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Review by Marc Lange

March 15, 2021

Michael Chibnik, 2020, Scholarship, Money, and Prose: Behind the Scenes at an Academic 

Journal, University of Pennsylvania Press, 232 pp., ISBN 978-0-8122-5217-0

Keywords: academia, anthropology, journal, scholarly publishing, work

Publishing  is  essential  in  academia.  Its  inner  workings  and  daily  business  are

however rarely written about. A welcome exception is Scholarship, Money, and Prose,

in which Michael Chibnik offers  the reader a profound behind-the-scenes look of

American Anthropologist (AA), the flagship journal of the American Anthropological

Association. Mostly based on Chibnik's time as editor-in-chief of  AA from 2012 to

2016, the book is a personal account of his experiences and probably best described

by himself as “a perhaps unusual hybrid of an ethnography and a memoir” (p. viii).

The  book  broadly  falls  within  the  anthropology  of  work  but  is  of  interest  to

anthropology at large.

The book is well structured with its main text divided into an introduction and eight

chapters with clearly distinguished subjects. In the introduction, Chibnik recounts his

way to his editorial position at  AA and sets the stage for the following chapters by

providing context about academic journals in general and about AA in particular.

In the frst chapter, Chibnik explores  AA's history from its frst issue in 1888 to just

before  his  arrival  as  editor-in-chief  in  2012.  He  focuses  on  the  tensions  and

controversies  that  shaped  the  journal's  direction,  the  editors  and  their  different

visions, and the changing composition of the journal. He illustrates how AA started

out  as  a  four-feld  journal  with  mostly  descriptive,  generalizing  content  without

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much variety or topicality, and how over time it became more diverse in content as

well  as  editor-  and  authorship  and  how it  increasingly  addressed  contemporary

issues, while being more and more dominated by sociocultural anthropology.

The second chapter is a vivid retelling of the months immediately before and after

becoming editor-in-chief of  AA. Chibnik describes how he applied for the editorial

position, his interview before the search committee and how, after being selected, he

assembled the editorial board and the many necessary editorial positions.

The next three chapters are a detailed insight into the review and editorial processes

of  AA.  In  chapter  three,  Chibnik  elucidates  his  handling  of  the  submitted

manuscripts and on the organization of the peer review, particularly detailing his

experiences  with  the  reviewers  and  providing  informative  short  statistics  on  the

reviews. In the fourth chapter, he illustrates how he evaluated the manuscripts and

made decisions by providing anonymized excerpts from decision letters that he sent

to authors. He also openly explains how he dealt with submissions on topics he had a

personal preference or dislike for and how he tried to maintain the balance of content

from the four felds of anthropology in  AA.  Chapter fve is solely devoted to the

writing and style of manuscripts and Chibnik's attempts to improve AA's readability.

Obviously  an  important  issue  for  Chibnik,  he  animatedly  talks  about  the  often

unclear writing by anthropologists, the overuse of jargon, the challenges of technical

language, and the formal requirements imposed on manuscripts.

The focus of chapter six, perhaps the densest chapter, is the various kinds of material

presented in AA and its therefore magazine-like quality. Chibnik gives insights in the

creation of the regular and irregular features of the journal. In the process, he reviews

noteworthy incidents, responses and controversies of the time of his editorship.

The  seventh  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  business  aspects  of  publishing  AA.  The

complex fnances of the journal are outlined, in particular the funding, the fnancial

outlook  and  the  proft  sharing  between  the  publisher  Wiley-Blackwell  and  the

American  Anthropological  Association.  Chibnik  also  elaborates  on  increasingly

required business reviews and reports as well as the reliance on metrics to assess the

journal's impact, both of which he is not in favor of and perceives as part of an audit

culture.  In addition, he delves into production changes of  AA during his  time as

editor-in-chief and into open access publishing.

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The  fnal  chapter  is  a  look  backward  and  forward.  Chibnik  writes  about  the

succession of his editorial position and the transition of editorships. He reflects on his

likes and dislikes about editing  AA and comments on recent developments at the

journal (under his successor Deborah Thomas), the journal's future and the future of

academic journals in general. Chibnik concludes with remarks on his time as editor-

in-chief of AA, among them his wish of seeing other personal accounts of editing in

publishing.

Scholarship, Money, and Prose is a rarity in scope with its trigonal focus on scholarly

publishing, work and anthropology. While most titles that portray specifc journals

are historic accounts, this book's approach is different and certainly an addition to the

sparse  literature  on  the  day-to-day  work  in  scholarly  publishing.  The  book  also

admirably  contributes  to  the  anthropology  of  work  and  just  as  much  to  meta-

discourse in and about anthropology. Just as the anthropology of work has not all too

often focused on its own discipline as a feld, meta-discourse in anthropology is not

all too often about the daily business of disciplinary journals and its editors. Michael

Chibnik manages the balancing act. In great detail, the reader gets to know the nitty

gritty  and  the  peculiarities  of  editorial  work.  Chibnik  also  shows how academic

knowledge work, in this case in scholarly publishing, is influenced by more or less

external requirements (such as the economics of the journal and its governing body,

or  auditing  and  assessment  of  impact)  and  likewise  by  internal  disciplinary

contentions  and controversies  (such as increasingly complicated and overly feld-

specifc language, or disciplinary debates about current political issues).

The personal facet is a particular strength of the book. Chibnik places himself in the

book without becoming the focal point. Chibnik is neither shy of noting where he did

well nor of admitting where he made mistakes, while always staying on target of the

larger  issue  he  is  discussing.  It  would  not  be  unreasonable  to  call  the  book  an

autoethnographic portrayal of journal editing. For this reason, especially advanced

graduate  students  and  junior  researchers  may  fnd  the  book  a  rich  resource  for

background information  on  the  processes  at  the  other  end  of  a  submission  of  a

journal  article.  It  would therefore have been delightful if  the book had contained

more personal advice to authors of submissions.

Recent debates about open access in anthropology are not ignored by Chibnik. He

outspokenly discusses the issue and journals that have implemented open access,

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successfully or not. He is acknowledging the aspiration of open access while critically

noting  the  lack  of  practical  suggestions  on  implementation  by  its  proponents  in

anthropology. His detailed elucidations of how AA operates and why open access is

not yet viable are welcome insights and should be acknowledged by advocates of

open access.  It  would however  have been  encouraging  if  Chibnik  had drafted a

possible route to open access for AA given his experiences and in-depth insights.

Chibnik's strong emphasis on the importance of the core work of a journal editor and

his  realistic  stance  towards  AA's  production  and  its  capabilities  on  adapting  to

possibilities of digital publication are worthwhile and respectable. Chibnik's belief

that academic journals will persist might however prove wrong. Many developments

in scholarly  publishing forecast  a  departure  from journals  as  print-era publishing

outlets  fxed  on  volumes,  issues  and  pages.  While  their  names  may  persist,

publishing  formats  may  radically  change.  While  Chibnik  acknowledges  the

likelihood of such changes, the question of what then a journal essentially is remains

unresolved in the book. So does the question of how AA and anthropology should

react to such changes, or if they might even try to inspire them.

Nevertheless,  Scholarship,  Money,  and  Prose is  an  insightful  frst-hand  account  of

editing  a  scientifc  journal,  which  there  are  not  many  of.  It  is  of  interest  to

anthropologists  in  general  and  to  those  studying  work  or  practices  of  scholarly

publishing in particular. Michael Chibnik's intelligible writing certainly makes it a

compelling  read  for  a  broader  audience  interested  in  the  inner  workings  of  an

academic journal as well.

Marc Lange is a librarian at the academic library of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin,

where his main area of work is open access.  He graduated in anthropology from

Humboldt-Universität and worked as a subject librarian for anthropology previously.

© 2021 Marc Lange

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