Nova de Villiers as the administrator. Nova necessarily undertook the considerable tasks of journal administration, the scope of her job steadily increasing over the years as the annual number of journal issues and submissions expanded. Without her work, JCAS would not have survived.

2. Reasons of space forbid the detailed listing of the Advisory Board, it is interesting to record that the seven US members included Professor Jeffrey Butler, Richard Bissell (who later in his career was to write with Chester Crocker), and Newell Stultz.

3. It is easy to forget how recent the communications revolution is. I remember when I was first negotiating to move to Rhodes in 1988, I gained permission to use the University of Leicester's sole fax machine, use of which was zealously guarded by a dragon who inhabited the Vice-Chancellor's office. Email was non-existent.

4. All journals have their legal problems, especially under British civil law. On occasions, we have had book authors threatening to sue the journal because they have objected to a book review; and with one special issue, one author threatened to sue another author because of alleged misrepresentation.

5. My own introduction to journal editing was via observation of the work of the late Professor David Kimble. David launched The Journal of Modern African Studies as a four issue journal in 1963 when based at the then University College of Dar es Salaam. Subsequently, he carried the journal around from one university post in Africa to another, working through jobs, progressively, in Morocco, Lesotho (where I was in his department) and Malawi before eventually retiring with it to the United Kingdom. Overall, David – by far the most punctilious editor I have known – edited JMAS for a total of some 35 years, establishing it in the process as one of the top-ranking journals in the field of African Studies. Yet David never used referees, nobody seemed to care, and top ranking scholars were eager to publish in his journal, even though many of them had their articles rejected. True, David might farm the occasional article out to a colleague to have a look at, but whether or not he took any notice of what they had to say, I have no idea. Nonetheless, David's achievement was simply enormous, and remains seriously under-acknowledged.

6. As journal editors are unhappily aware, the quality of reviews offered by referees varies immensely. Some referees provide highly constructive and detailed reviews; some are withering in their criticisms, and their judgements have to be toned down to protect the feelings of the wretched authors; and others are brief and unhelpful. And, of course, some referees have to be badgered, which is embarrassing. However, the accreditation process largely ignores the quality of the refereeing process in favour of the simple fact of whether it has been done.