Editor’s Notes


 

Anthropology of East Europe Review. 27(2): Fall 2009 1 

Editor’s Notes 
 

Sarah D. Phillips, Indiana University 

 

 

With this fall 2009 issue (Volume 27, No. 2) of Anthropology of East Europe Review we 

are delighted to launch our new open access format through Open Journal Systems and 

IUScholarWorks.  AEER has evolved considerably since its inception in the early 1980s as a 

newsletter for anthropologists working in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.  Around 1989, 

under the leadership of editors Sam Beck and David Kideckel, the newsletter transformed into a 

print journal with articles and book reviews.  Robert Rotenberg added a journal website in the 

mid-1990s that offers archives of most back issues with a two year moving wall.  Throughout 

these transformations AEER has been dedicated to publishing the most current, field-based 

research and promoting especially the work of junior scholars, graduate students, and foreign 

anthropologists who may have less access to the world of U.S. academic publishing.  The 

journal, with its accessible format and quick turnaround, is an excellent venue for giving current 

research on the region broad exposure.  These opportunities will be enhanced further through 

Open Journal Systems (OJS), which makes the journal content freely available to anyone, 

anywhere, via the Internet.  Open access promises to exponentially increase the journal’s 

readership and visibility, among other advantages. 

For example, through OJS the journal’s content will be searchable and indexable by 

various search engines and indexing services, thus giving the journal content much greater 

exposure.  OJS helps generate statistics regarding the utilization/popularity of the journal in 

general, and of individual articles; this could be very useful information for contributors.  Via 

OJS we will be able to streamline the submission and editorial review process through a central 

workflow system.  Crucially, OJS also serves as a permanent institutional repository for all the 

new and past AEER content, thus providing an extremely reliable preservation mechanism.  Over 

time we hope to add all or most of the back issues of AEER into this institutional repository.  I 

would like to emphasize that although OJS is based at Indiana University, the journal and its 

future are in no way permanently tied to Indiana.  To the contrary, open access offers precisely 

the kind of flexibility required by a journal such as AEER, which historically has changed 

editorships approximately every three years.  The IUScholarWorks Library staff has generously 

agreed to maintain AEER via OJS eternally; since everything is digital there is no need for the 

editor(s) to be affiliated with or located at a particular institution.  Indeed, thanks to OJS the 

journal can more easily migrate from institution to institution as the editorship changes.   

This is a truly exciting time for AEER staff, readers, and contributors.  I am extremely 

grateful for the support and input of many of the journal’s former editors and other colleagues 

associated with the journal, especially Julie Hemment, Krista Harper, David Kideckel, Robert 

Rotenberg, Neringa Klumbyte, and Barb West.  Instrumental in launching this open access 

initiative have been Jennifer Laherty and Sherri Michaels at the Indiana University Libraries, as 

well as Rachel Eyermann, my editorial assistant.  Many thanks to you all. 

As the journal transitions to an open access platform we welcome your feedback.  Please 

direct comments, suggestions, and concerns to Sarah D. Phillips, editor-in-chief, at 

anthroeasteuropereview@gmail.com.