Exciting news for Conan Doyle fans – an academic journal devoted
to Conan Doyle is arriving in 2021!
A few weeks ago, Dr Ashley D. Polasek (@SherlockPhD) announced
the creation of The Conan Doyle Review (@ACDreview), ‘an
interdisciplinary journal for scholarship on the life, works, creative
afterlives, and cultural legacies of Arthur Conan Doyle.’ I was very pleased
to get half an hour of Ashley’s time to talk about the journal.
It’s a fantastic development for two very good reasons. Firstly,
as an Open Access publication, it will bring academic scholarship to the wider
public. There is a wealth of academic scholarship on Conan Doyle’s life and
work but it’s largely beyond reach of those outside higher education. I often
see interesting work appear on academia.edu and journal databases but it typically
sits behind a paywall meaning that, unless you are a student or staff member at
an institution, this work is off limits. As an Open Access journal, The
Conan Doyle Review will help to spread scholarship far and wide.
Secondly, it will provide a home for academic studies of Conan
Doyle that cuts across disciplinary boundaries. Just think about Conan Doyle’s
life – writer, political campaigner, historian, propagandist, spiritualist. Where
would you find work about Conan Doyle in a journals’ directory? Literary Criticism,
Politics, Religion, Ethics? Answer: all of the above. ACD is seen through many lenses,
which means scholarship is dispersed. The Conan Doyle Review will
provide the single lens through which we can understand the totality of Conan
Doyle’s life and work.
For those of you who missed the Q/A on Twitter, here’s a
compiled list which provides more information:
Q: “When will the first issue come out?”
A: The Conan Doyle Review will begin accepting submissions
for peer review in the summer of 2020, and will publish Volume 1, Issue 1 in
Spring 2021.
Q: “What will you publish?”
A: The Conan Doyle Review will publish scholarly articles;
editorials; reviews of non-fiction books, commercial adaptations, and relevant
scholarship; and original interviews.
Q: “How rigorous is the review process for publishing in
The Conan Doyle Review?”
A: Reviews, interviews, and editorials may be accepted and
published following editorial review. Scholarly articles undergo double-blind
peer review.
Q: “I’m not an academic, but I am a Doylean or a
Sherlockian. Can I still submit to The Conan Doyle Review?”
A: Certainly! Work is accepted based on its quality, not
based on your credentials. We are happy to consider submissions from
independent scholars.
Q: “I'm not an Arthur Conan Doyle expert, but I wrote a
paper in my own field that touched on him, would you consider it?"
A: Yes! We want to be a crossroads for scholarship in as
many disciplines as possible. If it's related to Conan Doyle, we’re interested.
Q: “Will you consider my poem or short story?
A: We're delighted that Conan Doyle’s works inform your
creative writing! However, The Conan Doyle Review is not the right outlet for
fiction, poetry, or fanworks, unless they appear in the context of a specific
scholarly discourse.
Q: “Who runs The Conan Doyle Review?”
A: The Conan Doyle Review is under the editorial leadership
of Dr. Ashley D. Polasek, Founding Editor-in-Chief (@SherlockPhD), Dr. Kate
Brombley, Senior Associate Editor (@Curly_Kate)
and Mary M. Alcaro, Associate Editor (@M2Alc).
I’m enthusiastic about The Conan Doyle Review. It’s a
worthwhile endeavour that will help raise the appreciation and scholarship of
Conan Doyle in a way that is long overdue. All best wishes to Ashley, Kate and
Mary and everyone involved.
Mark
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