Nine years ago, I took on the editorial responsibility for Intercom magazine. Time flies when you enjoy your work! Editing Intercom has been a wonderful experience, and it has been an honor to serve the profession by developing content for the field in one of its leading professional magazines. It is hard to believe that during this time, 90 issues were published, which amounts to a truckload of content on topics as diverse as our profession can be. More than anything, however, I am proud of the role the magazine has played and will continue to play within the discipline, connecting practitioners and academics, and providing technical communicators with applicable professional development guidance.
It is a great pleasure that my final issue of Intercom has been guest edited by Dr. Kirk St.Amant, someone who has always made an effort to bridge practice and academia. Kirk is a Professor and the Eunice C. Williamson Endowed Chair of Technical Communication at Louisiana Tech University and an Adjunct Professor of International Health and Medical Communication with the University of Limerick. His research focuses on international and intercultural communication and online media. Kirk is a Senior Member and a Fellow of STC, the current Vice Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC), and the Interim Editor of Communication Design Quarterly, the ACM SIGDOC’s peer-reviewed research publication. Kirk is also a Past President of the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC) and the Past Co-Editor of the organization’s official journal, Programmatic Perspectives.
In his guest editorial, Kirk asks the question, “How can research help the members of a field collaborate effectively?” In the following five articles, the authors identify differences in how research is perceived across the field. By describing how different groups approach research, they identify areas where collaboration can be beneficial. Each article in this issue presents different perspectives on research and offers ideas and examples on using research as a mechanism to collaborate. Through this approach, readers should be better able to understand the perspectives of “others” and how research might help foster effective collaborations. I look forward to seeing where the advice in this issue leads us.
I am also pleased to announce that Andrea Ames has agreed to serve as Intercom’s new Executive Editor in 2018. Andrea impressed the members of the search committee with her enthusiasm for the editorship and her strong vision for the magazine. As outgoing editor, I feel very confident in passing the reins to Andrea because she has global technical communication and content strategy experience, wide acquaintances within the industry, and admiration from the STC membership for her contributions to the Society. In addition, she already has some terrific ideas for the 2018 editorial calendar. You can reach Andrea at intercom@stc.org.
Stay tuned for these changes and more for Intercom in 2018! I wish you all a very healthy and happy New Year!
—Liz Pohland
