Keeping connected in 2020: A journal editor’s experience

Sarah Herr, Co-editor of Cambridge journal Advances in Archaeological Practice, reflects on how being in her role has helped her to form a remarkable connection to the people who are part of her publishing world. With each interaction shaped by thoughts of how the other people are working – in their homes, with various degrees of government and health imposed regulations, often with partners and children in the background (and cats on their keyboards), and with everyone struggling to find time and balance – her experience resonates with many of us.

“This spring, our Editorial meeting was held by Zoom during the height of the first large shelter in place period in the northern hemisphere. The journal has been expanding its geographic reach and when trying to schedule we realized that we have successfully spanned the world with board members in Polynesia (Hawai’i), the Americas, Western Europe, Asia, and Australia. Someone was going to have be online at 04:00 if we were to have everyone present! We did not have everyone present – some people have good work/life priorities – but it was a nice problem to have. The digital connection gave us a chance to converse with team members we have only worked with by email and to hear how our friends around the world were experiencing the first wave of COVID.  

“In June the Society for American Archaeology editors developed a statement on diversity in our publications. The statement was motivated by the worldwide reactions to the death of George Floyd, the then latest among many wrongful deaths, and inspired by the forthright and inclusive comments of scholars in the Society of Black Archaeologists’ ‘Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter’. To live up to our words, the SAA editors are now working on making changes to our editorial policies

“The August 2020 issue of Advances in Archaeological Practice, guest edited by John G. Douglass and Shelby A. Manney, was titled ‘Creative Mitigation’. The issue focuses on cultural resource management/heritage management papers and includes research from the United States and Europe. The Arizona Army National Guard provided funding to make all articles in the issue Gold Open Access, a first for both this journal and for SAA journals as a whole. We hope this helps those who are teaching applied archaeology in classrooms make use of content that is hard to find in textbooks. A number of other independent authors have funded Gold Open Access for their articles this year, and we welcome this growing commitment to open science.”

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