Francis
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Announcement and Call for Papers
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JOURNAL OF MEMETICS -
Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission (JOM-EMIT)
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JOM-EMIT is a new scientific journal published exclusively on the Web, at URL:
The journal has no subscription fee.
JOM-EMIT is the first peer-reviewed journal devoted to the development of
the memetic perspective. This perspective looks at culture, communication
and information transmission as evolutionary phenomena, governed by the
mechanisms of variation, replication and selection. The concept of "meme"
was proposed by Richard Dawkins as 'a unit of cultural transmission, or a
unit of imitation'. The vagueness of this initial description may explain
the present diversity of views on what a meme really is, and how the
memetic model can be used. JOM-EMIT wishes to clarify these issues, by
stimulating a constructive dialogue between the active researchers in the
field.
More specifically JOM-EMIT seeks to discuss the following topics related to
memetics:
- Comparisons of different mechanisms and models of evolutionary processes,
possibly in distinct fields of inquiry.
- Philosophical or theoretical issues concerning epistemology and evolution
- Boundaries of the evolutionary approach
- Empirical research on memetic processes
- Models of meme generation and meme spread
- Fundamental approaches aimed at structuring the field of memetics as a
science
Editorial Board:
Gary Boyd, Bruce Edmonds (also publisher), Liane Gabora, Francis Heylighen,
Mark Mills, Hans-Cees Speel (managing editor), and Mario Vaneechoutte.
Advisory Board:
Gary Cziko, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, David Hull, and Aaron Lynch.
The JOM-EMIT site contains two mailing lists: an announcement list for the
distribution of abstracts of new papers to all subscribers, and a
discussion list for open debate on the submitted papers, and other memetics
related issues. You can subscribe to these lists via the Journal's home
page.
CONTENTS
The first issue (May-September) of JOM-EMIT is now online.
It contains four papers and one book review:
"The Six Essentials? Minimal Requirements for the Darwinian
Bootstrapping of Quality" by William H. Calvin
"Cultural R/K Selection" by Agner Fog
"The Origin and Evolution of Culture and Creativity" by Liane Gabora
"Macromemetics and the Re-unification of Philosophy" by Derek Gatherer
Book review:
"Evolutionary Paradigms in the Social Sciences. Special Issue,
International Studies Quarterly 40, (September, 1996)" by Francis A.
Beer.
New papers will appear continuously when they are accepted for publication.
CALL FOR PAPERS
We invite interested authors to submit papers for the journal, along with
information on the author, his/her address and affiliations, at the
journal's email address:
All submitted papers will be anonymously reviewed. They will only be
accepted for publication if approved by at least two referees.
Controversial papers of high quality can be followed by commentaries
by request of the author after they are published (similar to the
commentary structure the "Brain and Behavioral Sciences" uses,
although JOM-EMIT uses commentary only as an option after a paper is
already published). This means that a number of peers write a short
comment, to which the author can reply in a concluding short paper.
We also wish to invite letters which criticize published papers, and book
reviews relevant to the journal's aims.
Further information for authors can be found at the web address:
http://jom-emit.cfpm.org/ifa.html