A Note of Welcome from the Editors

IN THE FALL OF 2001, a seminar held at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs began the process of discussion and planning that ultimately led to the launching of this new academic journal devoted to the examination of technology transfer. In typical fashion, the motivations behind Comparative Technology Transfer and Society are many and varied. Prominent elements include local factors noted in introductory notes from supporters. For the interested within the University of Colorado System and more specifically the Colorado Springs campus, the Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer and Implementation (CITTI), and The Johns Hopkins University Press. For the interested audience of scholars and professionals engaged in the study and practice of technology, however, the important point is that the editors intend to approach the study of technology transfer in the fashion of the social sciences. As the Statement of Scope printed elsewhere in the journal explains, we intend to publish analytical articles that approach this subject as a social process, covering all of its facets from international exchanges across national borders and cultural boundaries, to the movement of ideas, people, and technical systems within a single culture or organization. We plan to publish case studies of failures and success, and articles that consider technology transfer from the viewpoint of recipients as well as innovators and change agents. Above all, we hope to provide a forum for scholarly discourse about this interesting topic.

One starting point (especially in the face of the inevitable question of whether we need yet another academic journal) is the belief that although this topic may seem constricted and tightly focused, it actually encompasses an enormous field of inquiry that stretches across disciplines. Several arenas from which scholarship about technology transfer and diffusion has emerged are obvious (economics, anthropology, international development, geography, history of technology), whereas others are less apparent (technical communication, education, political science, public administration, sociology). Other scholars with an interest in the diffusion of technology are found in fields such as legal studies, business and management, information technology, and engineering—areas that are sometimes far from liberal arts and humanities. Our belief is that many of the scholars in these and other fields are not aware of related work in other disciplines, and we intend to provide a welcoming vehicle for scholarship that links these and other disciplines.

Because this is a topic-driven research journal, rather than a vehicle connecting a professional organization, it seems important to describe the structure that supports the project. The editorial home is furnished by Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer and Implementation (CITTI) at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Although the three Editors-in-Chief come from very different academic fields (history, public administration, and computer information systems), they share an interest in broadening the scholarship on technology transfer. Supporting the co-editors is an Editorial Board composed of established scholars from a larger array of academic fields. They provide a base of expertise for peer review and also help to shape editorial direction. It is an activist group, as will be seen by the several essays that board members will contribute to early issues of the journal. A Senior Editorial Board adds additional competence for the process of preliminary review, but more importantly is intended to help the journal reach beyond academic researchers (the primary audience of the journal) to a second audience of practitioners, administrators, managers, and officials engaged directly in technology transfer activities.

The contents and arrangement of the journal will reflect this double audience. The articles and book review section will mark this publication as an academic journal. We will also include frequent Notes from the Field in each issue. These notes will consist of short comments about individual articles prepared by scholars working in different fields than the author or practitioners engaged in the work that is the subject of the article. Notes from the Field will extend points made by...