Who We Are
The TWC committee oversees the running and release of Transformative Works and Cultures, the OTW’s online Diamond Open Access academic journal. TWC committee members solicit, arrange for peer review, and accept academic journal articles. From here, volunteers work to push the submissions through the multiple steps of production—copyediting, layout, and proofreading—to release every issue on time. TWC volunteers also handle soliciting and supporting special issues, including identifying editors, creating and disseminating Call for Papers, soliciting essays, and managing the workflow.
Transformative Works and Cultures is an international, peer-reviewed journal about transformative works and the fan community. We publish at least two issues per year: a special issue with guest editors on March 15 and a general issue on September 15. Some years, we release two special issues, with the second one generally published June 15.
Outside of running the journal itself, we also work with users to answer questions about TWC and maintain the TWC social media as well as liaising with Communications to signal boost the announcement of new issue releases.
Internal Structure
The TWC committee is made up of approximately thirty members divided into two main groups, the editorial and the production side.
- The editorial side is run by the editor(s) who oversee the section editors (Review and Symposium and Multimedia editors) and the Outreach and Communications editor, as well as working with external special issue editors. Editorial work encompasses receiving submissions, shepherding them through editorial or peer review, and corresponding with the authors. Editorial volunteering requires a background in academic work in a related field with a strong CV in fan studies/media studies research (or related field) and a professional editorial or teaching background.
- The production side is run by the production editor(s), who oversee the committee members who contribute to the different aspects of production. Production work takes the accepted submissions and tracks them through copyediting, layout, and proofreading. Production volunteering requires the successful passing of a professional copyeditor/proofreader test for those two positions.
Fans of Color Research Prize
Beginning in 2024, TWC began offering a research prize for the best peer-reviewed article about fans and/or fandoms of color published in TWC in the preceding three years. This prize is offered in pursuit of furthering the journal’s goal to support scholars whose work fills critical gaps in fan studies literature about racially marginalized and/or non-western fans which are both historically and presently underrepresented.
Authors may self-nominate, or articles may be nominated by someone else. Authors nominated by third parties will be asked whether they consent to participate.
A prize committee composed of members of the TWC editorial board will determine the winner and reward them a $500 cash prize.
Refer to the TWC website for more information.
Contact Us
If you want to learn more about the TWC committee or the Transformative Works and Cultures journal, or if you have any other questions, please contact us–we will be happy to hear from you.