Early popular visual culture, by its very definition, stems from a period in which different standards and norms were dominating public opinion-and some of this historical material is discriminatory. People from a great range of identities, whether due to gender, religion, ethnicity, race, sexuality, disability or class are presented in derogatory ways-both in word and image. Committed to overcoming discrimination and to making academic research a more inclusive space, we editors find it important to discuss with our readers, writers and reviewers how to deal with historical forms of discrimination without repeating and thereby perpetuating those forms. We are not intending to be exhaustive nor definitive about the breadth of inclusivity under consideration. The suggestions made in this document are neither prescriptive nor concrete guidelines. This editorial is authored by the editorial team and was written up by Sarah Dellmann after discussion with Joe Kember and Andrew Shail. It should be considered a beginning rather than conclusion of our engagement with these issues. Although the primary aim of this editorial is to discuss and develop a publication strategy for our journal, we decided to also include reflections on the use and presentation of images from the perspectives of archives, online resources and lecturing. This is for two reasons: firstly, most of our authors, readers and reviewers are engaged in teaching and/or use or contribute to online-accessible databases of historical material; and secondly, we consider that strategies and reflections from the fields of teaching and documentation can inform our debate on publication in a productive manner. This initiative had the general support of all board members and we are thankful for all advice and suggestions we received. The broad interest in this debate showed us that there is a need as well as expertise and interest to continue this discussion. We will create a 'living document' based on this editorial, which we invite you all, editors, authors and readers, to develop further. All resources quoted can be found at the end.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.