I just wanted to give three cheers for culanth.org, the website of Cultural Anthropology. It is simply one of the nicest websites I’ve seen for an anthropology journal/AAA section. There is much to admire, but first and foremost is the beautiful clean and minimalist design of their homepage. Having overseen the redesign of the SLA website (which has since gone through additional changes) I can say from experience that this is no easy task. Other things to admire on the site include:
True Open Access: These aren’t simply ads for the journal, but links to articles which authors have placed in institutional repositories.
They also have a great blog: [Heh, right now the blog’s homepage is giving error messages, but you can link to the most recent blog posts from the top level of the site.] You can also follow them on Twitter.
Curated collections: “(formerly Virtual Issues) gather together five articles that speak to a particular anthropological or contemporary theme.”
What other AAA journals/sections have great websites that promote open content?
Thanks Kerim! A lot of people had a hand in making the site, including our designer/developer Ryan Schenk and our lead developer CJ Bryan. We had a website committee that shaped the vision of the site, and our editorial interns generate most of the content.
Probably our biggest project has been the article supplemental archive, http://production.culanth.org/supplementals/browse/volumes, which can be searched by volume, author, theme, and area. Still in progress (we’re migrating a 700 page site), but a great resource nonetheless.
And, yes, the Fieldsight index is down and our developer is on the road… Hopefully we’ll have it back up by the end of the week.
Thanks for the props, Kerim! She wouldn’t tell you, but most of the credit goes to Ali Kenner herself, who coordinated the entire enterprise, dragged the website committee through the details, and found the excellent developers and interns. We’re delighted with the new platform, and have some big plans in store for it, so keep watching (and participating)
Indeed! Many cheers for the indefatigable Ali Kenner, who makes interning for @culanth such an exciting venture all around.
Yes, the continuing transformation of Cultural Anthropology from a journal to a new type of dynamic, productive intellectual community and broad online resource is a gift to us all. One of the projects I’ve been most impressed with the last year is the intern program: substantive and serious and a great opportunity for grad students (http://production.culanth.org/pages/intern-program). Thanks, Ali and all at CA for your creativity and hard work.