About First Monday
First Monday has been published since May 1996 as a peer-review, scholarly, openly accessible journal, dedicated to research about the Internet and related technologies. It has been fee-less in its entire history, without subscription costs or author charges of any kind. No advertisements have ever appeared on the virtual pages of First Monday. With an Internet connection and a Web browser, all of First Monday’s content is freely available.
With the contents of the August 2014 issue, First Monday has published, since May 1996, 1,389 papers in 219 issues, written by 1,905 different authors, representing institutions in over 30 different countries. Contributors to First Monday include Phil Agre, Virgilio Almeida, Aleksander Berentsen, Howard Besser, danah boyd, Sandra Braman, John Seely Brown, John M. Carroll, Steve Cisler, Paul Duguid, Esther Dyson, Simson Garfinkel, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Nathan Glazer, Michael H. Goldhaber, Andreas Harsono, Bernardo A. Huberman, David R. Johnson, Brian Kahin, Ethan Katsh, Jessica Litman, Clifford Lynch, Lev Manovich, Eduardo Villanueva Mansilla, Mary Minow, Miranda Mowbray, Milton Mueller, Bonnie Nardi, David Noble, Beth Simone Noveck, Andrew Odlyzko, Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine, David Post, Trevor Pinch, Larry Press, Eric S. Raymond, David Ronfeldt, Pamela Samuelson, Abigail Sellen, Linus Torvalds, Ilkka Tuomi, Hal Varian, and Richard Wiggins. First Monday’s readers can be found in over 180 countries.
Since the beginning the journal, authors have retained their rights to their work; more recently, contributors select various flavors of Creative Commons’ licenses for their papers published in the journal. Contributions to First Monday on occasion have expanded into book form their papers after initial publication. Here are two examples: Appearing in the very first issue of First Monday in May 1996, “The social life of documents” by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid was expanded into the book entitled The social life of information published by Harvard Business School Press in 2000. “Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher education” by David F. Noble first appeared in January 1998 in First Monday; it was expanded into a book entitled Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher education published by the Monthly Review Press in 2001.
Papers from First Monday have been featured and cited in a variety of different scholarly and popular works, in the pages of Business Week, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Scientific American, Washington Post, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Wired, among others.
There have been two First Monday scholarly conferences to celebrate the fifth and tenth anniversaries of the journal.
The first successful First Monday conference took place 4–6 November 2001 at University of Maastricht, specifically at the International Institute of Infonomics. This conference was supported generously by the European Commission, as well as the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) at the University of Maastricht.
To celebrate First Monday’s tenth birthday in 2006, a conference took place at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 15– 17 May 2006. The theme of the conference was “Openness: Code, science and content.” Over 200 participants from over 30 countries took part in the Conference. This conference was generously sponsored by the Open Society Institute, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, University of Illinois at Chicago University Library, and Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) at the University of Maastricht.
First Monday’s editorial team
Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor and Founder Esther Dyson, Consulting Editor Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Managing Editor Mary Minow, Legal Editor Nancy R. John, Technical Editor Paolo G. Cordone and Rob Vega, Book Review Editors
Editorial Board
Varol Akman, Bilkent University, Turkey Virgílio Almeida, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Universidad de Chile, Chile Vinton G. Cerf, Google, United States Ellen Christiansen, Aalborg University, Denmark Tony Durham, The Times Higher Education Supplement, United Kingdom Ahmed S. Kassem, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States Ed Krol, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States Beth Simone Noveck, New York Law School, United States Andrew M. Odlyzko, University of Minnesota, United States Ian Peter, Australia Tony Rutkowski, United States Guido Sohne, Ghana Ilkka Tuomi, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Spain
Publishing in First Monday
First Monday publishes original research about the Internet and related technologies. Given that the journal is digital only, there are no limits to the length of manuscripts, as much as very long papers may try the patience of reviewers and editors. Almost all papers published in First Monday are in English.
Each manuscript is read by the Chief Editor to see if the paper is appropriate to the journal. If a manuscript appears to fit First Monday’s subject area, seems original, and is readable and not written in scholarly byzantine, it is sent by the Chief Editor to several reviewers for their comments. These reviews can take as little as 24 hours up to several months, depending on the schedules of the reviewers in question. First Monday asks reviewers to complete their editorial assessments in 30 days or less, but unfortunately some reviews require more time.
Reviewers can reject a paper, accept it without alteration, or demand revisions. Most manuscripts published in First Monday require at least one revision. The revised manuscript is reviewed again — by the same reviewers who initially commented on the paper. If the reviewers find the changes acceptable, the paper is accepted and scheduled for publication in the next available issue.
Illustrations are encouraged in manuscripts. The figures, graphs, tables, and other devices should be included in a paper. They should be easily extractable or supplied as separate files in .png, .jpg, .gif, or .tiff formats.
Authors retain the rights to their works published in First Monday. We encourage authors to simply retain all rights, or choose a Creative Commons license for their papers.
Once a paper is accepted, the Chief Editor works on language editing and markup. In advance of publication, a proof version is available to authors to make any minor corrections and additions.
First Monday has never charged a fee for initial submissions and has never levied a publication “tax” on accepted papers. First Monday is truly openly accessible to all researchers and readers.
To submit a manuscript to First Monday, go to firstmonday.org.