Behind the screen: The making of Inquiry
The first of anything is always as frustrating as it is exciting, and that was certainly the case with this first issue of Inquiry. I had to call on all my experience as writer, editor and teacher, and then learn a lot that I hadn't run across before. We took on a large task, unique, I believe, among university online research journals: to make academic research comprehensible—and even interesting—to a wide public audience. In addition, we wanted the personal enthusiasm of the student researchers to shine through.
Both goals meant extensive rewriting by the authors and intensive reading and responding by the Editorial Board, the five student editors, and myself. The scientific researchers had, perhaps, the hardest job, but we found that each discipline has its own technical terms-convenient shorthand for the initiated, jargon for the rest of us. How to translate but not over-simplify?
We started revisions in the fall. The authors jumped right in; many did five or more complete rewrites-and would have done more if time had permitted. The student editors read, asked questions, made suggestions and revisions, interviewed and wrote biographies of authors, mentors and of one another. In the background, faculty mentors advised and cheered the students on. It was an exciting-and exhausting-collaboration.
The really new part for us all was finally building the journal Web site. Editorial and Creative Services, assisted by Web Solutions, rose to the challenge; slowly the architecture of the site appeared, looking to me as complex as a Gothic cathedral. And then the last-minute rush to fix this and change that before opening the doors to you.
So here we are at last—proud and happy. And already working on next year's issue...
Jennifer Lee, Editorial Coordinator
