Into The Next Forty Years

Abstract

Long-term readers of Arctic know that the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) has completed 40 years of existence, and as Arctic enters its 39th volume it is undergoing a facelift .... AINA was founded in the aftermath of the last world war to serve as a repository of northern data collected during wartime, and more importantly to serve as a vehicle for peacetime research and scholarship in the North. Wartime science was principally data gathering in the hard sciences and technologies. During much of the first 40 years the tradition of hard science prevailed .... The editorial content of Arctic reflected this focus. Clearly, profound changes are occurring in the North, and the reality of these changes is penetrating the academic community as never before. ... To maintain some element of currency in the pages of Arctic, we are trying to shift the editorial focus to include significant numbers of research papers on sovereignty, native government, renewable resource management, communications, international militarism, housing, linguistics, government, and all those other topics of prime concern at this time in the Arctic both in Canada and beyond. ... In these days of staggering new possibilities in electronic communications, we must not overlook uniquely important new technologies. ... Scholarly journals have been around since the beginning of time ... and they serve their authors and readers well in completing the process of discovery and learning. The printed word is a durable vehicle of communication, and it will be with us forever. ... Arctic should be exploring means by which the new technologies may be applied in the coming decade. We can follow the obvious approaches of using electronic data transmission for manuscripts between author, editorial offices, typesetter and printer. Then we can develop on-line, full-text availability for readers as well as on-line abstracting. The biggest delays, however, lie in review and revision, and it is here that the greatest innovation may be practiced. ... Perhaps there is a role for Arctic to play in facilitating a total review and revision process by promoting an innovative system in which evolving manuscripts are presented in an electronic network. ... In most parts of the world academic work is largely isolated from the "real world," but this is not true in the Canadian North. ... the more the focus of scholarship moves from traditional science toward issues of people ... the more the academic information system overlaps with the real-world systems. ... Arctic could assist in establishing a new dimension in information management in the North by promoting an arctic network of discovery and learning, focussing on innovative processes of communication, exploration, criticism, revision and publication.