Journal of Basic Writing Website

A modern static website for the Journal of Basic Writing (JBW), an academic journal founded in 1975 by Mina P. Shaughnessy at CUNY. This site provides access to 43 volumes of archives (1975-2024) with enhanced browsing, search, and author indexing capabilities.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Local Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

The site will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Building for Production

# Build static export
npm run build

# Preview production build
npm start

The build outputs static files to the /out directory, ready for deployment to any static hosting service.

Linting

npm run lint

Architecture

Technology Stack

• Framework: Next.js 15 with App Router (static export mode)
• Language: TypeScript 5
• Styling: Tailwind CSS 4
• Fonts: Inter (UI) and Crimson Text (academic content)
• Icons: lucide-react
• PDF Viewer: PDF.js via pdfjs-dist and react-pdf

Static Export Configuration

The site is configured for static deployment with no server-side rendering:

• Outputs to /out directory
• Base path: /jbw (for deployment under subdirectory)
• All assets prefixed with /jbw/
• Images unoptimized (no Next.js Image Optimization API)

Data Architecture

All journal data is stored in a single JSON file at /public/jbw-index.json:

{
  "metadata": {
    "total_volumes": 43,
    "total_issues": 87,
    "total_articles": 747,
    ...
  },
  "articles": [
    {
      "volume": 1,
      "issue": 1,
      "title": "...",
      "authors": ["..."],
      "pdf_url": "https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/jbw/...",
      "doi": "...",
      ...
    }
  ]
}

Data access functions in lib/data.ts load and cache this JSON, providing filtering, search, and aggregation capabilities.

Pages and Components

Pages

Route	Description
/	Homepage with journal stats, featured sections, sidebar navigation
/about	History, editorial team, publication info, contact, archive details
/submit	Submission guidelines, manuscript requirements, review process
/archive	Complete archive browser with expandable volumes/issues
/authors	Alphabetical author index with article listings
/search	Full-text search across titles and authors

Core Components

• Header.tsx - Site header with responsive navigation (Home, About, Submit, Archive, Search)
• Footer.tsx - Site footer with copyright, links, and contact information

Styling System

Custom CSS classes defined in app/globals.css:

• .journal-block - Content block containers
• .journal-block-title - Section headers
• .sidebar-nav - Sidebar navigation with hover states
• .article-content - Typography for article content (serif font)

Brand colors:

• Primary red: #8B1A1A
• Primary maroon: #5D0F0F
• Accent gold: #C9A961
• Background cream: #FAF9F6

Key Features

Volume-to-Year Mapping

Volumes don't map linearly to years due to publication gaps (2014-2021). The getYearFromVolume() function in lib/data.ts handles this mapping correctly.

Author Name Cleaning

Scraped author data contains metadata (DOIs, page numbers). The cleanAuthorName() function strips this before display.

Dynamic Statistics

The homepage displays dynamic counts for articles and unique authors, calculated from the JSON index at build time.

External PDF Links

All PDFs are hosted on the WAC Clearinghouse (wac.colostate.edu) and linked directly - no local storage or proxying required.

Deployment

Static Hosting

Build the site and deploy the /out directory to any static hosting service:

• GitHub Pages
• Netlify
• Vercel (static mode)
• AWS S3 + CloudFront
• Any web server

Base Path Configuration

The site is configured to be served from /jbw. To change this:

1. Update basePath and assetPrefix in next.config.ts
2. Update the fetch path in lib/data.ts:getJBWIndex()

Sustainability and Maintainability

Content Updates

Updating journal data: Replace /public/jbw-index.json with new data following the existing schema. The site will automatically reflect changes on next build.

Updating editorial team: Edit the Editorial Team section in app/about/page.tsx.

Updating submission guidelines: Edit app/submit/page.tsx.

Adding New Volumes

1. Add article entries to jbw-index.json
2. Update the volume-to-year mapping in lib/data.ts:getYearFromVolume() if needed
3. Rebuild the site

Dependencies

Minimal dependencies: The site uses few dependencies to reduce maintenance burden:

• Next.js (framework)
• Tailwind CSS (styling)
• lucide-react (icons)
• PDF.js packages (PDF viewing)

No backend required: All data is static JSON, eliminating database maintenance, API versioning, and server costs.

Accessibility

• Semantic HTML structure
• Proper heading hierarchy
• Link text descriptions
• Color contrast following WCAG guidelines
• Note: Early PDF archives lack structural markup for screen readers (documented in About page)

Performance

• Static generation for fast page loads
• Client-side data caching after initial load
• External PDF hosting reduces bandwidth costs
• No JavaScript required for basic navigation

Long-term Considerations

1. PDF hosting dependency: Site relies on WAC Clearinghouse for PDF access. Consider local backup strategy if needed.

2. JSON data integrity: Validate JSON schema when updating to prevent build failures.

3. Next.js upgrades: The site uses standard App Router patterns, making framework upgrades straightforward.

4. Styling maintenance: Tailwind CSS utility classes are self-documenting and don't require CSS file maintenance.

5. Content ownership: All content is stored in version-controlled files (not a CMS database), ensuring long-term preservation and portability.

Development Notes

Client vs Server Components

• Homepage (page.tsx) is an async server component that fetches data at build time
• Archive, Authors, Search pages use 'use client' for interactive features
• About and Submit pages are server components (static content)

Path Alias

Import components and utilities with @/*:

import { getAllArticles } from '@/lib/data';
import Header from '@/components/Header';

Type Safety

All data structures are typed in lib/types.ts:

• Article - Individual article metadata
• Issue - Articles grouped by volume/issue
• VolumeData - Issues grouped by volume
• JBWIndex - Complete data structure

License

Journal content is copyrighted by City University of New York (ISSN 0147-1635).

Contact

• Journal: [email protected]
• WAC Clearinghouse: [email protected]