学術雑誌『メディウム』の挑戦

人文学の新たなプラットフォーム構築に向けて

抄録

    This paper aims to describe the academic context in which the authors founded Medium: Journal for Culture and Technology in 2020, attempting to create a new platform for the exchange and accumulation of knowledge about, as the title of the journal suggests, media, culture and technology. Up until now, the authors have published five issues of the journal, which have included peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, translations of essays written in foreign languages and other types of academic texts.

    We begin our discussion by describing the background to our decision to launch Medium. As Ph.D. students at the time, the authors were concerned about the fact that there were not enough platforms for the publication of academic work in media studies in Japan, especially those based on humanities knowledge and methodologies. This situation prompted us to establish a new journal for such a purpose, although the authors did not set any disciplinary boundaries for the journal and sought to make it an interdisciplinary academic platform.

    Next, we outline the process and methodology by which the authors have edited and published Medium. Due to the limited financial and human resources, we had to adopt and develop some strategies to continue publishing an interdisciplinary journal for media studies in a stable and attractive way. Among these, this paper focuses on three key strategies: (i) how we called for and screened the papers to be published in Medium, (ii) how we designed the workflow for publication, and (iii) how we raised sufficient funds for publication and distribution.

    Finally, we offer some reflections on the future of academic publication, based on our experience of publishing Medium. In particular, we point to the need to recognize the structural limitations of the academic journal as a medium in general, and suggest the need to develop alternative platforms that can complement and extend their functions.