Editorial Note
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1The first print issue of the European Bulletin of Himalayan Research was released in spring 1991. We are pleased to announce that in the year 2021, for its thirtieth anniversary, EBHR will start a new life as an online journal.
2Since we took over the editorship of the Bulletin for a new four-year cycle, our priority has been to assess the way of making this publication even more relevant for the community of people engaged in Himalayan studies. We consulted with the contributing editors who have been associated with EBHR through the years. We also felt that renewing the editorial board was needed in terms of gender balance, geographical area of expertise and disciplinary diversity. That is why, as seven members decided to leave the editorial board, we are happy to welcome ten new members with a strong anchorage in the Himalayas.
3Following a series of exchanges with the previous editorial team, we became convinced that the long-awaited move to an online, open access format had become an urgent priority in order to address the challenges faced by a journal like EBHR. Immediate open access implies a change in our economic model which carries some significant challenges. Nevertheless, the new online format will provide many advantages in terms of dissemination, accessibility, discoverability and diversity of content. We are also aware of the possible constraints it imposes when access to the Internet is limited and a hard copy is sometimes a preferable mode of circulation. We endeavour to address the various challenges and opportunities that such a transition entails: detailed information about this upcoming change will be shared in the next editorial note.
4The move to an online platform is, however, not a rupture in terms of editorial politics regarding the journal’s scope and role. This issue’s content attests to a sense of continuity and even of the revitalization of some features.
5EBHR was, at its launch, designed as a Newsletter about the state of the field of Himalayan studies (with reports on research projects, notes on resources and archives, news and announcements, book reviews, etc.). Its content has evolved and diversified with each issue: ‘dissertation abstracts’ were first added in 1996 (no. 10); and the same year the Bulletin turned into a fully fledged journal with a thematic double issue (no. 12-13) that included many research articles. Film reviews have also been published, and the special issues about music and photography show that early on the Bulletin was open to a diversity of topics and media. With the prospect of a transition to an online platform we feel it is a good time to revisit these early attempts and to expand the range of formats we will include in the Bulletin.
6With this and the following issues, we unassumingly hope to assert the role the Bulletin can play in constituting a platform for scholarly engagement: thanks to the tireless work of Arik Moran, long-time associate editor for book reviews, many books are reviewed and discussed in these pages; we are also re-launching a ‘dissertation abstracts’ section with aims to give more visibility to research topics chosen by PhD students. Conference reports also give us a sense of some of the initiatives that are taking place and which in our eyes seem to convey a need to enliven the field of Himalayan studies and to consolidate the community of scholars and network of institutions that support it.
7We hope that EBHR can continue to be one of the main channels through which scholarly exchanges can take place, and we will work towards making it happen. We always welcome suggestions, special issue proposals and we particularly encourage junior researchers to submit their work for publication in EBHR.
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Tristan Bruslé, Stéphane Gros et Philippe Ramirez, « Editorial Note », European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, 54 | 2020, 3-4.
Référence électronique
Tristan Bruslé, Stéphane Gros et Philippe Ramirez, « Editorial Note », European Bulletin of Himalayan Research [En ligne], 54 | 2020, mis en ligne le 31 août 2021, consulté le 20 mars 2023. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ebhr/285 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ebhr.285
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