Quantitative Description of Digital Media

A Modest Proposal to Disrupt Academic Publishing

Abstract

We introduce the rationale for a new peer-reviewed scholarly journal, the
Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media. The journal is intended
to create a new venue for research on digital media and address several
deficiencies in the current social science publishing landscape. First,
descriptive research is undersupplied and undervalued. Second, research
questions too often only reflect dominant theories and received wisdom.
Third, journals are constrained by unnecessary boundaries defined by
discipline, geography, and length. Fourth, peer review is inefficient and
unnecessarily burdensome for both referees and authors. We outline the
journal’s scope and structure, which is open access, fee-free and relies on a
Letter of Inquiry (LOI) model. Quantitative description can appeal to social
scientists of all stripes and is a crucial methodology for understanding the
continuing evolution of digital media and its relationship to important
questions of interest to social scientists.