New Voices in Classical Reception Studies is one of two e-journals published out of the Classical Studies Department of the Open University. Classical Reception Studies has been one of the fastest growing areas of Classical Studies in recent years and has been a traditional strength of our department. We therefore felt it would be particularly apt to harness this strength to the wider OU vision of expanding participation and access and promote a journal that particularly targeted early career researchers looking to publish their work for the first time.

In line with this mission, we aim to provide early career researchers with a highly supportive pathway through the publication process. Submissions to the journal go through the due process of peer review by anonymous readers but we also endeavour to maintain very high standards in giving feedback to authors and in supporting them during the editing and revision stages. This means authors can work towards publication in a quality journal (New Voices was an ‘A’ ranked journal in the 2010 ERA and is included in the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the databases of EBSCO Publishing) but can also feel that this process helps in their wider development as scholars and researchers. We aim to give the contributors to the journal a sense of a wider supportive research community in this subject area, and we hope that authors will move on from their interaction with the journal with confidence in their ability to thrive within this community.

The journal publishes a very wide variety of content (this reflects the field of Classical Reception Studies) and actively encourages submissions that cross discipline boundaries. We attract submissions from a wide international community: published authors have come from not only the UK but also from Argentina, Australia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Holland, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Spain. We always work with our international contributors to ensure that language won’t be a barrier to publication in the journal. Our international advisory board means the editorial team has access to wide-ranging expertise over the broad spectrum of the subject area that the journal covers.

We used to publish New Voices at a set time of year, following an annual call for papers. Instead, we publish each issue as soon as there are sufficient finished articles available. This enhances the turnaround time of the journal so that early career researchers to see their publication plans come to fruition. There is also now a conference proceedings imprint of the journal which similarly aims to bring research in Classical Reception into the public domain in as timely a fashion as possible (whilst still maintaining peer review).

In his final tweet before he passed away, Leonard Nimoy compared life to a garden full of perfect if transitory moments. For an academic one of life’s fleeting perfect moments ought to be the publication of one’s first article.  At New Voices we aim to provide the gardening advice to make this happen.

by Trevor Fear (‘New Voices’ Editor)