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Although the study of civil society has largely confined itself to the study of organizations, there is growing interest in understanding the broader contexts and enabling conditions for a healthy and effective civil society. At the same time, the spread of low cost communication systems in the last two decades has helped spur interest in applying the science of networks to social groups and social phenomena.

The Gilbert Center is seeking research papers for the new Journal of Networks and Civil Society, Summer 2007 Edition. This is the second thematic issue in our journal series and is intended to complement the previous issue which focused on information technology. We are interested in rigorously designed research addressing all aspects of networks and civil society, including research that engages 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.

We are taking a multidisciplinary approach. Original papers and proposals are sought from both researchers and practitioners in all relevant subject areas. Complete papers are encouraged and will be given priority over abstracts or proposals. Two to three page proposals that include a summary of research findings and methods used will also be considered. Send submissions including the author's contact information, position, and affiliation as PDF, RTF, or Plain Text files to research@gilbert.org.

Deadline for Proposals: Thursday, May 17, 2007
If you are going to submit a proposal, not a full paper, then we need to receive it by this date. We will review these as they come in, and get back to you as quickly as possible, to let you know if we would like you to submit a complete paper for the next deadline. The sooner you can get that proposal to us the more time you will have to write the complete paper.
 
Deadline for Complete Papers: Monday, June 25, 2007
All complete papers must be received by this date. Not an early draft, but a final draft of the paper, please. (The final revision deadline below is for any revision requests made after the peer review process only.) If you previously submitted a proposal and we requested a complete paper from you, then your paper will go straight into the peer review process from here. If this is the first time we hear from you, we will check the contents of your paper and let you know as quickly as possible whether we are sending it into the peer review process.
 
Author notification (and editorial requests): Aug. 23, 2007
We will have the peer reviews in hand, and we will let all authors know, by this date, whether or not we will be accepting their paper for this edition of the journal, and whether acceptance is conditional upon further revisions to the paper.
 
Final Revisions Due: September 12, 2007
If a paper was accepted, but conditional upon revisions, this is the date by which we need to receive those revisions.
 
Journal Publication Date: September 26, 2007

The Journal of Networks and Civil Society is not identical to the Journal of Information Technology in Social Change (JITSC), the first issue of which was published in April 2007. They are both part of the Journals of the Gilbert Center and share a subscriber base, but they are distinct thematic publications with distinct editorial content and research focus. The first issue of JITSC was published in partnership with NTEN, but the Journal of Networks and Civil Society is not. JITSC is focused on information technology, but the Journal of Networks and Civil Society is focused on networks.