Editor’s Note

Happy Birthday Arctic Anthropology! The journal is fifty years old this year! Anniversaries ending in zeros always prompt me to pause to reflect on journeys I have taken and also contemplate my future endeavors. I have enjoyed working with so many of you over the eleven years that I have been the journal’s editor. I have decided, however, that this is an ideal time to place the journal in someone else’s care while I continue to juggle my diverse research, teaching, and museum responsibilities. The journal is in good shape financially, has a healthy article submission rate, and is reaching a wide, international audience. Christyann Darwent, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, will become Arctic Anthropology’s sixth editor.

The journal, the brainchild of Chester Chard—working with James VanStone, Catharine McClellan, and William Laughlin—first appeared in 1962. Chard was Arctic Anthropology’s first editor and endeavored to make sure the journal had a circumpolar reach. He personally supported the journal financially until 1965 when the University of Wisconsin Press agreed to oversee production and distribution of the publication through its Journals Division. Arctic Anthropology remains unaffiliated with a membership organization. It was created by a group of farsighted individuals and continues to be successful because northern-focused social scientists and organizations, and northern communities find it a valuable source of ideas and support it through subscriptions. Please maintain your subscriptions and urge your colleagues, students, libraries, and other organizations to subscribe as well!

Arctic Anthropology has remained true to its core mission over the last half-century while adjusting to technological developments. Catharine McClellan, the second editor of the journal and an associate editor at the journal’s conception, told me that during the early years of journal preparation she carefully re-typed all revised and copy-edited papers on an expensive, fancy electric typewriter with a correcting ribbon that lifted errant type off the page. Today, we have the delete key and the “find and replace” and “track changes” functions to do the correcting for us, and most of the writing, revising, and copyediting, as well as typesetting are done using computers.

While email services, computer programs, and drop boxes have facilitated some of the production process, publishing quality work remains labor intensive. This starts with the research, analysis, and writing done by authors. I want to thank everyone who has submitted a manuscript to the journal for entrusting your work to us.

The peer review process remains critical to the success of the journal and health of our discipline. These frank reviews provide the editor with critical guidance, and are even more important to authors who have an opportunity to consider the feedback they receive and further strengthen their work. I have asked many of you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of papers written by your colleagues and want to thank you for responding positively to my requests. You have been generous with your time and expertise and I am grateful for the thoughtful and constructive reviews you have written.

Stacy Ericson began copy editing the journal in 2000 during Allen McCartney’s last year as editor and agreed to continue through my term. This will be the last issue that benefits from her expertise and discerning eye. She has worked closely with authors, helping them clarify thoughts and polish their prose. She has navigated through countless tricky grammatical rules and carefully proofread pages of galleys in search of those typographical errors that might be lurking somewhere on a page. Many contributors have told me how much they have appreciated working with her. She has always exhibited grace under pressure and maintained a wonderful sense of humor. Stacy, it has been a pleasure working with you.

Authors and readers rarely interact with the people on the production side of the journal publication enterprise. The staff of the Journals Division of the University of Wisconsin Press has done much to ensure the accessibility of the research we publish. They deal directly with typesetters and printers, promote the journal and attract advertisements to its pages, negotiate its presence on search engines, and monitor its...