Passing the Baton

This double issue of Technology and Culture is the last that we will produce at the University of Oklahoma as we pass responsibility with thanks and best wishes to Ruth Oldenziel and the new editorial team at Eindhoven University of Technology. In the past, the Editor-in-Chief has authored these "Passing the Baton" essays in T&C. This time, we diverge slightly from tradition to make this a collectively written essay from the core of our editorial team based here at the University of Oklahoma: Suzanne Moon, Peter Soppelsa, and Hunter Heyck. Keeping a journal running and thriving is a collective effort, a microcosm of the scholarly commons. We want to take the opportunity in this farewell essay to highlight the large-scale collaborations that make a scholarly journal such as T&C possible.

From T&C's inception, its editors have posed interconnected questions: what does our audience want or need from a journal? What will surprise and engage them, and help them push their own scholarship forward? And from whom will these contributions come? Mel Kranzberg famously solicited submissions from scholars, public intellectuals, and technology practitioners alike, as he laid the foundation for the journal's reputation as a forum for dynamic and cutting-edge thinking about technology. As the journal saw increasing submissions from professional historians, Bob Post gave considerable thought to the question of whether or not this represented an unacceptable narrowing of T&C's appeal and potential. John Staudenmaier, with the knowledge gained from his groundbreaking book Technology's Storytellers, pushed authors to move beyond the bunkers of their own sub-specialties, to engage other scholars broadly by articulating the larger themes and questions that animated their scholarship. His efforts in no small way promoted the history of technology as a coherent field of study. We knew from the start of our first editorial term that we wanted to find ways to diversify the voices, methods, and stories that appeared in T&C. In this regard, we aimed to follow in John Staudenmaier's footsteps and build on his legacy. To fulfill T&C's mission to publish the best scholarship in the history of technology while expanding the scope of the journal, we tried to take every opportunity to include more diverse voices, tell stories from a wider array of geographical, social, and cultural vantage points, remain open to the wide range of methodological approaches that scholars have used to inform their scholarship, and most importantly to respect and learn from the authors, referees, and reviewers whose scholarship and critical insights are the heart of the journal. Our editorial efforts ran the gamut from seeking out and encouraging authors of intriguing new scholarship to come to T&C, to providing extra editorial support for those working outside their first language or writing in non-Latin scripts.

As important as editorial engagement (big and small) with these matters was, nothing would have significantly changed if not for the willingness of others to collaborate with us. When Suzanne took up the editorship, she recalls telling attendees at a SHOT panel that T&C could not publish work that was never submitted, urging them to share with us the work they were personally excited to be doing. Many authors rose to the challenge, and entrusted us with their work, in some cases expending extra effort to build bridges between other disciplines and the history of technology. Referees were generous with their time and input, and at times put aside their expectations for "what a T&C article looks like" to instead consider what else T&C articles might be. Book reviewers and essayists likewise were game to explore the broader scholarship on technology for our pages. Readers, too, seemed to be on board. T&C has seen a continuous upward trend in its Journal Impact Factor (as measured by Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Journal Citation Report), which offers one indication that readers have increasingly found T&C to be a source of reliable and engaging content. Throughout we have enjoyed strong support from SHOT, including finding extra funding...