Volume II ● Issue 1/2011 ● Page 3
Volume II ● Issue 1/2011 ● Page 3
Editorial, IANSA 1/2011
IANSA Forges Ahead
Jaromír Beneš, Ondřej Mlejnek, Robert Brukner
Welcome back to all our readers, friends, colleagues, sponsors and supporters.
For a first run science journal things have gone surprisingly well. The editing process, layout, printing and website have progressed without any serious problems. Our efforts to raise the language bar have been more challenging, but with the support and patience of our submitting authors we conducted an extensive language “upgrade” on all published materials. Our website went live without a hitch and now provides free access to our full selection of articles.
With expectations running high (of failure and success) our first volume was well received locally and has generated excitement abroad. We have run out of back copies and hosted just over 10,000 page views on our website. We are all very busy working on Issue III, expanding and improving the website, welcoming new international members to the editorial board, and establishing collaborative initiatives with partners in the region and around the world. We have received a large number of submissions for consideration and are working with translators and authors to move our language and editorial standards ever closer to international standards.
Where do we go from here? We carry on, of course! But we also listen to our readers and supporters, both here and abroad, as we strive to improve the journal, its content and its impact. Dr. John Chapman, a well-known British archaeologist specializing in central and eastern Europe has provided us, and his Anglo-American colleagues around the world, with a strong critique of our introductory volume, and the value and future potential of IANSA. Looking ahead we strive to bring more and diverse voices to the Editorial table and to our pages. We are actively seeking involvement from senior archaeologists across the region, and around the world. We are looking for your input. Contact us! Tell us how we are doing and how we can be more relevant to your interests.
New to this issue is Backstory our special items section devoted to the places, people and institutions of the region. To our deepest regret we introduce this new section with a reflection on the constraints of life and the death of Marek Zvelebil, a foreign trained, UK based, son of Czechoslovakia whose untimely death at 59 has severed one of the ties that bind our region to the rest of Europe and the world.
In memory of Marek Zvelebil and his life’s work, IANSA is also preparing a special issue devoted to his primary research interests. Under the framework of “Neolithic Transformation in Europe and the Enculturation of Landscapes“, we are collecting topical submissions from his friends and colleagues across Europe. We would like this special issue to be a celebration of Marek’s life’s work and of the common themes that bind our profession together.
All submissions to the Zvelebil memorial issue and all future IANSA issues are most welcome. Deadline for the Zvelebil memorial issue is 31st March 2012.