Greetings and Extension of PAC 42 Submission Deadline to February 15, 2011

[Algonquian Papers]

- Greetings to you all. I have set up a list on the LinguistList
website that can be used for general communication regarding the
annual conference and the papers. To submit something to this list,
email:

algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org

Note this name: ALGONQUIANA, with a final a.

Specific questions not of a general nature should NOT be addressed to
this list, but rather to me, at:

algonquianpapers at gmail.com

If in doubt, email ME. This is also where you should submit a PDF of
your paper for review. Note that I have changed the name; sorry, we
don't have a "proceedings," so the old name seemed inappropriate. The
account algonquianproceedings at gmail.com is still active for the time
being, though.

The archive of the list will be here:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=ALGONQUIANA&X=0B23A309DC3635DF36&Y=list

- To "populate" the list with email addresses I used email addresses
provided to me by both the Memorial University of Newfoundland
conference organizers (where the 2010 conference was) and the
Concordia University organizers (where the 2009 conference was). In
some cases I had multiple email addresses for the same person. I
wasn't sure why these individuals had submitted multiple addresses,
and didn't have time to write everyone individually, so I added ALL of
their emails to the List. If anyone wants to be removed from this
list, please EMAIL ME. Please DO NOT send out a general request on the
list to be removed. If you want to use another email address, email
ME. If you are aware of anyone else who wants to be on this list,
email me.

- I have just discovered that the Algonquian website on the University
of Wisconsin server has been broken into, along with many other UW
websites, and is down now. This is a good lesson, since I don't have
copies of the web-pages to independently post to you. It is simply
blitheringly absurd how many secondary jobs there are related to being
the "editor." It's only been in the last week that I've gotten final
word from the press about formatting standards. The problems have had
to do almost exclusively with linguistics papers, which as you may
know, often present extremely complicated formatting issues, such as
phrase structure trees, optimality tableaux, aligned interlinear text
displays involving exotic fonts, tables of forms, etc. Initially I was
told that ALL of these (other than the interlinear displays) would
have to be removed from the main file and submitted as separate
independent files, with a "call out" in the main file indicating where
the separate file should be placed. This seemed like a royal pain. On
Thursday, though, I was told that we would only have to do this for
the phrase structure trees. The other thing about the phrase structure
trees is that they must be done with a vector graphics program, NOT a
font such as Arboreal (Mac) or ArborWin (Windows), and saved as
separate EPS (encapsulated postscript) files. There are good reasons
for this, but it does present a bit more work. I decided not to tell
you this on immediately, figuring that you were undoubtedly already
under severe time constraints just to get your papers finished, and
this would only frustrate you. Since no one was likely to submit
vector-graphics-drawn PS trees, I figured that for the review round we
would just go with what was convenient. To be honest, papers in the
form that they must be submitted to the press would be very difficult
to read. I am not sure what will be the most convenient way to do
linguistics papers, it's something we must discuss and reach consensus
on. I JUST got word on this. By the way, there ARE free
vector-graphics programs, such as the Draw program in OpenOffice. Note
too that the press will NOT accept trees drawn within Word itself. But
the bottomline for now is this: Arboreal/ArborWin is fine for the
review process, your efforts at this point should be in crafting a
coherent paper, not fretting over formatting. I know this is
frustrating, but please do not use the list to complain about this.
Having thought about this a bit, since I have been burdened with
outrageous amounts of work owing to having to try and get the 40th
Papers in shape, it seems to me that the big gain for us is that our
papers will actually be on the academic map now. I don't think, for
example, that Algonquian papers from previous years presently show up
in Google Scholar. This severely limits the dissemination of our
ideas, and the role of Algonquian research in all of our general
disciplines. I am really looking forward to having all of the past
Papers on the grid, too, and I see this as a primary advantage to
publishing with a press, despite the fact that it seems to represent
roughly twice the work.

- Partly because the UW website is down, I am going to extend the
deadline for paper submissions two weeks, to Monday, February 15th.
Several people have already asked for extensions in the last day, and
I've granted them, so let's just make it a blanket rule. You are of
course welcome to submit your paper anytime before that.

- I will be sending out final review versions of the 40th papers
tomorrow. This will include some new things for those accustomed to
the past procedure, such as Consent forms to allow the press to
publish your paper, instructions for making call-outs of art,
ps-trees, etc. We should have all of the formatting issues in place
now, and can begin working on streamlining the process to make it as
painless as possible for all of us. I will  begin formatting the 41st,
and plan on sending out final review copies by the end of February. We
should be back on schedule fairly soon, though of course no one knows
how many eons it will take to actually get something published. The
good news is the press has been very cooperative and positive in the
last two months, so I'm excited for Algonquian studies.

- Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.

Rand Valentine
University of Wisconsin-Madison