A message from Ruth Feiertag, Editor of The Independent Scholar:

Below are the themes for the next few issues of TIS. Submissions (creative/artistic as well as traditional essays) on any topic of that will appeal to our members are welcome, but we are also looking for articles that will address the foci of these upcoming editions. Please do read through the Submissions Guidelines. Please send submissions to the editor, Ruth Feiertag, at tis@ncis.org.

For February 2012: Submissions due 15 November, 2011. The topic of this issue will be grants, and I would particularly like to feature some short essays on members’ experiences with the new NCIS Grants Database (these would have a later due date than other submissions). Anyone willing to explore this new membership perquisite and send in a report to share should please contact me at tis@ncis.org to let me know that she or he is interested.

For May 2012: Submissions due 15 February, 2011. The subject of the Spring newsletter will be “Getting Published.” Please consider sending in articles on how you managed to get published, what’s changed in the world of academic publishing, the differences in submitting to journals and publishers in various disciplines, and/ or containing any advice that others might find useful. I would very much like to be able to print essays from a variety of disciplines, and, if any members have experience working for publishers or would like to research the topic, essays on how publishers view submissions from independents.

For August 2012: Submissions due 15 May, 2012. For the Summer TIS, the theme will be the relationship between scholarship and creativity. NCIS members’ talents are not limited to academic articles, and while TIS accepts artistic submissions for any issue, this one will highlight those accomplishments. Articles for this edition might address the ways that scholarship and creativity feed each other, the art in scholarly writing, visual media’s function as critique, the differences between art and scholarship and whether the distinctions are worth maintaining.

For November, 2012: Submissions due 15 August, 2012. Blogging and social media have acquired phenomenal importance in many aspects of life beyond the merely social. Facebook and Twitter are rife with the presence of businesses begging to be liked or followed. Many non-university publishers won’t look at proposals unless the author has a requisite number of blog subscribers. What effect do these web innovations have on scholarship? Can independent scholars make good use of these services, or does doing so make independents seem less legitimate? Does it depend on the kind of scholarship in which we engage? Is it all just sound and fury that will eventually signify nothing? What about other on-line communities — do they provide opportunities for scholars to connect in useful ways? TIS would like to explore the benefits and detriments of this brave new e-world, and is seeking articles that address these and other related questions for the November 2012 issue.