Excellent question. If you want to publish an undergrad paper about fans online and make sure people can find it, I’d suggest the following approach:

Step 1: Upload your paper to a reliable, non-profit research hosting service

There are many online services designed to share research with the world. Many of these also accept undergraduate work. Research support specialists at university libraries usually recommend hosting your research on a well-established non-profit service, like Zenodo or figshare. These are essentially AO3s for sharing academic materials instead of fanworks. Just make a free account, and you’re ready to upload and share your work. You don’t need to be affiliated with an academic institution to host your research on Zenodo or figshare. These services will preserve a secure copy of your work in perpetuity, for free, with a license of your choice (Creative Commons licenses are very useful). You can host and share not only papers, but also other research materials like datasets and presentations.

Note that there are also some well-known for-profit services where researchers share work, especially Academia.edu, which has a great deal of people on it. You may want to put your work there as well to reach a larger audience. However, we caution against making for-profit services the one and only forever home of your research materials. Academic publishing has a lot of issues with for-profit entities trying to exploit the free labor of researchers. Not unlike fandom, really! This is a long story that we’ll get back to a lot on this blog. In short, for reasons, research support specialists recommend non-profit over for-profit services for now.

Step 2: Add a reference to your paper to the OTW’s fan studies bibliography

When you’ve given your paper a safe online home, it’s time to make sure people actually find the information. Add the paper to the OTW’s bibliography so that others searching for fan studies work can find it easily. Undergrad papers absolutely belong in this bibliography. To add your work, drop us a note with the link to your paper. As described on the bibliography page, you can also add pages by making your own account on Zotero, the software that’s the backend of the fan studies bibliography.

Note that Zotero is designed for serious business academic use and can be a bit confusing if you’ve never used it before. Don’t hesitate to just send us a link if you don’t feel like learning a whole new bibliography management tool! We’re totally happy to add things for people. (But if you need a bibliography management tool, do learn more about Zotero. It’s free and open source, and very good at what it does.)

Optional step 3: Add content from your paper to Fanlore

People come to Fanlore to learn more about the past and present of all aspects of fan culture. If you add the most interesting or informative parts of your paper to relevant Fanlore articles, you greatly increase chances that other fans will find that information. Find the Fanlore article(s) that are most closely related to your paper, and add sections from the paper wherever they seem to fit. Fanlore has some good how-to info if you’re new to editing a wiki. You can add a link to your paper on Zenodo or figshare in the References section of the Fanlore article.

Hope this helps! This is only one of many ways to share undergraduate papers on fan culture, of course. Do let us know about any other questions or suggestions you have.

As part of my geography project, I am looking at factors of change in a community. I’m looking at the effect of Internet on the fandom, but I’m not old enough to know any fandom pre-Internet.

I’m hoping for some information on how fandom has been shaped and is being shaped by the Internet, whether it be higher visibility, easier access, different forms of fanworks gaining prominence, archives and more gathered communities etc.

I have looked at Fanlore, but since for this project I need primary as well as secondary sources, I was hoping to fulfil that requirement here.

Thank you so much.

Aileen Wang

Hi Aileen, do you mean you’re looking to hear from fans about their own experiences?

By the way, there are also a lot of other good secondary sources on this topic besides Fanlore, for instance academic work. Are you looking for that sort of thing as well?

Crosspost: http://ift.tt/2b8zuUQ

Hey there! We had a similar question a while ago that got some good replies in the notes. But it’s been a while and the other question was more graduate-focused, so maybe people have more answers by now. Anyone?

Hi! I would like the following articles for a research project, if anyone can share them:

Booth, Paul. Augmenting fan/academic dialogue: New directions in fan research. Journal of Fandom Studies. Vol 1 No 2.

Bennett, Lucy. Tracing Textual Poachers: Reflections on the development of fan studies and digital fandom. Journal of Fandom Studies. Vol 2 No 1.

Hills, Matt. Doctor Who’s textual commemorators: Fandom, collective memory and the self-commodification of fanfac. Journal of Fandom Studies. Vol 2 No 1.

Ford, Sam. Fan studies: Grappling with an ‘Undisciplined’ discipline. Studies. Vol 2 No 1.

Coppa, Francesca. Fuck Yeah, Fandom is Beautiful. Journal of Fandom Studies. Vol 2 No 1.

Anyone have these? Please leave a comment!

Crosspost: http://ift.tt/1lZaW9W

ETA: Looking for programs in the US, if at all possible.

-Danielle Frankel

Suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Crosspost: http://fanhackers.tumblr.com/post/63041136528

Transformative Works and Cultures, the OTW’s scholarly fan studies journal, is looking to expand its pool of volunteer reviewers. If you are interested in peer reviewing for TWC, please come over to the site, sign up, and create a profile as Reviewer: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/user/register. You’ll be asked to fill out some information (such as uni affiliation if applicable), but, most importantly, there’s a field in the software where you input your interests and expertise. 

Once you’ve created a reviewer account, please e-mail us to tell us who you are, how you found us, and what you are specifically interested in. We use the journal’s database to find reviewers, but it is often easier when we have spoken to reviewers already and know a bit about them. Then we’ll contact you when a manuscript comes in that fits your expertise, and ask if you can review it.

If you have any questions about reviewing; if you want to know more about submitting essays, Symposium pieces, or book reviews; or if you there’s something specific you want to know about TWC, please feel free to contact us. For more info on what TWC does, check out the recent interview with the editors on the OTW blog.

The Journal Team

editor@transformativeworks.org

Crosspost: http://fanhackers.tumblr.com/post/56457445212

I’m looking for attacks on Jane Austen fanfiction – preferably online fanfiction – from the cultural establishment (scholars, critics, journalists, etc), perhaps denigrating fanfic in terms of its popularity, literary quality, etc. Do you know any of these?

I’ve found comments along these lines on Star Trek ff, not so on JA’s the general stigma on ff and popular culture as something of a “secondary” order. To my surprise, there does not seem to be much scholarly work on JA ff, whereas there’s quite a lot on Star Trek, X Files, Harry Potter, etc.

Thank you.

 Marina

I am a Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at the University of Middlesex (this is me: www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/staffdirectory/neville.aspx – you will find an overview of my qualifications, research interests and links to previous open-access research reports).  I am also a writer (and appreciator!): of prose, poetry and slash (this is me: pouxin.livejournal.com/ – if you want to read any more of my writing, please send a friend request). I am currently carrying out an academic study into women’s involvement in sexually explicit m/m slashfic and gay erotica/pornography more generally. I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to complete the below survey.

docs.google.com/forms/d/14A61d7HpL3ojI2pzA07cHR1LhU4UiYJs-1wX5H9-BLg/viewform

What’s the research for?

The purpose of this research (both earlier focus groups I conducted and the survey) is to gain a better understanding of what appeals to women about (male) homosexual erotica, and how this sits within their wider thoughts and feelings around romance writing, erotica, pornography, gender and sexuality. As such, from a slash perspective, it is specifically looking at women who produce and/or consume explicit m/m slash.  I see this very much as an exploratory piece of research, and have no expectations per se as to what I might ‘find’, I am just very interested in hearing about the diversity of experiences people have had, and their own reflections on their enjoyment of homosexual erotica. I think this is a very nuanced and complex area, and I don’t expect to find any ‘one size fits all’ theory at the end of this. But I would like to produce a piece of research that can act as a stepping stone towards a better understanding of how and why women interact with gay erotica, and, hopefully, will reflect a lot of your own experiences back at you, offering an opportunity for interesting future discussion.

For a detailed description of how I came to do the research and what my research philosophy is, please see this post.

Who is the questionnaire for?

The questionnaire is open for both readers and writers of male homosexual erotica. I am interested in exploring all forms of gay erotica, from m/m slashfic with a sexual content, to wider gay (male) erotic literature, and gay (male) pornography.  Some questions will only be applicable to respondents who are either readers or writers (or both), so if a question does not apply to you (e.g. you do not write fic, only read it, and the question is asking you about writing), please leave it blank.
This survey is specifically interested in looking at women’s production and consumption of gay erotica, pornography, and m/m slashfic with a sexual content. As such it is only open to those who identify as women. However, if you’re a man involved in the slash community and you would be interested in sharing your opinion around any of this, please do get in touch. I see this very much as exploratory research and welcome all dialogue!

Due to issues around consent, the questionnaire is only open to those aged 18 and over.

What will you do with the data?

For your protection, I have sought and obtained ethical approval for this study from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Middlesex, and in accordance with the recommendations of the British Sociological Association.  All research (and data collected from it) will be conducted according to the University’s ethical guidelines and the British Sociological Association statement of ethical best practice. All data is untraceable back to you, will be stored securely (on a password protected computer), and will be treated as anonymous. Only I will have access to the full dataset. Nothing you say will be attributed back to you personally.

I will make all aggregate data available to participants through my LJ page, and by informing other relevant organisations (e.g. the OTW). If you have any feedback on any of the findings, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – a lot of my previous research within social sciences has adopted an ‘action research’ philosophy (where participants are actively involved in how data are used and interpreted to form a community of best practice), and as such I welcome opinions, feedback (and constructive criticism) that can help me to design better research going forward, and get the richest interpretations from the findings themselves. As an academic, I also see this as a really fantastic opportunity for me to receive informed feedback on my work before sending it off for peer-review!

I will also link to any publications that arise from the data, and, while I won’t always be able to post completed articles on my LJ page due to copyright issues, I will happily email full articles to anyone who is interested.

If you would like to be involved in a further discussion about any of the issues raised by this questionnaire, please go to the discussion on my livejournal page or email me (l.neville@mdx.ac.uk).

Filling in the questionnaire

If you are at all uncomfortable with any of the questions, please don’t feel under any obligation to answer them – just leave them blank. Any data you provide is useful, so please don’t feel that you need to answer all the questions if you don’t want to.

I’ve constructed the questionnaire to enable participants to give lengthy responses if they want to, as from my experience in the slash community I know a lot of us have a great deal to say. However, if you don’t want to provide additional information (or are in a rush!) please don’t feel obligated to give lengthy text box answers.

The questionnaire should take 10-25 minutes to complete, depending on the length of your answers.

If you have any further questions about the research, please feel free to contact me: l.neville@mdx.ac.uk

I have already carried out focus groups with women who are involved in the production and consumption of gay erotica, but am interested in conducting more interviews and focus groups in this area. If you are local(ish) to London and would be interested in participating, please contact me via email or through my LJ.

Thank you for your time.

UPDATE: Thanks so much to all participants so far for feedback on the q’naire, it’s incredibly helpful, and while I can’t change the actual questions now I’ve started it (re: validity, reliability etc.), I will of course make use of suggestions/feedback/concrit over wording when I analyse the results etc. Keep it coming!

Crosspost: http://fanhackers.tumblr.com/post/48596873926

antilamentation:

The Ask box hates me and I’m trying to get ahold of Tumblr users:

• plotful
• letmartyhandlethis
• doomslock
• hunterlock

I dabble in academia and am writing a chapter for an Intellect Press publication on Doctor Who. My work focuses on SuperWhoLock gif fic and how it’s awesome. Well, my official thesis looks at changing fandom practice and the evolution of creative fanworks but basically, how gif fics are awesome. I’ve selected some SuperWhoLock graphics to include but I can’t get ahold of the creators. Because it is an academic book there is no compensation but artists will receive full credit (you can use whatever name you’re comfortable with). My finished chapter is due soon so if you can get back to me yay or nay that’d be great! Feel free to message or answer in an ask.

If my friends could signal boost or vouch for me I’d appreciate it!

A reblog for your friendly neighborhood moderator antilamentation. When not working for the OTW I study narrative practices in fandom. I’d love to include artistic examples in my chapter on SuperWhoLock but would like the artist’s permission. And as well documented, Tumblr’s Ask box hates me.

If someone could help me find this, it’d be much appreciated!

Crosspost: http://fanhackers.tumblr.com/post/41425196314/request-what-happened-before-youtube

Can anyone find this?