Editorial: The Public Journal of Semiotics
A bottom-up organization for semiotics and semioticians
By Paul Bouissac, René Jorna and Winfried Nöth

What is the Public Journal of Semiotics?
The democratization of Internet communication has brought profound transformations in the way people communicate and interact in a wide range of private and public domains (intellectual, political, commercial, sexual, etc.) as well as in the creation, distribution, and management of scholarly knowledge. Instead of top-down forms of editorial organizations with editors in chief and editorial boards, the Internet has made possible bottom-up forms of editorial organizations of academic journals that allow for more active participation of their contributors and readers.

The rationale for launching The Public Journal of Semiotics is to face the challenges of these new forms of editorial organization based on bottom-up principles. The emergence of a global scholarly network of semiotic studies has encouraged the founding editors of this journal to propose the extension of existing networks of semioticians to a network of contributors to and readers of a journal with a democratic organization to generate its own operational structure. The aim of this foundation is to offer the initial catalyst for this growing network of semioticians and to enable the actively participating semioticians to elect themselves those who can be entrusted with the task of advancing the shared goals of the of researchers in the field.

The Public Journal of Semiotics aims at serving the semiotic community by providing an outlet for the communication of articles resulting from advanced research while enforcing quality standards. It is open to all trends of current semiotic research, but it may focus in special issues on particular directions (e.g., empirically oriented research, theoretical, historical, etc.). The Public Journal of Semiotics aims at developing interfaces with other disciplines with the publication of articles that will be found relevant and important to disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy, information theory, cognitive neurosciences, etc.

Foundational principles
The Public Journal of Semiotics has the goal of advancing knowledge in domains relevant to semiotics; it wants to promote research and communication among researchers through the Internet.

The Public Journal of Semiotics belongs to a new generation of scholarly and scientific publishing of research, which takes advantage of existing Information Technology and the socio-cultural changes it is causing. The model is the Public Library of Science (PLOS) journals. It differs from e-version of some printed journals and from the e-journals, which require that subscribers pay a fee in order to get access to their full contents. It is free to any reader who can access it through the Internet. Initial financial support has been given by the universities of Toronto (Canada), Groningen (Netherlands), and Kassel (Germany), but in the future, the operating budget is to be provided by a practice that is increasingly accepted by research granting agencies, namely mandatory page charges for articles that have been accepted through a rigorous peer review.

Whom will The Public Journal of Semiotics serve? Newcomers or specialists in the field? Researchers looking for interfaces with other disciplines through a more flexible medium and epistemological framework? A new emerging population of researchers transformed by the new technologies and faster circulation of information across traditional boundaries? Any person can become a member by registering through the website of the organization. The hub of the organization will be the virtual journal published on line. It will be accessible free of charge on the Internet.

Members of The Public Journal of Semiotics have access to the template through which articles can be submitted. Articles submitted for publication will be reviewed by experts chosen by the editors. All members whose articles have been accepted for publication become ipso facto members of the constituency, which elects every second year an editor in chief. The editors will abstain from publishing their own texts in the journal during their tenure and will comply afterwards with the general rules. A constitution to be proposed to the current membership for approval will specify the mandate of elected officials and the mode of election.

Members are encouraged to self-organize into sub-groups on the basis of shared research interests and to communicate with each other and with the membership at large either directly or through the commons of the website. Members are encouraged to organize focused sessions and colloquia both online and in traditional conferences and meetings.

A procedure will be agreed upon regarding the ways in which the constitution can be revised as time goes and information technology evolves. Sustained efforts will be made to give maximum visibility and accessibility to The Public Journal of Semiotics.