The University of Lethbridge has become the new publisher of Informal Logic, one of the most reputable journals in the field of Argumentation Theory.

Dr. Katharina Stevens, a ULethbridge philosophy professor, joined the journal’s editorial team in 2018 and recently began the process of moving the journal to ULethbridge. The journal has been awarded a three-year Aid to Scholarly Journals grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The approximately $127,000 grant will help ensure a successful transition for the journal and allow ULethbridge students to be hired as interns. At ULethbridge, the journal will be associated with the Critical Thinking & Civic Engagement Lab.

From left to right are Drs. Katharina Stevens, Michael Baumtrog (Toronto Metropolitan University) and Christopher Tindale (University of Windsor), co-editors of the journal.

“This is the field-founding journal in Informal Logic and one of Argumentation Theory’s most important journals,” says Stevens. “With this journal, a lot of attention from Informal Logic, and more generally from the Argumentation Theory and Critical Thinking communities will now be directed to Lethbridge.”

Two undergraduate students, who are now being trained, have been hired as editorial assistants. Once an article has been accepted for the journal, the students will edit the copy, communicate with authors, assemble the issue and upload it to the website.

“They will also, through their copy-editing, receive an education in cutting-edge Informal Logic, Critical Thinking and Argumentation Theory scholarship,” Stevens says.

Informal Logic is a peer-reviewed academic journal now in its 47th year of publishing, having first existed as the Informal Logic Newsletter. The journal’s first home was the University of Windsor, where subscriptions and small grants from the university financed it. A series of SSHRC grants beginning in the late 1990s allowed the editors to hire student interns. In 2008, Informal Logic became an open-access online journal, a move that expanded readership. The journal has since established a strong reputation and attracts high-quality submissions and an ever-growing readership.

The journal publishes four issues a year and is the only open-access journal in Argumentation Theory. Informal Logic, which focuses on understanding reasoning in everyday conversations, is a subdiscipline of Argumentation Theory, which studies how people use reasoning, logic and dialogue to challenge claims and resolve disagreements.

Stevens expects the first Lethbridge-based edition of the journal will be published in June.