Need guidance

[ariel]

Colleagues,
I am thinking about writing an article on the genesis of a particular weapon.
Do you know any journals dedicated to the history of weapons ( perhaps more specifically, oriental ones)?

I know of Gladius( but it is in Spanish) and Arms and Armour ( Royal Armories).

Any more?
Many thanks.

[Kubur]

Hi
Gladius is Spanish, but you can publish in English and French also.
Then for other journals it depends of your topic...
Best,
Kubur

[TVV]

Man at Arms maybe, though they are mostly publishing articles on American and European antique weapons. There really is not a magazine that is focused on Eastern arms and armor.

Teodor

[Jens Nordlunde]

Hi Ariel,
South Asian Studies in London. I dont, however, know how much they have on weapons, so you will have to visit a library to find out.
In 2009 I had an article published there 'Royal Katars of Bundi', so they must, now and again, have articles on weapons.
Jens

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by ariel

Colleagues,
I am thinking about writing an article on the genesis of a particular weapon.
Do you know any journals dedicated to the history of weapons ( perhaps more specifically, oriental ones)?

I know of Gladius( but it is in Spanish) and Arms and Armour ( Royal Armories).

Any more?
Many thanks.

I and various people I know have looked into this matter and unfortunately when you give your article to a publication it often will be buried and not seen by most people with an interest in the subject. Your article will be out there but if your intention is to share your knowledge with other people you may end up doing no more than getting your article in a publication were it will languish unread for the most part. You will often loose your ownership as well and some publications require a payment from people who want to read your article which can further limit its readership.

I opted to create articles in Wikipedia on a few subjects which I found were not adequately represented online. There are drawbacks to this method as well but I have found that many more people have an oppertunity to read what I have to share with this method due to the huge internet presence of Wikipedia.

Here are a couple of examples.
Kusari (Japanese mail armor). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusari_...e_mail_armour)
Kura (saddle). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kura_(saddle)

[DaveA]

I agree with the Wikipedia idea. Although I have not authored any new articles, I have edited and added to multiple others that were in not so great shape. I think this is good community service precisely because Wikipedia has such a large audience, and it is incumbent on those with the knowledge to improve this public resource. Furthermore, the state of organization of the ethnographic edged weapons material on Wikipedia is poor and could use some high level editing. Even the simple creation of "stub" articles for expansion by others would be beneficial. I know several of you, perhaps many, who have the skill to do this well. I urge everyone on this forum to become familiar with authoring and editing Wikipedia. It is easy and rewarding!

Best,

Dave A.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by DaveA

I agree with the Wikipedia idea. Although I have not authored any new articles, I have edited and added to multiple others that were in not so great shape. I think this is good community service precisely because Wikipedia has such a large audience, and it is incumbent on those with the knowledge to improve this public resource. Furthermore, the state of organization of the ethnographic edged weapons material on Wikipedia is poor and could use some high level editing. Even the simple creation of "stub" articles for expansion by others would be beneficial. I know several of you, perhaps many, who have the skill to do this well. I urge everyone on this forum to become familiar with authoring and editing Wikipedia. It is easy and rewarding!

Best,

Dave A.

David I agree with you, besides Wikipedia there is the often overlooked Wikimedia Commons, this is the image data base that people can upload their own personal images to so that anyone can use them. Most Wikipedia images are linked from Wikimedia Commons.

I have personally gone through all of the Japanese armor and weapons related Wikipedia articles, I have added images, text and references as well as creating several new articles. I have also created many of the Japanese arms and Indo-Persian arms and armor categories on Wikimedia Commons.

Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons is the best, least expensive and easiest way to reach people that I know of and at the same time they are way under utilized.

[Andrew]

For dissemination of information (both accurate and inaccurate) Wikipedia is a wonderful vehicle.

However, if one aspires to scholarly writing, publishing in a peer-reviewed journal is preferred. If the author can retain publishing rights, it can be reposted in the public domain, or otherwise referenced on the internet...

(I, incidentally, have no such aspirations or ability. )

[Jens Nordlunde]

Yes Andrew, this is a very good answer.
If you publish in a scholary journal/magazine it will be mentioned in te bibliography when the article is used - but very few writing for these journals will quote from Wikipedia - which you, no doubt, already know.
As an achademic who has no doubt published a lot of artichels, I wonder why you ask this question?
Jens

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Andrew

For dissemination of information (both accurate and inaccurate) Wikipedia is a wonderful vehicle.

However, if one aspires to scholarly writing, publishing in a peer-reviewed journal is preferred. If the author can retain publishing rights, it can be reposted in the public domain, or otherwise referenced on the internet...

(I, incidentally, have no such aspirations or ability. )

Andrew, the accuracy of any Wikipedia article depends entirely on the knowledge and research abilities of the people who create and contribute to an article, they can be very scholarly or absolute nonsense. If someone can create a peer reviewed article and retain the rights to use the information contained in it elsewere then that is a good situation all around, but that is not always the case.

"Scholary journal/magazine" etc may not quote from Wikpedia but on the other hand the average person will never read that "scholary journal/magazine" so your information will just be available to a handful of acedamics, this is satisfactory to some people but if you actually want people to read and learn from what you have researched then sometimes compromises are needed.

Some subjects can not really be peer reviewed, if no acedemic has any real knowledge of a certain subject and it has not been researched and published already what will they base their review on. Here is an example, my Wikipedia article on Japanese karuta armor is the only one like it in the world, no book or article explains it better and it is available for anyone to see and use. It provides all the basic information, references and images needed to understand what karuta armor is. If this was published in a "Scholary journal/magazine" no one would see it except a handful of uninterested academics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuta_(armour)

For the more scholary types academia.edu may be of interest.
https://www.academia.edu/about