Ab Imperio is one of a few remaining fully independent journals published by a team of its founding editors since 2000 as an ongoing international research project in the field of new imperial history of the post-Soviet region. Institutionalized as Ab Imperio Inc. in Amherst, MA, USA, Ab Imperio embodies an ideal of a professional periodical established by scholars and for scholars, as an academic cooperative that prioritizes providing opportunities for self-expression for researchers above some formal strictures that university-based or publishing house-owned journals had to comply with (be it word count or long waiting lists). Ab Imperio combines the tradition of Russian "thick journals" with the model of American peer-reviewed academic publication. Its unrivaled distribution network and availability in the post-Soviet countries, in Western Europe, and in North America makes Ab Imperio literally a household name in the Russian and related area studies world-wide.