1. INTRODUCTION
The Cognitive
Science Society (CSS) is founding a new journal
titled, Topics in Cognitive Science (topiCS).
The information on these pages is intended for potential authors,
reviewers, review board members, associate editors, as well as
for interested members of the CSS. A request for proposal (RFP)
has been developed for publishers and is available by contacting Wayne Gray (grayw@rpi.edu).
CSS is the premier professional society
for the worldwide support and encouragement of Cognitive Science.
Its current and only journal, Cognitive
Science, has been the premier journal for the discipline
of Cognitive Science for the past 30-years. Its annual conference
(30 years this July) is the premier outlet for innovative and breaking
research.
During the summer of 2006, several prominent members
approached the Executive Committee and outlined the case for a
new journal. The Executive Committee brought this discussion to
the Governing
Board at its annual meeting. The Governing Board
appointed a committee of distinguished members to research the
current state of cognitive science publishing, to identify important
niches that were not being filled (if any), and to make a recommendation
to the Governing Board on how to proceed. The committee’s
report was delivered to the Governing Board in November 2006. After
much discussion, the Governing Board unanimously approved the proposal
submitted. A search under the direction of Professor Douglas Medin
ensued for a Founding Editor. The Governing Board approved the
Medin Committee’s
recommendation, Wayne Gray, in January 2007.
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2. BACKGROUND & OVERVIEW
2.1. The Cognitive Science
Society
The Society is a non-profit professional
organization that brings together researchers from many fields
(including Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Anthropology,
Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Education) who hold
a common goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. CSS’ main
activities are sponsoring an annual conference, publishing the
journal Cognitive Science, and promoting research interactions
across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The Society was incorporated
as a non-profit professional organization in Massachusetts in
1979.
The first conference on cognitive
science was held at LaJolla, California in August, 1978, and has
occurred annually since then. The proceedings of each conference
are published, and those from most years are available through
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. The annual proceedings of the
Cognitive Science Conference represent a major source of information
on new work and new ideas in the scientific study of thinking.
The society currently has over 1000
members worldwide. To be eligible for membership, one must be qualified
to conduct research in Cognitive Science beyond the dissertation
(or have equivalent experience).
2.2. The Current Journal: Cognitive
Science
The Cognitive Science journal began publication in 1976, and is
now published by Taylor and Francis. The Executive Editor is currently
Arthur Markman of the University of Texas at Austin, and there
are 12 Associate Editors and a 30-member review board. It serves
as the premier outlet for research reports that intersect two or
more disciplines. Membership in the Society includes a subscription
to Cognitive Science. Copyrights for articles published in the
journal held by the Society.
Both print and online versions of the
journal are available at no charge to all members. All back issues
(beyond a 3-yr embargo period with the current publisher) are available
to members and the public at no charge.
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3. PROPOSED JOURNAL: topiCS
The Governing Board of the Cognitive Science Society voted in
late 2006 to found a new journal, Topics in Cognitive Science (topiCS).
The journal seeks to fill a niche not occupied by the Cognitive
Science journal or other cognitive science journals. At the same
time, the journal will continue in the tradition of the Cognitive
Science journal by being characterized by rigorous reviewing and
high-quality papers.
As the name suggests, topiCS will be
directed at current topics in cognitive science. The journal
will have a special issues format in that each issue would focus
on a single “topic.” As
discussed below, the format of the journal and the origin of the
topic would vary greatly from issue to issue. The journal would
be published four times per year.
The experience of the past and
current Editors of the Cognitive Science journal suggests that
there are sufficient numbers of unsolicited proposals for special
issues of that journal to make a special issue journal a viable
idea. It is CSS’ expectation that
such a journal could be launched without any financial risk to
the Society.
3.1. Need
A quick query to a university database
of “journals available
electronically” yielded 45 journals with the word “cognitive” or “cognition” in
their title. In light of this plethora of offerings the burden
of proof is to show why yet-another-cognitive-journal is needed
and why the Cognitive Science Society should sponsor and take responsibility
for that new title.
A quick glance at the titles yields three striking
conclusions. First, the vast majority of these are journals with
a much more specialized audience than the Cognitive Science journal.
Indeed, judging by title, only three, Cognition, Cognitive Processing,
and Trends in Cognitive Science, have the intended breadth of our
flagship journal. (Judging by a perusal of recent issues, Cognitive
Processing is a narrowly focused, experimental psychology type
journal.) Second, although these journals collectively capture
many subareas of cognitive science they omit other subareas. There
are no journals devoted to cognitive modeling, cognitive anthropology,
cognitive science and philosophy, or many other emerging areas.
Third, there is no obvious forum in which new and emerging areas
of cognitive science can make their debut, no forum for direct
debates among competing theories, no outlet for revisiting old
debates, and no place for established areas to provide an indepth
snapshot of the issues, progress, and problems that they are currently
confronting.
To some degree the traditional way of
fulfilling this “need” is
by a standalone, edited volume. However, such edited volumes have
a mixed history of success. Each such volume is an entrepreneurial
enterprise by the volume editor who must delve into the somewhat
bewildering world of publishing (finding a publisher, signing a
contract, dealing with production details, negotiating royalties,
etc) as well as assume the roles of Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor,
and (at times) Copy Editor. Furthermore, the impact of such volumes
is hampered by several factors. First, they are not indexed in
most scientific databases such as ISI’s Web of Science, ACM’s
Digital Library, IEEE’s Xplore, APA’s PsycInfo, etc.
As a result, unless a researcher has direct knowledge of a given
volume, chapters relevant to a given topic may be overlooked. Second,
in an age of increasing electronic access, chapters in edited volumes
are conspicuous by their absence. Hence, even if a chapter is known,
the lack electronic access inhibits its dissemination. Third, the
editing of collections of chapters is often uneven and the review
process spotty (or non-existent); that is, the quality assurance
that comes from a well-established peer-reviewed journal is lacking.
As a result, many promotion and tenure committees devalue the contribution
of chapters in edited volumes, junior researcher are often warned
to not waste their time on such endeavors, and many senior researchers
avoid them whenever possible.
In considering need, non-academic
arguments are also important and, sometimes, more direct. Simply
put, is there a market for the proposed journal? The short answer
seems to be “yes.” This
conclusion is supported by our informal conversations with several
current and former publishers.
Finally, the question arises, as
to whether CSS “needs” to
be the owner of such a journal. We believe that the answer here
is “yes” as well. As the premier society for cognitive
science, only the Cognitive Science Society is in a position to
quickly launch and establish a new academic journal. We expect
that our reputation will attract the work of the best researchers,
direct attention of cognitive scientists worldwide to the initial
issues, and help to sell the library subscriptions necessary for
the success of any new journal. As the former Editor of Cognitive
Science and current Associate Editor of topiCS, Rob
Goldstone puts it, “If the Cognitive Science Society throws
its weight behind the endeavor... it will
have solid enough "ivory tower cred" (the opposite of "street
cred," but also valuable) to be successful.”
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3.2. Proposed Format
We believe that there is a need for a journal that can devote
each issue to a single “current topic” in Cognitive
Science. Our survey of existing journals reveals no such outlet.
We envision an eclectic mix of formats including the following:
Traditional “Unsolicited” Special
Issues
The Cognitive Science journal receives many unsolicited
proposals for special issues each year but is unable to meet the
demand. Indeed, rather than deal with special issue proposals one-by-one,
in this past year (2006) the Cognitive Science editor
issued a general “call for special issues” with a December
1st deadline. This call resulted in a dozen proposals of which
approximately half were deemed by the Associate Editors as both
fully formed and intellectually exciting. Unfortunately, the Cognitive
Science journal has space for just two special issues per
year, one of which focuses on research related to or inspired by
the Rumelhart Prize winner. (Information about the Robert J. Glushko
and Pamela Samuelson Foundation sponsored Rumelhart
Prize can be found here.)
topiCS will provide an outlet for unsolicited proposals
that focus on a new or emerging area of cognitive science, or
an area that recently has made rapid progress. The questions
addressed by the proposals and the respective papers would need
to be sufficiently broad to be of interest to the general readership.
To increase the overall appeal, proposals would have to include
diverse theoretical approaches, diverse methodologies, or both.
At
this point in time (April 2007), topiCS has received
three unsolicited proposals for special issues. Each of these proposals
was among those submitted to the Cognitive Science journal
in December 2006. Each of the three was in the top five submissions
as judged by the Associate Editors of that journal. Although none
have yet been accepted, all are considered viable contenders for
inclusion in the first volume of topiCS.
Invitation by the Editor and Associate Editors
The Editors and Associate Editors will organize special issues
around topics that they deem are timely. As an example, recent
years have seen a significant increase at the conference on presentations
on the cognitive science of decision-making. An interesting special
issue might focus on the unique contribution of cognitive science
to decision making as compared to the other decision sciences.
Another example might include a special issue on the Semantic Web.
Whereas within the Computer Science community the Semantic Web
is widely perceived as “cognitively influenced”, within
the Cognitive Science community the Semantic Web has almost zero
profile. Other ideas include; approaches to navigation and the
representation of space, new approaches to innovation and creativity,
dynamical systems approaches to higher-level cognition, formal
approaches to group behavior, social and cognitive mechanism of
joint action, immediate interactive behavior, and more.
Great Debates in Cognitive Science
As an example of this category, the Editor
and Associate Editors might solicit two lead papers from two
proponents of conflicting cognitive theories. Commentaries on
each would be invited and limited to a certain word count (to
be determined, but say < 5000 words).
Something such as this was done in the Cognitive Science journal
in 1993 when Alonso Vera and Herb Simon wrote a target article
on Situated Action and Greeno & Moore, Agre, Suchman, and Clancey
wrote extended responses.
Summary of Formats
The above were the main formats discussed when the ideas for topiCS were
being developed. However, other formats would be considered and
encouraged. The charter of topiCS is to experiment with
a variety of fresh and innovative formats that a more traditional
journal would not want to handle. The only format that would be
precluded would be the traditional journal format of publishing
a series of great, but unrelated, papers. We would refer all such “regular” submissions
to Cognitive Science.
3.3. Management and
Charge to Reviewers
topiCS will have an extended board of Associate Editors.
The Associate Editors will be recruited broadly and will see as
their mission the cultivation and recruitment of hot topic proposals.
The review process for each issue will be controlled by the Editor
or an Associate Editor. The expectation is that all manuscripts
would be reviewed by three qualified reviewers. In the event that
an unsolicited special issue was accepted, one of the three reviewers
might be the proposers or another author of one of the special
issue papers. However, in all cases, the lead editor of the issue
would be the Editor or one of the Associate Editors, and the majority
of reviewers would be from the topiCS Editorial Board.
Beyond
the normal charge to reviewers of ensuring technical competency
and theoretical rigor, the reviewers will have the additional charge
of ensuring that the authors communicate to the greater cognitive
science community.
3.4. Management of the Submission
and Review Process
We envision the model now implemented
for the Cognitive Science journal in which Editorial Manager™ is
used to manage electronic manuscript submission, review, and
all correspondence with the authors, reviewers, editors, and
managing editor. However, at this time all correspondence should
be addressed to the founding Editor, Wayne Gray, at grayw@rpi.edu.
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