Sercon is a word used to denote "Serious and Constructive" science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 criticism, as well as the science fiction fanzines in which such criticism is published. The term was originally coined in the 1950s by Canadian fan

Science fiction fandom

Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...

 Boyd Raeburn

Boyd Raeburn

Albert Boyd Raeburn was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophonist.Boyd Raeburn was born in Faith, South Dakota, and became one of the greatest and least-known of jazz bandleaders during the 1940s...

 as a pejorative to mock those fans who took science fiction, its criticism, and themselves too seriously.

The term began by the 1970s to be used without pejorative intent to describe fanzines and even conventions which were of a more studious or literary bent. Examples of sercon fanzines and semi-prozines include The New York Review of Science Fiction

The New York Review of Science Fiction

The New York Review of Science Fiction is a monthly literary journal of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarship. It is published by Dragon Press and the managing...

, Science Fiction Eye, Cheap Truth

Cheap Truth

Cheap Truth was a free series of one-page, double-sidded newsletters published in the 1980s. It was the unofficial organ of a loose group of authors. This group called themselves many things, including "The Movement" but was later known as the Cyberpunk movement.The zine was edited by the science...

, Nova Express

Nova Express (fanzine)

Nova Express is a Hugo-nominated science fiction fanzine edited by Lawrence Person. Nova Express is a sercon fanzine with a focus on written science fiction, featuring interviews, reviews and critical articles. Many professional science fiction writers and major critics have contributed to it over...

, Thrust/Quantum, and SF Commentary, among others. Conventions sometimes described as sercon include WisCon

WisCon

Wiscon or WisCon, the Wisconsin Science Fiction Convention, is often called the world's leading feminist-oriented science fiction convention and conference. It was first held in Madison, Wisconsin in February 1977, and is held annually throughout the four day weekend of Memorial Day...

, Potlatch

Potlatch (convention)

Potlatch is an annual non-profit science fiction convention held in the Pacific Northwest region of North America since 1992. Unlike most SF conventions, Potlatch designates a "Book of Honor" rather than author, editor, fan, and/or artist "Guests of Honor."...

, and Readercon

Readercon

Readercon is an annual science fiction convention, held every July in the Boston, Massachusetts area, in Burlington, Massachusetts). It was founded by Bob Colby and statistician Eric Van in the 1980s with the goal of focusing exclusively on science fiction in the written form Readercon is an...

.