Editor's Lair

A new year is once more upon us and with it come some further changes to Lithic Technology. To restate what is now probably obvious, I am pleased to begin our new relationship with Maney Publishing, which has begun a partnership with Left Coast Press in taking over the publication of their archaeology journals. I am confident that this represents a significant step in the right direction for us and it offers me the chance to make a few immediate changes that have been on my wish list for some time.

First, I am very happy to announce that Lithic Technology will make the switch from a biannual to triannual publication. This will accomplish several important goals for the journal. It will allow us to cut into our considerable and growing backlog, both increasing the amount of quality content appearing in the journal and reducing the amount of time between the submission of papers and their ultimate appearance in print. This backlog has been a point of personal dissatisfaction for me up to this point and I am confident that this represents significant progress. Thus, I renew my pledge to both current and future authors to speed up the revision and publication processes. It may also be worth reminding at this point that triannual publication format will rely on a continued high rate of paper submission … so keep sending us your papers!

Second, I am quite hopeful that this move will both improve the electronic dissemination of current and future content, as well as making available electronic files of articles from our back issues. Again, this is the most common complaint I receive from the Lithic Technology readership and I know that it is a sore point. Let me reassure everyone once more that we are working on this as quickly as is feasible. Along similar lines, I am also aware of a certain level of dissatisfaction with the online indexing of Lithic Technology, especially with respect to the major academic citation databases. I know that this is a special concern for individuals whose academic departments use this type of indexing as a publication standard or as a tool for professional evaluation. We are working on this with all possible speed and hope to complete it sometime in the near future.

Keeping these new goals in mind, I am also to keen to continue the directions I set out in my first Editor's Lair piece (Spring 2011) in terms of expanding the ‘big tent’ of Lithic Technology readers and contributors. In the Spring 2012 issue, John Whittaker presented the first in what will be an annual series of publications reviewing knapping events in North America and discussing important issues facing the knapping community. I am very happy to announce that this series will be continued in the Summer 2013 issue with more details to be announced soon. Let me also take this moment to welcome continued contributions from knappers and other avocational archaeologists, who rarely fail to offer novel perspectives on the traditional problems facing those who study stone tools.

In closing, I know that many of you may have been surprised by this most recent move to Maney Publishing — I was too! But I am certain that this offers the journal the chance to move forward with its various goals and to continue to expand its base of readers and contributors. As always, I look forward to reading your papers as they come in and I am grateful for your interest in the journal.