The Shape of Transnational American Studies: Good and Excellent News

Abstract

Editor's Note for JTAS 3.2 Copyright Information: Copyright 2011 by the article author(s). All rights reserved. The Shape of Transnational American Studies: Good and Excellent News SHIRLEY GEOK-LIN LIM I begin this editorial with a sense of relief and congratulatory delight, coming out of a slew of good news. First, a piece of excellent news: in 2010, JTAS was selected as one of 85 borndigital scholarly publications (of over 5,000) to be included in the Library of Congress’s mandatory deposit program for e-publications. Copies of JTAS will be permanently housed in print form at the Library of Congress in recognition of our journal’s distinctive contribution to scholarship. On a second happy note, this year we move to a biannual publication schedule; the current issue is thus numbered JTAS 3.2. As our readers, contributors, reviewers, and numerous associate and advisory editors know, since publishing its inaugural issue in 2009, the Journal of Transnational American Studies has appeared once yearly for the past three years. This seemingly minor change in numbering, signifying the release of a second yearly issue, is in fact an excellent sign of stability for a new publication. Furthermore, the swifter publication schedule means that the journal will process submissions (including the lengthy and rigorous process of at least two peer reviews, revision, a second round of peer reviews, editorial board review, and copyediting) in a more timely manner. JTAS has attracted an increasing flow of submissions from both junior and senior scholars, and, with the open access provided by the internet, these submissions come from an ever-expanding domain of international universities and research centers. The biannual schedule, while still allowing us to choose the best pieces for inclusion, will permit our contributors to get their articles out in circulation globally before delays in publication begin to dull the cutting edge of their scholarship! The third piece of good news appears in this issue in the shape of a Special Forum. The idea of Special Forums focusing on particular US transnational subjects, guest-edited by outside scholars, and vetted by the editorial board, was first Lim: The Shape of Transnational American Studies: Good and Excellent News