Journal Editors

The support of the Hopkins Press Journals Division proved invaluable over the past year during our 15th anniversary redesign of The Hopkins Review. I’m particularly grateful to the Journals Publicity Manager, who has gone above and beyond to platform and celebrate this revamped iteration of our journal through the Press’s social media channels, a podcast feature, and assistance with award applications. Enthusiastic and highly capable individual staff members like this one, along with the Press’s infrastructure (particularly all the benefits of Project MUSE affiliation) make the Hopkins Press a terrific partner for The Hopkins Review. 

For over 20 years, I have edited a journal at Johns Hopkins University Press, and have always been glad they are our publisher.  The production editor and marketing team assigned to my journal are expert, hard-working, and loyal - my journal's production editor has been there the whole time we have been publishing with Hopkins Press. The production value of our journal is high--paper, binding, and cover art are all of the highest quality.  Working with management at Hopkins Press is that rarest of things in business--a pleasure, and an interaction in which I know the success of my journal is uppermost in everyone's mind.

Johns Hopkins University Press has been a pleasure to work with the past few years. We required some structural changes to the manuscript review system when we came on board and the Hopkins Press team was very helpful. The focus at Hopkins Press seems to be on the journal contributions across fields and disciplines, and not on the bottom line - a refreshing difference from some other presses we have worked with in our careers. We appreciate the professional care and attention we receive which allows us to focus our energy on our authors and their articles. The Hopkins Press podcast series has been a welcomed addition to the press and allows us to feature innovative and important articles.

Knowledge and ideas don’t just spread among people and communities by osmosis. They are transmitted by material means; and those means, whether they are pieces of paper or printing shops or scribes or bits of code, leave their traces in that knowledge, on those ideas. Documenting and recovering those traces, and the people and institutions behind them, reminds us that history and literature and everything conveyed by the written word and printed image are the products not just of famous names but of our forgotten, often marginalized predecessors. 

I have edited a Johns Hopkins University Press journal for over 25 years. Such loyalty is inspired by the generous responsiveness of the leadership as well as the creativity and commitment of individual staff members. Just recently JHUP collaborated with us towards a complete revamping of our journal’s, and associated society’s, website. Their enthusiasm during this round was greater than when we started in 1994!

Serving the ideas of moment by shaping their content, by crystallizing their form, is the means by which we participate in the larger conversation. Our authors teach us; our audience ennobles us.

We moved to JHUP two years ago and are still congratulating ourselves on having made this decision. The transition was very smooth and the journal’s layout and style did not have to be changed. I appreciate in particular the stability of JHUP’s staff structure, with one, very responsive editor assigned to our journal, without the intercession of an unwieldy automated “article management system.” Hence communication between press and journal is very swift, direct, and personal, making my job as journal editor much easier. Another significant benefit of our move was the journal’s inclusion in Project Muse, which enhanced its visibility and impact, and has led to a significant increase in manuscript submissions.