AFA SUPPORT FOR RESEARCH: JOURNALS AND CONFERENCES.

• Author: Zarefsky, David
• Position: American Forensic Association

The American Forensic Association is both a professional and a scholarly organization. Its members' interests include both forensic activities (primarily coaching, judging, and directing competitive programs in debate and individual events) and the advancement of scholarship in argumentation through research and publication. Commitment of the AFA to forensic activities is evident, among other things, in its code of ethics, its production and sale of contest ballots, its annual tournament calendar, and its sponsorship since 1967 of the National Debate Tournament and more recently of the National Individual Events Tournament as well. The AFA Research Committee has worked to stimulate and recognize distinguished scholarship through means ranging from a competitive program of research grants to the presentation of research awards. The association's principal commitments to research, however, are its publications and conferences, and these will be the focus of this essay.

PUBLICATIONS

The Journal: Its Origins. During its first few years, AFA had no serial publication. In order to promote regular communication with its membership, the AFA Register was established in the fall of 1952, under the editorship of Austin J. Freeley, then AFA president. Subsequent presidents also filled this role until 1958, when John Rickey of Ohio State University was appointed editor (Freeley, 1999).

The Register was produced by mimeograph and bound by staple. It was conceived as a house organ to report association business, but within a few years it began also to carry short articles about research projects and about such practical matters as judging debate. As this evolution occurred, the AFA felt the desire for a more substantial scholarly journal. The membership included a growing number of former debate coaches who retained an interest in argumentation scholarship. It was also felt that the AFA would take on a more academic character if it published a bona fide scholarly journal (Ziegelmueller, 1999). On the other hand, some were skeptical that editors could find enough articles to fill a journal's pages. And there was serious concern about whether AFA had the financial resources to support publication of a journal.

Fortunately, in the early 1960s AFA received revenue from a successful series of televised debates. This money served as the venture capital for the organization to launch a new journal (Blyton, 1970, p. 15). The Register was discontinued in 1963, and in January, 1964, the Journal of the American Forensic Association (or, as it was widely known, JAFA) made its debut. Renamed Argumentation and Advocacy in 1988, it now is in its 36th year of continuous publication.

The inaugural editor of JAFA was Thomas R. McManus of Kent State University, who shepherded the journal through volume I. Thereafter, editors were appointed for two-year terms. The editor was appointed by the National Council upon the recommendation of the Publications Committee. Most or all of the editor's expenses were borne by his or her home institution. A complete list of editors may be found in Table 1.

As his two-year editorial term was nearing completion in 1975, George Ziegelmueller (volumes 10 and 11) was asked to remain for a second two-year term and agreed to do so. His successor, David Zarefsky, received a similar request. Zarefsky counterproposed that he serve one additional year and that the editorship thereafter be made a three-year term, as is common for most journals in the communication discipline. This plan was agreed to and has been followed since. The current journal editor, Edward Schiappa, will complete his term at the end of Volume 37, in the spring of 2001.

Initially, JAFA was published three times per year and the volume year corresponded to the calendar year. With Volume 7, it was decided to match the volume year to the AFA's fiscal year (July 1 through June 30). To accomplish this change, Volume 7 included five issues rather than three. Thereafter, beginning with Volume 8, four issues were published each year and they were designated by the seasons rather than by particular months.

Trends in Journal Content. Examination of the journal's content over time reveals changes both in the subjects of research and even what counts as research. In the early years, considerable space was devoted to association business, primarily minutes of AFA and National Council meetings. Over 20 per cent of the space in Volume 1 was dedicated to such matters, and by Volume 6 the figure exceeded 30 per cent of the journal's space. In those years, the typical volume included approximately 180 printed pages. That number would increase to 240 before being reduced again as other publication outlets emerged.

When AFA assumed the sponsorship of the National Debate Tournament, it was decided that the text of the final debate would be published in JAFA, and the transcript-even in small type-consumed between 35 and 50 journal pages each year. Edited first by Stanley G. Rives and then by John K. Boaz, the transcript included editorial analysis of the evidence and lines of argument. Beginning in 1976, brief written critiques from each of the final round judges also were published. It was thought that publishing the final debate transcript in JAFA would make it readily available for students of debate practice.

Eventually, both the association business and the NDT transcript were removed from the journal, freeing space for additional research articles. Establishment of the AFA Newsletter in 1978 immediately freed the journal of virtually all the pages that had been devoted to meeting minutes, asociation budgets, tournament calendars, and the like. Publication of the NDT transcript was discontinued after 1985, when a new serial publication was created for all of the winning speeches and debates from the various national tournaments.

As for the research articles themselves, several trends are worthy of note. First, from the beginning the journal has reflected a broad conception of argumentation studies. Volume 1, for example, included articles on debate theory, individual events, interpersonal argument, pedagogy and contest practices, general argumentation theory, and ethics, as well as a section of book reviews. Most recent volumes have been at least as broad in scope.

Second, however, within this breadth there have been marked shifts of emphasis. In the early volumes, more essays were devoted to pedagogical issues and tournament practices than to any other topic; debate theory was the second most frequent subject for a JAFA article; and general argumentation theory was a distant third. This emphasis reflected an inner-directed view of research--doing forensics research meant writing about competitive forensic activities. This was true whether the essays explicated concepts and strategies or reported on "institutional research" such as data on program sizes and budgets or philosophies of debate judging. It was less common to develop general argumentation theories or to apply them outside the contest setting. This has changed dramatically in recent years. For example, Volumes 28 and 29 contained no articles on competitive forensics; volume 34 (the most recent complete volume examined for this study) has only one. What has taken the place of these articles have been essays t hat pursue issues in general argumentation theory or that critique argument practice in the public forum outside the contest setting.

This shift to a more outward-looking view of forensics research can be traced with some precision to the editorship of George Ziegelmueller, between 1973 and 1977. In his last volume, Ziegelmueller set aside one issue especially for essays on recent issues in argumentation theory. In contrast, that volume featured no essays on competitive debate and only one on pedagogy. Ziegel-mueller actively recruited scholars to submit theoretical essays to the journal in order to broaden its focus and scope. His goal was not to eliminate articles on competitive debate theory and practice, but to make the journal more well-rounded (Ziegelmueller, 1999). A parallel development at about the same time was the definitional statement from the 1974 National Developmental Conference...