POETICS: JOURNAL OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON CULTURE, THE MEDIA AND THE ARTS

Letter from the Editors

1. Poetics, Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts, founded in 1971, has moved to become a major international outlet for empirical social-science research on culture in a broad sense. Kees van Rees and Paul DiMaggio, the editor and associate editor as of 1991, have made several changes that underscore a shift in the journal's focus. First, a new subtitle demonstrates the journal's interest in publishing research on culture, the media, and the arts and it emphasizes the Journal's commitment to empirical research (defined broadly to include qualitative as well as quantitative empirical studies). Second, the Advisory Board which plays a core role in the blind review process is being renewed on a regular basis.

Authors interested in submitting papers may send them directly to Elsevier’s Electronic Submission System –   http://ees.elsevier.com/poetics/.

Inquiries may be addressed to the Editor, Kees van Rees, Department for the Study of Arts and Culture, Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands, e-mail address: vanrees@fhk.eur.nl or to the Associate Editor, Professor Paul DiMaggio (Sociology Department, 2-N-2 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA, e-mail address: dimaggio@princeton.edu).

2. Aims and scope

The number of possible topics that are in the scope of POETICS: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts is very high. In order to assist authors in preparing papers for submission (and deciding which papers to submit) , we here formulate a number of principles for `preferred papers', that is, papers that in our opinion best realize the unique aims and perspectives of the Journal. Very few papers will actually implement all the principles mentioned below. However, these principles make explicit at least some of the practical criteria used by the Editor, Associate Editor and the Advisors of POETICS: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts in their decisions to accept or reject papers (which does not mean that there are no differences of orientation, theory, method or philosophy among them, of course).

POETICS: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts is the leading international forum for reporting the results of research into culture, the media and the arts. The Journal is looking for empirical studies that test explicitly stated hypotheses derived from a strong theoretical framework, and use inferential statistics if appropriate. Findings and discussion also need to be focused on these hypotheses. The Journal is also interested in empirical studies that rigorously extend theory and/or develop hypotheses, including studies that rely on interviews or comparative-historical analysis.

Occasionally, papers may also fall into one of the following categories: papers reporting advances in relevant theory and applications, general survey papers and short communications. As an interdisciplinary forum of empirical research on culture, the media and the arts, POETICS publishes not only advanced research but also overviews related to the mentioned topics. Papers that provide a detailed interpretive analysis of a (literary, cinematographic or theatrical) artwork find a better forum in other journals. Particularly welcome are papers that make an original contribution to the major disciplines - psychology, sociology, and economics – and to important areas within those disciplines -- such as economic sociology, sociology of culture, political science, cognitive science, and communication research. These disciplines and their areas have yielded promising lines of research on culture, media and the arts that scholars continue to address and refine.
Some examples of types of papers which POETICS: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts would be glad to publish:

• Sociological, economic and/or psychological research on participation in the arts, media use, the conditions under which makers of cultural products operate, the functioning of institutions which make, distribute and/or judge cultural products, empirical studies of the formation or effects of arts and media policy, the interdependence of institutions and agents in the cultural field;
• Psychological research on the processing of cultural products (texts, films, theatrical performances , visual artworks);
• Economic research on the funding, costs and benefits of commercial and non-profit organizations in the fields of art and culture, choice behavior of audiences analyzed from the viewpoint of the theory of lifestyles, and the impact of economic institutions on the production or consumption of cultural goods.

The production and consumption of media, art and culture are highly complex and interrelated phenomena. Our insights into these broad domains will be considerably enhanced by studies focusing on the interrelationship of the many factors which shape behavior towards art, culture and the media.