Peer Reviewing and Aspirational Criteria

The Context of Peer Reviewing

LANDING is a value-driven international journal, based in Vilnius, Lithuania. The project’s purpose is to publish method-focused, inquiry-based, transferable and situated contributions from the broad field of practice of “artists doing research.” We aspire to promote artistic-scientific collaborations that reflectively negotiate disciplinary boundaries, rather than submit to a dominant one, whether within the arts or beyond.

At LANDING we work with short- and medium-length contributions. We publish a print book as well as electronic articles with DOI numbers. The journal wants to promote peer-to-peer discussions, including the question of how to publish and communicate research, without letting language and text-based conventions dominate content. The layout and multimedia content of contributions forms an important aspect of the journal’s editorial and design process.

Before receiving a contribution, the editorial team has already performed what we call a Desk Review. This means a dialogue-based engagement with the structural and communicative aspects of the piece in its early draft stage. You are holding in your hands a refined second draft.

EXPANDED NOTES TO PEER REVIEWERS 

Aspirational Criteria for a LANDING Contribution

Situated
● Content is grounded in practice. The writing is speaking from a place that is made sufficiently clear.
Method
● The submission speaks to the method of doing (artistic) research, where the way of doing something is described, disclosed and communicated.
● Clarity is attempted, hesitation is favoured over grand and unsupported claims.
Transdisciplinarity and contemporary relevance
● The submission attempts to go beyond summarizing others’ work.
● There is an inquiry (knot of not-knowing, questions, doubts) which is discernible (identifiable).
● The novelty is not only for the researcher, but also for a community of makers, and ideally even beyond.
● The contribution communicates across specificities and specialities.
Considered
● The submission is a considered attempt responding to the call.
● Care has been taken to present the research using techniques of communication, such as visual skills, layout etc.
● The contributor meets the profile of the platform (Initially the project was pitched to early career researchers in art, design architecture and proximate fields, however now we include researchers from all stages of their careers.
Discursive
● The submission attempts to handle terms with reference to how others have understood them, including the tensions within a term (doubt, failure, dissensus).
● When language is used poetically, critically or creatively, the aspect of “languaging” is conscious. Reflection on this is incorporated in the submission.
Alignment of form, media and content
● The form proposed aligns with the content and media involved in the submission (depending on the call for the issue). The scope is adequately chosen.
● The media used to support the arguments or communication.
Transferability
● The submission is aware that research involves an attempt and generalisation and transfer of something discovered. Even if this question is complex and thorny in the arts, the submission goes beyond mere presentation of practice.
● The submission welcomes others into the world of a research practice and its idiosyncrasies.