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Both the editors and the reviewers of the papers submitted to this journal have guidelines which influence their judgment. In the interest of transparency and to offer as further introduction to this new series of quarterly journals, we would like to share these guidelines with our readers.
 

Over the last ten years, there has been an intriguing confluence of issues and communities that have come together around the various publications and projects of The Gilbert Center. We've explored different ways to articulate it, but we do know that it concerns the fundamental relational underpinnings of civil society. (By "civil society", we mean that vast part of human relations that is not just business and not just government, although it certainly overlaps with both. It includes nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, but also the much larger number of group entities that are not nearly so formal in nature, but which mediate much that is meaningful and empowering in our lives.) By partnering with a series of organizations for various issues of the journal and having correspondingly strong themes (such as our first issue on ICT and Social Change), we hope to help articulate different answers to some important questions, including (but not limited to): In what forms of connection does civil society emerge? What weakens and strengthens it? How can it renew itself in new historical, political, and technological settings?
 

Our broad interest in the enabling factors of civil society and social change are narrowed somewhat in this journal to an examination of the role of networks. We are interested in rigorously designed research addressing all aspects of networks and civil society. We are interested in both direct and indirect studies and are not confining our scope to online networks. We are taking a multidisciplinary approach. Original papers and proposals are sought from both researchers and practitioners in all relevant subject areas. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to papers that engage with any of the following topics: The richness of community ties and the effectiveness of movements. The evolution of the civil society organization in the context of networks. Community breakdown as an issue that cuts across boundaries of civil society work. The discovery of key leverage points in the (re)building of social networks. Methods for identifying, mapping, and measuring the strength of networks relevant to civil society. Social capital acquisition for civil society organizations. Network building as advocacy and social change strategy. New funding and accountability models for network centric civil society initiatives.

The Spring Journal is entitled "The Journal of Information Technology in Social Change" and was published in collaboration with the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. This narrows the broader scope of our investigation considerably. We're still interested in a civil society perspective, meaning that the more general connections between technology and social change need to have that additional filter applied. (There are a great many channels that look very closely at technology and social change in general.) In other words, we're interested in the role of ICT in empowering the agency of citizens and their groups. Some of the questions which interest us include: What is revealed about the use of ICT in social change work? Are the insights of this research useful to those who are thinking about large scale strategies? Can they be applied by other organizations or networks?
 

Although we are open to a wide range of research approaches, we are indeed interested in genuine research. We would like our reviewers to apply their own critical judgment and experience to the quality of the methods used, including data gathering, analysis, and conclusions drawn. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research? What is the quality of the data? Are the assumptions, methods, and reasoning clearly laid out? Are important aspects of the research reproducible or refutable? What's missing?
 

Our journals are targeted at an unusual audience. We're interested in social change and the preservation and empowerment of civil society. We are therefore also interested in practitioners who are interested in strategic level learning and scholars who are interested in strategic level practice. We would like our reviewers to help us straddle that creative divide. This means that papers should be well structured and compelling to read. Eloquence is not the only standard, of course. And although we are an English language journal, we embrace those for whom English is not their first language. Some questions reviewers might consider include: How can different audiences each get the most out of this paper? In what ways might excerpts of the paper make effective stand alone articles? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the writing? What's missing?