Survey on peer review--addendum

Peer-reviewed Publishing in Cultural Materials Conservation

Thank-you to all those that participated in the questionnaire
circulated earlier this year.  We had a good response, which led to
some interesting results.

A brief summary of the project and results:

This research investigated conservators' experiences of the current
environment of peer-reviewed publishing.  It examined, in
particular, the value conservators place on the dissemination of
their research; the obstacles to, and incentives in publishing;
conservators' view of the benefits of publication to themselves and
the field; and the impact of the field's inherent
interdisciplinarity.  Eighty-six conservators and ten journal
editors completed an online questionnaire focusing on the
communication of knowledge within the field of cultural materials
conservation.  Data was analysed using content analysis.

Findings suggest that while the peer-review process is valued, this
is not flowing through to any critical number of conservators
publishing via the peer-review process (or publishing in general).
This may be due to a number of factors, perhaps most significantly
the incongruity between the female *connected* approach to
communication that defines the space of the conservator, and the
male *separate* approach that defines the publishing process.  In
addition, the publishing process seems to advantage those that see
themselves as carrying out 'research' as opposed to those that see
themselves as working in a more 'practical' way.  In order for the
field to benefit from higher impact and flow-on projects it will
need to undergo a shift from viewing specificity and 'expert'
knowledge as distinct from interdisciplinary practice, to viewing
specificity and 'expert' knowledge as being vital to an
interdisciplinary approach.

Refereed outlets for interdisciplinary research are essential to the
credibility of the field's internal dialog, and its potential for
future growth.  This project suggests that conservators need to
collaborate and 'look beyond their workbench edge' to take advantage
of the unique interdisciplinary position of the field.

Marie Christodulaki


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 27:17
                 Distributed: Tuesday, October 15, 2013
                       Message Id: cdl-27-17-003
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