While I have great respect for the Records Management Journal, it, like all
the other journals mentioned, are geared towards a part of the life-cycle
most often associated with archives and discussion issues and tools most
often associated with archives. Records management as practiced by members
of ARMA worldwide focuses on different issues. I do not believe these
non-North America journals are what we should emulate because they do not
address our problems. 

As for practice and theory, this is an old saw that will not get resolved
within the next century. We need both to inform each other. 

Be clear also what "peer-reviewed" means in the academic world. The editors
have doctoral degrees (PhD, JD, MD, etc.) as do all the reviewers, and are
mostly associated with institutions granting graduate degrees. In addition,
the journal can show an impact factor as measured by the Web of Science and
recognized by the Library and Information Science academic community. Those
of us in records management with doctoral degrees and associated with
graduate degree-granting institutions are few and far between. As far as I
am aware, none of us with CRMs currently have tenure track positions which
means we cannot command much in the way of university resources. 

Surveys or not, "records management" in the title or not, I neither see
anything out there to emulate, nor see much chance that we will have an
academically respectable, peer-reviewed journal in North America--or
anywhere else in the world very soon. But I do not believe this is a
problem. We should not confuse "profession" with "discipline." The concept
of discipline is dying within the universities, and many of us are glad to
see it go because it creates artificial walls for study that prevent us from
seeing a total picture. Similarly with the term "profession" we build walls
that prevent us from being able to do our jobs. Records management is a
fabulous amalgam of information studies, business, and law that goes beyond
the boundaries of the university or commonly accepted ideas of "profession."
I am never more tickled than when one of my clients looks at me after
several months of work and says, "records management is really at the 50,000
foot level, isn't it?" That realization that we are both full of Heloise's
helpful hints and a viewpoint that is far above the CEO and Board is
delightful. I am also tickled when I can tell an attorney during a seminar
session that records management isn't just about mitigating risk, that, done
properly, it creates value that can be leveraged to improve business
processes and create a foundation for managing knowledge--which is why the
average attorney (and records management has a number of amazing attorneys
working within its sphere) creates a very poor retention schedule. 

Our very slipperiness makes us hard to study in a journal or a university,
and hard to define as a profession, but it is also why we have amazing
people to interact with at ARMA meetings. The really wonderful thing about
our professional association is that it continues to find its way to
attracting and keeping this remarkable breed of person. 

This is why I believe we need more out-of-the-box thinking about this. The
IMJ is, for records management, still the best journal, peer-reviewed or
otherwise. When I want current thinking about RIM, I don't go anywhere else.
If we want something else, we need to define the audience, not just the
venue, and then figure out how to reach them. A hosted blog? A tweet-up? A
facebook page with links? I don't know, but we need some creative thinking
beyond "peer-reviewed" and "profession."

Best wishes,
Carol

Carol E.B. Choksy, Ph.D., CRM, PMP

CEO

IRAD Strategic Consulting, Inc.
(317) 294-8329

Adjunct Lecturer
School of Library and Information Science
Indiana University, Bloomington

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