Past Discussed: Call for Papers

Past Discussed (working title) is a new quarterly journal focusing on human history. The purpose of this journal is to offer a bridge between blogs and blog carnivals and the more widely recognized journals of the scholarly world. Past Discussed will be published four times a year, freely available online in PDF format and sold for minimal cost through Lulu.com. The deadline for Volume 1 Issue 1 is currently the end of February 2008.

Submissions should be focused on pre-Renaissance history or digital scholarship. Potential article varieties include full length scholarly articles, news commentary, reviews, sample collection photographs, or other potentially interesting pieces. All published articles will have to be Creative Commons licensed, other forms of release may be necessary in order to insure publication rights. It is the intent of those involved to leave as much of the rights as possible with the original authors. Articles submitted will be read by a series of reviewers and editors in order to select those that will be included in the issue.

In order to submit pieces for Volume 1 Issue 1 of Past Discussed, post your CC licensed article on an open access website, and place a link in the comments section for this post, with a note stating your blog name and intent to have your piece included in PD. The theme for the first issue will be “Digital Publishing”. Please feel free to submit articles on any topic, but note that editors and reviewers will be specifically looking for articles that match the issue’s theme.

By necessity not all articles submitted can be included in PD, but here are some suggestions that may aid in your submission.

• While content is important, remember that editors will also be paying attention to the quality of writing.
• Make sure to attribute all sources properly. This should be done with correct bibliographic notes and citations where necessary.
• Because of the nature of this publication, all contents must be Creative Commons Licensed. This means that it might be impossible to use certain graphics or quotations if taken from other sources, even if such use would normally be acceptable. If there are any questions or doubts, please feel free to contact the staff of PD through the comments section or the contact page of this blog.
• Articles do not have to be produced during the quarter of a specific issue of PD, but original and topical pieces are more likely to receive a positive reception than dated writings.
• Check back here for further updates that may impact the reception of your article, such as editorial guidelines and licensing requirements.

UPDATE: The purpose of this collection is to be inclusive of all types of work, resulting from this, editors and reviewers will not only be looking at hard and dry journal articles, we like to be entertained too.  The above suggestions are exactly that, suggestions.  In general we understand that that blog posts and other sources that PD will be drawing from may not have citations or draw from non-prose formats. 
Possibilities of personal experiences and more entertaining post are certainly appropriate for submission,  and we would like to see what you can come up with.