Editorial Forum 2012

Taylor &; Francis India organized the Journals Editorial Forum on 9 November 2012 at Hotel Royal Plaza, Delhi It incorporated not just presentations but also a workshop for the attendees, most of who were already involved in various journals either as Editors, Referees or Authors. This event was organized jointly by the Journals Editorial Team, India, and the India Marketing Team. The e-invite and print cards that were sent by India Marketing Team included names from the Indian Journals Editorial database of existing clients, previous Roundtable attendees, members from the editorial boards of competing journals and Dr. Shrikrishna Singh’s contacts in India. A total of 800 people were invited for this event. The invitations were handled in 4 rounds as listed below:

1. ‘Save-the-date’ e-mailing, which included the agenda, that was done by Journals Editorial Team in September-end was to inform all contacts of the upcoming Editorial Forum by T&F.

2. E-invites to all 800 contacts in the second week of October.

3. Print invites were sent to 300 important contacts in the second week of October.

4. Tele-calling those who had confirmed or acknowledged the invite previously until a day before the event.

At the Forum, we welcomed 34 participants (excluding Dr. Manjit Kang, who was our Guest Speaker). All participants were required to register at the registration table where they were given name badges along with the welcome kit comprising promotional postcards of our journal Strategic Analysis; pamphlets on our initiative, STAR; information pamphlets on ‘How to referee an article’, How to do your research read’, and ‘How to optimize citations to your article’; Author Services, pen and notepad. 

Among the participants, the ones to be noted are Cdr. Rikeesh Sharma and Cdr. Abhijeet Singh, both from the Editorial Board of Maritime Affairs, since the National Maritime Foundation staff usually does not attend ‘external’ events and Prof. Nasir Tyabji whose journal is currently being published by Sage. Also attending were our new co-publishers, Taru Publications (new co-publishers), and Mr. Arvinder Bhalla of Har Kishan Bhalla & Sons with whom we are signing the contract soon.

The event commenced with a welcome address and presentation on ‘Sustainable journal publishing and global industry developments’ by Dr. David Green followed closely by a presentation by Gerald Dorey on ‘Trends in Indian research and authors’ attitudes. At the end of GD’s presentation, a brief coffee break was announced that allowed everyone sometime to interact. After the coffee break, our Guest Speaker, Dr. Manjit Kang, presented his talk, ‘An Editor’s perspective on Indian Scholarship’. After, Dr. Kang’s presentation, the participants were divided into 3 groups: Editors, Authors and Referees. Each group was moderated by a T&F Editorial Member, Gerald Dorey, Shrikrishna Singh and Anindita Pandey, respectively, and the discussions in each group were being noted by Sangeeta Menon, Jane Buffham and Sushmita Das, respectively. The topic that each group was given to discuss was ‘The future of peer reviewing’ in which participants provided their perspectives based on the group they were placed in, for 40 minutes. The outcome of these discussions was then presented to the audience. The event was thus concluded with a note of thanks from Dr. Green and Gerald Dorey. All participants were then requested to proceed for lunch at the hotel’s restaurant and to collect their certificate of participation from Sangeeta Menon at the restaurant itself before leaving.

Many participants came back with very positive feedbacks about the forum. Most of them found that the presentations included information that they had never come across earlier and hence very useful. Many felt that the workshop gave them the opportunity to interact with various editors, authors and referees and hear other perspectives and look forward to more similar events from T&F. Overall, the event was a success and a lot of credit for the same goes to the India Marketing Team that ensured that the entire promotion and logistics of the event was handled with precision.

As a follow-up to this event, thank you notes would be sent to all participants by the India Marketing Team and presentations are being shared with those who had requested for it by Sangeeta Menon.