





































Editorial 
Foster and Perryman 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          3                                  

 

Revitalizing Hypothesis 
 

Erin D Foster, MSLS 
Co-editor, Hypothesis 

Data Services Librarian 

Ruth Lilly Medical Library 

Indiana University School of Medicine 
Indianapolis, IN 

Carol L Perryman, PhD 
Co-editor, Hypothesis 

Associate Professor 
School of Library and Information Studies 
Texas Woman’s University 
Denton, TX 
 

Hypothesis has existed for over 30 years - the first issue was released in 1987 with at least 

one issue published per year since its debut. With this kind of legacy, the journal has 

experienced change at multiple levels ranging from leadership (both editorial and Section-

level) to the logo. As co-editors, it has been our privilege to steward the journal through a 

process of revitalization and repurposing, which we recently had an opportunity to 

summarize when applying for the Section Project of the Year Award. While Hypothesis is 

part of the Research Section’s “normal operational programming”, efforts made in the past 

year have arguably extended beyond the standard operating procedures and, with 

encouragement from leaders of the Research Section, we threw our hats into the ring! 

In past editorials, we discussed the submission system now used by contributors 

(https://www.mlanet.org/e/sx/in/eid=70) as well as the work taken to standardize 

journal policy, format, and content categories 

(https://www.mlanet.org/page/hypothesis). For this issue, Hypothesis piloted peer 

review checklists for both research and non-research project/program description papers. 

These checklists aim to define the peer review criteria for these article types as well as 

guide peer reviewers in the process of reviewing. We received excellent feedback from our 

awesome reviewers on these forms and hope to have them up on our public site within the 

new year so Hypothesis contributors can see the criteria used to evaluate their 

submissions. 

This issue also contains content that demonstrates how Hypothesis is dedicated to 

supporting the dissemination of information about research beyond just the results. In our 

“Research Project Spotlight”, Angela Spencer details a research project to explore health  

https://www.mlanet.org/e/sx/in/eid=70
https://www.mlanet.org/page/hypothesis


Editorial 
Foster and Perryman 

   

Hypothesis, vol. 30, no. 1, Fall/Winter 2018                                                                          4                                  

 

sciences library closings in the United States and invites readers interested in 

participating in the project to reach out to her. Heather N. Holmes introduces a new 

column, Hypothesis: Failure “dedicated to failures, lessons learned, or mistakes that 

mattered”. Finally, we recognize the recipients of the Research Section’s MLA 2018 

meeting stipend scholarships as well as the contributed paper/poster awardees in our 

annual “Research Section Spotlight”. 

Thank you to those to who contributed to this issue, in particular those who peer 

reviewed the three (!) research or project/program description articles we published this 

issue. We appreciate your prompt and thoughtful feedback! Past issues of Hypothesis can 

be found on the Research Section homepage (https://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=503) 

and, as always, we welcome any comments, feedbacks, or questions at 

MLARSHypothesis@gmail.com. 

Enjoy the issue! 

Carol & Erin 

--- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

National Library of Medicine (US). Digital Collections [Internet]. Bethesda (MD):  
Surgeon General's reference library (1948). Available from: 

http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101445631

  

https://www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=503
mailto:MLARSHypothesis@gmail.com
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101445631

