From the Editor’s Desk (review)

The second half of the year 2013 will bring significant changes, in terms of formatting and scheduling, to the French Review. As our readers know, our journal is published in annual volumes, according to a calendar that roughly corresponds to the academic year (from October to May), with each volume (including the current one, Volume 86) containing six issues. However, as of Volume 87 (2013–14), each volume of the French Review will be printed in four issues, to be published in October, December, March, and May. The decision to publish four instead of six annual issues is of course largely due to financial pressures, and in particular to the accumulated increases in mailing costs over the past few years. Like all other scholarly journals (or, more broadly, print-based periodicals), the French Review is confronted with a changing, and generally unfavorable, economic environment. In addition to rising printing and mailing costs, another ongoing development is that large numbers of university libraries are currently forced to operate with stagnating or shrinking budgets. Consequently, with limited shelf space available, many libraries are seeking to provide access to scholarly journals through electronic rather than print format. This is not the first time the French Review has had to adapt to changing economic circumstances ; nor, most likely, will it be the last. As always, our goals are to maintain or improve our editorial standards, to make the best current research available to all the members of our profession, to serve and promote French and Francophone studies. The transition from six to four annual issues does not signal any lowering of our standards. Likewise, there will be no decrease in terms of content. On the contrary, our journal, one of the most productive in the field of language, literature, film, and culture studies, will continue to publish, as it has for the past several years, approximately 50 articles and 350 reviews every year. Each published issue will therefore be longer (but not too much heavier, due to the constraint of mailing costs), and will include more articles and reviews. My hope is that our readers and colleagues will soon become accustomed to receiving fewer, but more sizeable, issues. The transition from six to four annual issues will give us an opportunity to update and perhaps improve upon the general layout and formatting of the journal. Also, just to dispel any potential rumors: there are no plans to simply post all our content online. For the foreseeable future, the French Review will continue to be printed and bound; its articles and reviews will still be available, not just as flickering symbols on a screen, but in physical, paper-based form. We invite and welcome your feedback on our forthcoming changes, as the French Review is your journal for professional development and is certainly at the core of our French/Francophone teaching community. As a reminder: our special issue for Vol. 87 (May 2014) will be devoted to the centennial of the beginning of the First World War. This broad-based historical topic should appeal to scholars of literature and film, but also of bandes dessinées and cultural studies. The call for submitted articles is on the Announcements page of this issue. In other news, our annual rubric, “Dissertations in Progress” (edited by Madeline Turan, Stony Brook University), is now available for perusal on our Web site. Please note the new address for the French Review Web site: . All authors wishing to submit articles and/or reviews should familiarize themselves with our online 453 From the Editor’s Desk Guide for Authors before submission. Also, please note the specific formatting changes that will apply to reviews as of the start of Vol. 87 (Oct. 2013). In closing, I would like to thank Jean-François Fourny (Ohio State University), former Assistant Editor, for his service to the French Review. Edward Ousselin, Editor in Chief 454 FRENCH REVIEW 86.3 ...