JOBS Call for a new Editor: Journal of Planning History. Deadline: 12.10.2012

CALL FOR NEW EDITOR: JOURNAL OF PLANNING HISTORY

The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) is soliciting applications from qualified individuals or two-person teams to succeed Dean Christopher Silver as editor of the refereed Journal of Planning History. Prof. Silver, who has served admirably as the journal’s founding editor for more than a decade, will work with the incoming editor to facilitate a smooth transition during 2013. The journal was developed in conjunction with Sage Publications under the aegis of SACRPH. It is distributed to SACRPH members as a benefit of membership and has an institutional subscription level (in libraries) of more than 1,500.

Editing JPH provides faculty with the opportunity to be at the center of research on city and regional planning history, both in the United States and across the globe. In addition, the editor is an ex-officio member of the SACRPH Board’s Executive Committee and attends Board of Directors meetings in conjunction with the SACRPH biennial fall conference and the Urban History Association’s conference (held biennially in alternate years).

RESPONSIBILITIES
The editor works closely with the JPH publisher in preparing issues for publication (including manuscripts, images, covers, reviews, etc.). This includes assuring that authors adhere to the publication schedule set by Sage as well as anticipating and responding to problems with graphics, formatting, page counts, and the like. Sage does the copyediting, layout, typesetting, printing and mailing. In addition, the editors work closely with Sage in marketing the Journal.

Currently, the editor works with an Associate Editor who is responsible for securing reviews of planning history publications and a second Associate Editor who helps to identify reviewers and solicit manuscripts. The journal is supported by a distinguished international advisory board of planning history scholars who assist with manuscript reviews and solicitation, and who also contribute guidance on journal policy and content.

The journal is published four times per year (February, May, August, November) and under the current contract with Sage has an annual allocation of 352 printed pages. The number of manuscript submissions per year has ranged between 28 and 36 over the past several years, and there is currently a slight backlog of articles accepted for publication that will cover the first two issues in 2013. Others are in the revise and resubmit mode. The journal encourages publications
well supported by illustrations and figures. The range of the articles is global and covers many time periods. Through the first eleven volumes of JPH, we have developed a large, diverse and high quality group of reviewers that span the diverse subject matter and geographical focus of planning history.

The role of the editor is to solicit double-blind external reviews, evaluate the article submissions based upon those reviews (and the editor’s judgment), and make the final determination on acceptance. In some cases, the editor has worked with authors on a series of revisions to bring the article to a publishable level. This has been the case where the author’s first language is not English. Sage offers an electronic submission system to assist the editor, authors
and reviewers that can be utilized by the new editor(s). Even if this system is not used, the editor’s submission of accepted articles to Sage is done through their online SMART system.

SUPPORT
Through the Sage agreement, the editor receives a $4000 stipend annually. Moreover, SACRPH provides a $4000 stipend annually. These funds are available for the editor to secure local assistance with editorial duties, to cover travel to appropriate conferences to solicit manuscripts, to market the journal and to hold editorial advisory meetings, and to cover mailing, phone and other expenses associated with the editorial duties. Typically, these funds have been supplemented by local contributions from the editor’s institution to carry out the editorial responsibilities.

QUALIFICATIONS
We expect that the next editor of the Journal of Planning History will have the following profile:

  1. Be affiliated with an academic department (history, planning, urban studies, geography, architecture, American studies, etc.) that addresses the history of planning;
  2. Be established in the academic planning history community by virtue of contributions in teaching, research and publication;
  3. Exhibit a broad understanding of planning history reflected through education, interests and publications;
  4. Have sufficient and sustained institutional support to provide some assistance over the full term of the editorship.

HOW TO APPLY
To apply for this position, please mail or email a letter to the co-chairs of the search committee by Friday, October 12, 2012. The co-chairs, together with two members of the SACRPH Board, will oversee the selection process, in consultation with the staff at Sage. We will keep the names of applicants confidential. The letter of application should briefly address the following:

  • Reasons for seeking the position, and overall objectives as Journal editor.
  • A current C.V.
  • Names and complete contact information of at least two references (if there are two or more proposed co-editors, then there should be separate reference contacts for each individual).
  • Evidence of institutional support, ideally in the form of a letter from the appropriate university or college administrative officer outlining whatever the institution may be willing to provide to support the editor, such as general office staffing sufficient for fiscal and administrative record keeping, allocation of student support, or possible course release.

The Search Committee hopes to recommend the next Editor to the SACRPH Board at its meeting in New York City, to be held on October 27, 2012. Interested applicants are encouraged to contact the current Editor of the Journal as well as the Search Committee Co-Chairs for any additional information and details.

Editor, Journal of Planning History
Christopher Silver
Dean and Professor
College of Design, Construction and Planning
University of Florida
331 Architecture Building
Gainesville, FL 32611
Tel: 352-392-4836
Email: Silver2@DCP.UFL.edu

Co-Chair, JPH Search Committee
Larry Vale
President, SACRPH
Ford Professor of Urban Design & Planning
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room 10-497M, 77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: 617-253-0561
Email: ljvale@mit.edu

Co-Chair, JPH Search Committee
Joseph Heathcott
President-Elect, SACRPH
Associate Professor of Urban Studies
Associate Dean for Academic Initiatives
The New School
66 W. 12th St., Suite 401
New York, NY 10011
Email: jheathcott@gmail.com

Joseph Heathcott
The New School