Making of ACAS 7: 'afterwords', the Students E-journal

One core characteristic of ACAS was it's incessant effort to lend meaningful experiences to the learners. Placing studied emphasis on involving learners and providing them opportunities in areas where they were often neglected, the college tried to make it more experiential than many others around. A number of initiatives which we came up with has the word 'student' prominently prefixed to it. This occasionally makes people ask why should this be as educational institutions are expected to focus on students. If really that had that been the case, there would never have been an expression like 'student-centred'. Invited Student Talks, International Student Seminars and the like were aimed to lay the stress heavily on students and put them in the lead. 'afterwords, the Annual Students E-journal',  too was launched to let the spotlight fall on them. 

The Plan 

With Project Quality Cell on the one side, Project Prize on the other and the Publication Wing on yet another, the idea of a journal started showing up in my crude plans for the college. But there were lots of research journals already around as the faculty members are expected to publish their research findings periodically. Since there is already such a rush to get published in those journals, the student writings won't stand much of a chance unless they bring out brilliant writing. What we had in mind was a journal with recognition (ISSN)  to promote good writing, good effort at academic writings by undergraduates and graduates. The idea was welcomed by the  faculty community and efforts began. The Department Heads were made aware of the challenges involved and they were all ready to jump in if there's someone to mentor them all along. 

The Implementation 

A senior faculty member, Saritha, Head of English at the College, was  the coordinator at the start, with a committee which was composed of Dept Heads. Later the responsibility of coordination was handed over to Mr. Midhulaj, Asst Professor of English. During the discussions it was decided that we needed a journal which will have space for creative writings too. These days there is such a heavy emphasis on research that the creative writing part is neglected. Editorial Team composition was the next stage and the Dept Heads were given the responsibility of nominating external members to the Editorial team of the proposed journal. 5 members were expected to be nominated by each core dept and this took a while as they need to identify those who are willing to be on the board of a new journal about to be launched by a very young college. We were actually looking for young and aspiring faculty members who can genuinely involve in the editorial responsibilities, unlike the big established names who will not have either time or interest in being part of the project. We thought such cosmetic fixtures won't help much in the long run. 

Meanwhile we also started looking for a name for the journal. We needed one which is simple but one which carries an element of literary charm too with it. The name 'afterwords' came up in my discussion with Dr. Kunhammad, Professor of English and Dean, Kannur University. 'Afterwords' which is homophonous with 'afterwards' was finalised as it combined all the dimensions we were looking for in an apt name: simple, memorable, short, though common it was not very common and varied the connotative buzz of the right kind. There still remained a lot of work to do. The drafting of the Editorial Policy was going ahead. The design of an exclusive website for the journal as we were going for an e-journal, was another major hurdle: the design of the web, the content for the web and the financial resources for the same too. One more element crucial was going for the International Standard Serial Number(ISSN) status. The communication with the body concerned was initiated for the same too. 

The Challenges

The decision of the institution to introduce a student e-journal with ISSN was another collective workload to the dynamic faculty community at the college. Since there is serious overlap between the work done by the publication wing and the journal, the challenges too had similarity. But the content meant for books  couldn't be considered for the journal. The  challenge of connecting to the faculty members from other HEIs who are willing to be on board proved a hard one. The relative inexperience of my faculty members too added to the situation. Though policy framing was not hard, getting ISSN and Website creation proved hard enough. ISSN challenge was related to the strict review and examination of the web content and the documents submitted for the purpose. The whole process was online through their portal. 

Simultaneously website work was begun. It was the hard efforts taken by Mr. Rohith, the then IQAC coordinator and Head of the Commerce Department, which resulted in the website creation. He was not a professionally trained website designer but did learn on his own to deliver what they wanted! Thank you Rohith.  The collection of articles were happening at the Dept level and it wasn't easy gathering good, publication worthy articles from the students of our college and those around. Though research methodology and academic writing  skills are taught in majority of colleges, they still proved to be not upto the task. Editing too consumed time. After a series of correspondence the ISSN was allotted. Their meticulous verification process was indeed a challenge but the care they took, to ensure that the web content tent is correct and in order, is truly appreciative. Interestingly equally challenging it was to get material for the creative writing pages too though we managed to expand our network and bring in enough for each issue. We sure would have been happy to carry more! 

The Takeaways 

The learning that happened among the faculty members on account of the ISSN journal was plenty. The coordinators could pick up valuable lessons on many fronts related to editing and publishing. The continuous professional development that the journal effort brought in has been tremendous. Into the third year now, there is a reconstituted Editorial Board in place and the professional networking has more than doubled for many of my colleagues. The institutions profile has been enriched and many of our students are able to walk out with a publication when they complete their degree. As the journal doesn't accept articles from the research scholars or Faculty members, all the space could be provided for the students. For the higher achievers of our college and those around, there is an opportunity to get their works published. This was in sync with the objectives of  the Scholar Mentor Cell of the college which explores meaningful opportunities for Advanced Learners. 

The Way Forward 

Running a journal is not easy. It necessitates steadfast involvement from the coordinators from the time a call for papers communication is issued to the day the final issue is released. The workload increases significantly especially if that happens to be an e-journal.  The web updation is to be taken care of with each article ready for separate download and all the other parameters set by the ISSN issuing authority is to be met meticulously. But satisfaction that the release of the final copy brings to all those who involve is reward enough! 'Afterwords, the annual interdisciplinary e-journal (ISSN: 2584 - 9047 - Online)for undergraduates and graduates' has brought out two volumes and is into the third one. I am sure that as the institution moves ahead, it has to penetrate the student community across the country and bring in representation from far and wide. There has to be a consistent rise in quality too. 

Babu. P. K., Ph D.