Introducing Papers in Canadian History and Environment

After years of publishing short-form writing, podcasts, and videos, the Network in Canadian History and Environment is embarking on a new effort to publish long-form, peer-reviewed research papers on the intersections of environment and history in Canada. We call it, Papers in Canadian History and Environment. Readers can sign up for a free subscription now and they can find the first paper here on the NiCHE website next week.

Sign up for a free subscription to Papers in Canadian History and Environment

Of course, no actual paper is involved. Papers in Canadian History and Environment is a scholar-led, open-access Web publication. We publish in both HTML and PDF. Our partnership with York University Libraries ensures long-term digital archiving and indexing of all the papers we publish.

HTML gives us the ability to leverage all of the advantages of an online publication:

Flexibility in length of papers
Quick, simple distribution to desktop and mobile readers
Integration of rich media, including audio, video, hi-resolution images, datasets, and interactive elements
Easy social sharing
Reader commenting and feedback

PDF copies of each paper provide:

Downloadable copies for offline reading and markup
Stable pagination for referencing
Long-term archiving and indexing with individual Digital Object Identifiers

As our work with University of Calgary Press and the Canadian History and Environment book series has shown, there are numerous advantages to open access publishing. The foremost advantage, of course, is access. Papers in Canadian History and Environment will publish all papers under Creative Commons licenses, allowing readers to freely access new research. Authors will be able to easily and immediately share their papers the day they are published. They will also be able to self-archive and distribute across their own social networks.

What do we publish?

Papers in Canadian History and Environment seeks long-form research papers (minimum 5000 words) that explore any aspect of the intersections of the environment and history in Canada. Our disciplinary lens is capacious and we invite work from scholars across the environmental humanities and social sciences.

Because we are a Web publication, we are not constrained by the print format. Instead of publishing numbered issues featuring 3-4 articles apiece, we publish individual papers once they are ready, following a double-blind peer review process, editor feedback, and copy editing. In other words, we release tracks instead of albums. This allows for faster production and more flexible publishing timelines.

We invite manuscripts that vary in length from short theoretical essays to lengthy research articles. We especially encourage authors whose work would benefit from the Web format. Video inserts? Numerous photographs? Interactive maps? Large datasets? Web publishing can present these media in ways that print cannot.

Why publish with us?

This new publication is somewhat unconventional, but it holds many potential advantages for our authors:

Open access
Web format
Quick production turnaround
Extensive promotion of papers via blog and podcast
Easily shared for wide distribution
Published and shared across NiCHE’s existing Web platform and social networks
Reaches NiCHE’s audience of engaged academic and non-academic readers
Based on NiCHE’s track record of leadership and excellence in the field of environmental history
Indexed for search and metrics

We also hold to the most important practices of scholarly publishing:

Double-blind peer review
Expert faculty editors
Experienced editorial board
High-quality production and copy editing

Papers in Canadian History and Environment may be the best place to publish your new research in a way that best suits your work and reaches the right audience.

Come back next week to read the first paper. And if you have a manuscript that you would like to submit, visit:

http://niche-canada.org/piche.