How to make a difference to society and practice through your journal

In many ways, academic publishing stands in conflict to a commitment to social justice. Journals are often run by large profit-making companies that make millions from a process based on the voluntary labour of authors and reviews (and very often editors). Academic articles can be perceived as esoteric and deliberately inaccessible to the everyday person. And the metrics, scoring and ranking of journal outputs is often linked to research excellence frameworks perceived to be selective, elitist and hampering collegial practices. Each of these criticisms is, in my view, reasonable. But they need not be all that defines academic publishing. In this chapter we will explore the spaces and practices that enable a journal to contribute to greater social justice within its own boundaries and through its contribution to wider academic life and society. Few of us have perfected this balancing act yet - but it remains both a valued aspiration and a practical possibility.