This is the second (and last, for the moment at least) report of the Q&A with colleagues in Linköping University. We covered a lot of ground about what ROLSI does and how it serves its readers – a very useful exercise.

Q (Linköping): What does the editorial team actually do? 

A (Charles Antaki):  Alexandra Kent is [Added later: at the time; now it is Bogdana Huma] in charge of all the back-office work, which she does fantastically efficiently in spite of it being effectively a labour of love – she is a fulltime lecturer (Associate Professor) at Keele University, and has stayed with ROLSI since being a junior doctoral student at Loughborough. She manages the liaison with authors and reviewers, and keeps up-to-date records of who is doing what (and occasionally has to send out gentle and not so gentle reminders when it is not done). The academic work is done by me – that is, I decide on the suitability of the submission, on the reviewers, the changes needed, and on the decision to publish; I commission featured debates and Special Issues; recruit to the Editorial Board; and liaise with the publishers over copy-editing, the page-budget for the volumes, and so on.

Q: Has ROLSI changed – does it now only publish CA work?

A: When I was asked by the previous Editor, Kristine Fitch, to help with the editorial work, it was because increasing numbers of submissions were in CA; that trend has continued since I took over sole editorship, and although the remit of the journal does welcome research in any interactionist tradition, it’s true that CA now makes up most of the submissions. On the other hand, what now comes in as CA or CA-based work is very varied – from foundational research on sequence and action, through multi-modal research and out to applied, interdisciplinary work.

Q: What languages are covered?

A: I’m proud to say that ROLSI publishes research on all and any languages that researchers are working on, and since 2014 we’ve made a virtue of it by noting the language under study as the last line of every Abstract. A quick survey of the languages that have appeared in the last two volumes shows that ROLSI articles have reported research on interaction in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Finland-Swedish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Central-American Spanish and Swedish.

Q: Do they get more space?

A: Yes, to accommodate the extra line(s) needed for the translation into English. Over the years I’ve brought down the word-limit from (effectively) none to 8,000 for English-language data and 9,000 for others. That means we have space for more articles per volume, but those reporting work on non-English languages are not penalised.

 Q: Can ROLSI publish video data?

A: Yes certainly. If the author has complete authorisation for it to be made public, the publishers will host it on their website, and a link will appear in the print version (- still better, it will be a hyperlink in the online version).

Q: What else will you publish on the website?

A: Any supplementary material that enriches the published article: for example, data in the original non-Roman script (e.g. Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Greek….); extended transcripts, or collections of examples, for inspection by other researchers; and so on.

Q: Do you publish Special Issues?

A: Certainly – but because they eat up space, not more than one every 18 months or 12 at most. If anyone has an idea for one – say, after a successful Panel at a conference, or as the result of some multi-centre research project – then please do get in touch with me, and we’ll discuss it.

Q: Finally – how are the blog and the Twitter feed going?

A: Very well, I’m delighted to say. Friends of ROLSI have been terrific in coming forward with guest blogs, and as for the tweets – well, I’m sure my employers would think I could be using my time more productively, but it’s more fun than filling in University forms….