A brief history of the Journal
Caribbean Geography was founded by Mike Morrissey and David Barker, who became the journal's editors when it began publication in 1983. The first two volumes (eight issues) were published by Longman Jamaica/Carlong, then from 1993, by UWIPA (an acronym for the University of the West Indies Publishers' Association, a co-operative group of journal editors and others interested in scholarly publishing based at Mona campus). In 1993 the new university press, called The Press, UWI, assumed responsibility for distribution and order fulfilment. In recent years, following the winding down of UWIPA's activities, the journal has been published by its editors, and financed out of subscriptions. The Press has supported the journal in these difficult times through its role in handling subscriptions, orders and distribution. The University Printery at Mona campus has also provided invaluable technical assistance in ensuring the continued publication of the journal. Currently, publishing arrangements and practices are once more under review in order to place the journal on a sounder financial footing and to work towards a more regular publication schedule.
The following passages provide further background on the publication history and development of the journal:
An excerpt from the first Editorial (written in 1983)......"During the last quarter-century of geography's expansion and development, a considerable amount of research has been focused on the Caribbean. Some of the research results have appeared in international journals, but much valuable material has remained unpublished. A professionally refereed regional journal, published at regular and frequent intervals, and serving as a local forum for the discipline has long been needed. That the region could sustain such a journal, to reflect the vibrant state of the subject, has been expressed on many occasions.
Prior to the appearance of Caribbean Geography, several ephemeral English language publications have appeared and tried to plug this gap and provide outlets for the publication of original research. The Geography Department at the University of the West Indies, Mona, was instrumental in pioneering several issues in each of its series `Research Notes', `Occasional Papers' and its directory `Caribbean Geographer'. The University of Guyana's Geography Department has also run an `Occasional Papers' series. Local geographical associations have similarly played an important role in disseminating information. The Jamaican Geographical Society publishes a Newsletter and has a number of other publications to its credit. The Geographical Association of Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana, have produced their own journals, and has the U.W.I. Student Geographical Society. Barbados too, has produced a Fieldwork Project Guide.
However, all these efforts have lacked continuity and rarely commanded the resources to enable them to be professionally produced or widely distributed. Caribbean Geography is a new journal designed to help the discipline in the region...."
SOURCE: Editorial: Introducing Caribbean Geography, Volume 1 Number 1, 1983, p1.
...and an excerpt taken from an article written by the Editor in
1993..."...CG was officially launched in December
1983 at the University of the West Indies bookshop, Mona campus. The first steps
on the road to publication had occurred two years earlier, in October 1981, when
Mike Morrissey (Faculty of Education, Mona) approached David Barker (Department
of Geography, Mona) with the idea of starting a new journal. From the outset, CG
was conceived by its founding editors as a cross-faculty `outreach' commitment
to develop the discipline of geography and geographical education in the region.
The rationale for starting a regional journal was partly based on a perceived need for more locally-focussed material on the geography of the region. Through the 1970s for example, the geography A-Level examiners of the Cambridge Examinations Syndicate had frequently lamented the absence of local examples used by Caribbean candidates in GCE examinations. To help remedy the situation, one of the journal's founders had established a project which employed sixth form teachers to develop local teaching units, but the project was stymied by the lack of local resource material needed to write the units (Morrissey, 1981). Another source of local material, in-house publications from Mona's geography department - The Caribbean Geographer, (which appeared twice: vol 1, 1971; vol 2, 1972) and a series of Departmental Research Notes and Occasional Papers - had flourished briefly, then were discontinued in the early 1970s.
Further, the editors felt that regional-level journals occupied an important niche in scholarly publishing. In geography's case, interesting Caribbean research sometimes remained unpublished: authors or editors of international journals might perceive certain material as too parochial, or of interest only to a small, regionally-focussed audience. Finally, the editors wanted the status and visibility of the subject and the morale of geographers in the region to be elevated, and felt a successful professional journal could help achieve this goal (Editors Report, 1983).
By December 1981, the first `Call for Papers' had been mailed to around 70 geographers who were known to have published material on the Caribbean region. The net was cast widely within and outside the region. The editors had support from colleagues at Mona campus, and numerous expressions of goodwill from Caribbean geographers. A small grant was obtained from the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau to help with the initial administration costs, such as stationary and postage. Positive responses in the form of good manuscripts from a number of well-established international geographers encouraged Morrissey and Barker to seek a publisher.
Morrissey drafted a proposal for a new regional journal and approached Shirley Carby, Managing Director at Longman Jamaica and, in May 1982, the company agreed to support the venture and publish the first four issues (volume 1, 1983-84). Longman Jamaica was a small, dynamic local publisher which had hitherto focussed on school textbooks. Given the uncertainties involved and the relative lack of editorial and marketing experiences with journals amongst all parties, it was a bold move by Longman Jamaica's management, as the parent UK company expressed reservations about the venture.
Under an arrangement, subsequently extended to four more issues (volume 2, 1985-89), Longman Jamaica were to publish, distribute and market the journal. All eight issues of the first two volumes were typeset and printed at a local Kingston printer, Montrose Printery. Thus, the entire journal was conceived, edited and produced in Jamaica, except for the cover design, contributed by the Longman Group (UK). Longman Jamaica were able to enlist the help of Longman Trinidad with the last three issues of volume 2.
In this developmental phase, the editors assembled a group of experienced Caribbean geographers, who agreed to assist the editors as advisors, and to solicit manuscripts and help publicise the new journal, as well as acting as referees when called upon. The members of this advisory group were Wilma Bailey (UWI, Mona), Theo Hills (McGill University), Dawn Marshall (UWI, Cave Hill), Frank Mills (College of the Virgin Islands), Bonham Richardson (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Elizabeth Thomas-Hope (University of Liverpool).
At the end of 1980s, Longman Jamaica was in the process of being divested from the parent UK company, to become a wholly-owned Jamaican company called Carlong Publishers. Their thrust in the development and publication of local primary and lower secondary level textbooks made the journal incompatible with their list and marketing approach, and so the company and the founding editors amicably agreed to seek new publishing arrangements for volume 3. In 1991, Carlong handed over, gratis, publication rights, all back issues, and the subscription list to the Management Committee of The University of the West Indies Publishers' Association (UWIPA), who became CG's new publishers. In addition, Carlong offered a small financial contribution towards publication of subsequent issues.
UWIPA itself had begun life in the mid-1980s as a small, informal cooperative of journal editors and other university staff at Mona campus, concerned with the improvement of scholarly publishing within the university. CG's founding editors were active members of the original group, which met regularly to discuss mutual editorial, marketing and production problems and share experiences. By the early 1990s and under the dynamic leadership of Janet Liu Terry, UWIPA had grown into an organisation which offered commercially competitive desktop typesetting facilities and was venturing into publishing. For example, UWIPA had compiled and published the first-ever catalogue of University of the West Indies publications, and was about to launch a new publication, Caribbean Review of Books. From the point of view of UWIPA's Management Committee, adopting Caribbean Geography was consistent with its mandate to assist and facilitate publication of members' journals, especially during difficult times.
A critical aspect of CG's development in this period of transition and consolidation was a grant secured from the UWI Publications Board to print and distribute the next issue. The infusion of outside funds at this time was crucial, providing breathing space for reorganisation. As a one-off, pump-priming grant, it underscored the need to develop CG not just as an academically reputable journal, but also one which was economically viable and sustainable.
During this reorganisation, the journal was redesigned, physically enlarged in size and page-length, and restored to a frequency of two issues per year. Production was transferred to the University Printery, and computer desktop typesetting using the Ventura software package was introduced. The new technology has lead to increasing numbers of final manuscripts sent on diskettes, and has opened up the possibility of submisssion by E-Mail.
The most recent development in CG's publication history, started in 1993, has been the transfer of its marketing and distribution to The Press, UWI. The new university press was established in 1992 after many years of lobbying by individuals and groups within the UWI system, including UWIPA itself. A natural development once The Press began operations was to transfer to it some of UWIPA's functions. The new distribution arrangements for CG are thus part of this reorganisation, though the journal continues to be published under UWIPA's imprint."
SOURCE: Barker, D. (1993) `The progress of Caribbean Geography, 1983-93', Caribbean Geography, 4(2), pp77-89.
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