Towards the ‘Special Issue’ Edition at AJMC Communication UII
Special issue-based publishing is an opportunity for international journals. It is also possible for an international journal belonging to UII Communications called the Asian Journal of Media and Communication or commonly abbreviated as AJMC. Special issues or special editions are journal publications that focus on a particular object of study. This specific study is essential to color the enrichment of communication thinking and media studies at the Southeast Asian level.
This special edition is a publication fronted by an editor (or a team of editors – 2 or 3 people), according to the field of study of each editor at AJMC. “Each editor can propose a special edition. With a general calculation, there are 11 editors, then AJMC can publish 11 special editions for the next six years,” said Muzayin Nazaruddin at the AJMC Editorial Meeting on September 14, 2021 via Zoom. AJMC now has internationally qualified editors and has published publications on the Scopus index. These editors come from various campuses both in Indonesia and abroad.
“The publication of this special edition is essential for setting the agenda to bring out new themes and color the study of communication and media in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and even Asia,” said Muzayin in front of the editors. According to Muzayin, in this context, AJMC is a “long-term project,” there is greater interest, academic idealism is more important than just publication.
The process of issuing special issues also cannot be managed in a mediocre way. The processes and stages that can be carried out, for example, start from calls for abstracts (papers), invited papers, including the most important thing is making a series of workshops and talks. “These steps show that the special issue was designed from the start by AJMC. UII Communication Study Program is committed to supporting funding and other resources for the necessary processes,” said Muzayin.
Holy Rafika and Zaki Habibi, the editors at AJMC, also argue that special issues in AJMC can also not be designed but obtained through a network of editors; for example, special issues can be obtained from conference panels. With this model, it is possible to issue a particular issue with an outside ‘guest editor’.
Luthfi Adam, the journal editor from Northwestern University, argues that AJMC could regularly hold public lectures or seminar series on relevant topics. The content of the public lecture can be published. Muzayin added, or vice versa, a good article that has already been published in AJMC, the author is invited to speak at the seminar.
Zaki Habibi, Ignatius Haryanto, Lintang Ratri, and also M Heychael, the editor of AJMC, also suggested that this international journal should also publish various types of manuscripts. Research articles and conversations, for example, can be taken from a series of workshops that have been held, retrospective articles, theoretical articles, book reviews, film reviews, visual articles (photo-based), and others.
