Editorial

The twenty-first year of the BHA is an excellent time to make some changes to the journal that will improve both visibility and access. Over the last twenty years the BHA has provided a forum for researchers in the history of archaeology to publish and to communicate, and even though we are still a small operation, it has been very pleasing to note the increase in subscribers and the diversity of backgrounds of our contributors.

The present issue is no exception, featuring contributions from seasoned researchers (Andy Christenson) and from newer colleagues (Colin Wallace and Amara Thornton). There is also the usual diversity of topic and focus, although this issue has a decidedly stronger focus on things American (North, Central and South) than has been the case in recent years. It is also always a pleasure to announce new books in our field and on this occasion we have been alerted to new work on British hyperdiffusion and a new history of archaeology in Africa.

This bumper issue is rounded out by the advice of new PhD projects, some of which are connected with the highly active research grouping HARN that has been such a strong source of new work in our field. Both Wallace and Thornton are also connected to HARN.

The BHA is a refereed journal and I thank our loyal and hard-working group of anonymous referees for helping scholars, both new and more established, to publish their research. Equally important is our production team, Susan Bridekirk (sub-editing) and Wei Ming (layout and publication), for making it all happen. I also gratefully acknowledge the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, for financial and logistical support.

I earlier spoke of changes and I can now advise that from this issue we will be published by Ubiquity Press.

Based in Bloomsbury, London, Ubiquity Press publishes open access journals in the humanities and social sciences, with a strong focus on archaeology. By bringing the BHA online, it will become fully accessible, with a greatly expanded readership. All articles will be easily findable via search engines such as Google, and added to major humanities indexing services. At the same time, the addition of DOIs (digital object identifiers) to articles means that they can be electronically cited, and those citations tracked so that authors and readers can see who else has referenced the article and click through to read those papers as well.

The move online will not diminish the value of the print publication, but it will significantly raise the profile of the journal, with a corresponding rise in readers, citations, and also submissions as more authors in the field become aware of it. I hope that you will find this development as exciting as I do and lend it your support.

One of the additional benefits of working with Ubiquity Press is that in the near future (certainly in time for the second issue of 2011) copy can also be submitted online via the website. Instructions and more detail will be posted in due course.

It remains for me to thank the contributors to BHA 21(1) and to remind you all to encourage submissions from colleagues and to invite anyone with an interest in the history of archaeology to subscribe.

Tim Murray FSA FAHA
Editor