The Tale of One Journal in the Era of Publish or Perish
| Published date | 01 March 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X0701400101 |
| Date | 01 March 2007 |
| Author | Morag Goodwin |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
14 MJ 1 (2007) 3
EDITORIAL
THE TALE OF ONE JOURNAL IN
THE ERA OF PUBLISH OR PERISH
M G*
e Maastricht Journa l has entered its fourteenth volume. It is my tenth issue as editor.
is anniversary seems an appropriate juncture at which to i ntroduce MJ readers and
our authors (potential as well as act ual) to the changes under way to the management
of the Maastricht Journa l; further, it makes sense to try to do so in t he context of the
complementary pressures a ecting both jour nals and authors in t his era of publishing
mania.
Much has been written in the la st ten years about the shi to elect ronic publishing.1
However, the strident assertions that paper jour nals were doomed in favour of a web-
based free-for-all have not (yet?) been realized and ‘old-fashioned’ jour nals such as the
MJ – where ‘paper’ has become a convenient shorthand for ‘quality’ – are under greater
pressure than ever in an er a in which academics thems elves are forced to publish more
and more in order to further t heir career. e changes afoot at t he MJ are but one
movement in this broader dance between authors a nd journals.
is editorial is, then, a short and light-hearte d re ection on thi s interact ion and
what it tells us about the place and pur pose of academic journals.2
* Executive Editor, Maastricht Journal of Eu ropean and Comparative L aw; Member of the Ed itorial
Board, German Law Jour nal (www.germanlawjournal.com); Lecturer in International Law. anks to
Ida Wendt for her helpful comments .
1 See, for example, R . P. Peek and G. B. Newby, Scholarly Publishi ng. e Electronic Fron tier. (MIT Press,
2000); J. Peters, ‘ e Hundred Years War started today: a n exploration of elect ronic peer review’, 5
Internet Research: Networking Applications and Policy 3 (1995). For one of the most interesting ideas
on electronic publi shing, see J. W. T. Smith, ‘ e deconst ructed journal – a new model for academic
publishing’, 12 Learned Publishing 79 (1999).
2 is piece has be en inspired by F. Rodell, ‘Go odbye to Law Reviews – Revisited’, 48 Virg inia Law Review
279 (1962), one of the best comments on the pur pose, or lack t hereof, of law journa ls, althoug h the
present author would not subs cribe to his altoget her damning opin ion of journals!
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