Abstract

While the role and dominance of online scholarship is now unquestioned, the place of open access publishing is still problematic, especially in the humanities. Much of the discourse about it is still publicly characterised by the political evangelism of enthusiasts or the pragmatism of library issues such as copyright and archiving. Issues about the nature of academic conversations through open access need to be explored, especially in the explosion of interactive Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and wikis. The Looking Glass is an online, open access, peer-reviewed, academic journal for the critical analysis of children’s literature. It has operated for 14 years, evolving from a US website, through Canadian affiliation, to its current delivery from La Trobe University in Australia. The options for its future demonstrate key issues in the nature of academic exchange in an open access, and a global, environment. These range from structural aspects such as affiliation, funding and commercial links, to professional features such as academic authority and validity. In particular, the more theoretical and less quantitative nature of humanities scholarship (such as the analysis of children’s literature) opens the question of the place of direct, personal exchange of views through interactive Web 2.0 avenues in scholarly journals. How can scholarly journals maintain the perception of academic quality and rigour while encouraging the academic freedom of Web 2.0 conversations?