Reflections on the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

Abstract

Reflections on the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Tan Sri Dato Haji Mubin Sheppard and Paul H. Kratoska Publication is one of the principal activities of most scholarly associations, including the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Society's mission is to collect, disseminate, and preserve information about Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, and to fulfil this goal, it publishes a journal, original monographs, and reprints of older publications. Tan Sri Dato Haji Mubin Sheppard (1905–94) was an officer of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and served for many years as editor of its journal. In September 1985 he presented a paper about the journal at a conference on 'Academic publishing in ASEAN: problems and prospects'. The paper, which was printed in the conference proceedings,1 provided a useful summary of the journal's history and some of the problems it faced. His concerns included printing, marketing, and distribution (both overseas and in Malaysia), and how to ensure that back issues of the journal remained available and accessible. The points Sheppard mentioned in 1985 would have been familiar to Carl Gibson-Hill, who edited the journal 30 years earlier. Gibson-Hill complained of substandard printing and difficulties getting printers to make corrections. Editors needed to visit printing offices, and Sheppard notes that when the society's offices relocated from Singapore to Petaling Jaya, a satellite city of Kuala Lumpur, printing of the journal also moved from Singapore.2 Gibson-Hill also expressed concern about preserving back issues of the journal and keeping them available to the public. In connection with a possible donation of back issues to a library, Gibson-Hill wrote: if possible the back numbers should be bound, and arrangements made to bind each subsequent volume as it is completed. … We mention the matter [End Page 95] of binding as experience has taught us that loose parts of journal are much more liable to disappear from libraries than are bound volumes.3 When Sheppard wrote his article, authors submitted typed manuscripts and communicated with the journal editor through the postal service. Processing articles for publication involved keying them in on a linotype machine, which produced slugs of type used for printing, and proofreading took place on "galley proofs", long sheets of paper that would later be broken down into pages. Corrections required physical replacement of lines of metallic type, and changes had to conform to the number of words and letters in the corrected passage to fit the space taken up by the original text. At the time of printing, the editor ordered extra copies of the journal that were used to prepare offprints, copies of an article sent to the author for distribution to friends and colleagues. Thirty years later, when I assumed the editorship in 2015, every step in the process had changed. This article begins with Sheppard's paper, edited to remove details that have fallen out of date. Following his account, I have added an update explaining changes in the way manuscripts are submitted, published, and read. The History, Publications and Distribution of JMBRAS in Ancient and Modern Times By Tan Sri Dato' Mubin Sheppard History A meeting was held in Raffles Library, Singapore, on November 4th 1877 at which a resolution was presented and approved reading 'that the gentlemen present form themselves into a Society for collecting and recording scientific information in the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago. The said Society to be, for the present, called The Straits Asiatic Society.' Those present included Archdeacon G. F. Hose, who presided, W. E. Maxwell, who was then the Colonial Secretary, A. M. Skinner, who was then the Colonial Treasurer, W. A. Pickering the Protector of the Chinese, C. J. Irving, the Resident Councillor Malacca, and D. F. A. Hervey, a Magistrate. Mr. Skinner, who was the first Honorary Secretary, wrote to the Royal Asiatic Society in London asking if the new body could be accepted as a Branch of the older Society (which had been founded in 1826). Approval was received from London in March 1878 and the Society was then renamed The Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Governor of the Straits...