We are pleased to present the second issue of the new international journal Nordic Wittgenstein Review (NWR). The first issue was published in a print edition in August 2012 and three months later made available Open Access online. This second issue appears in print with half of the contributions made available Open Access online in parallel. We experiment with different Open Access models, which are to include cooperation with commercial publishers, and be sustainable for all parties. We are grateful to ontos Verlag and its owner Rafael Hüntelmann for having supported this model for the first issue. Ontos has now become a part of the De Gruyter publishing house and we look forward to continued successful cooperation under new premises.
NWR is committed to a philosophy of Open Access, and all its contributions are made freely available online. This pays off in terms of visibility and potential impact: as of May 31st, 2013, the NWR platform www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com has more than 260 registered users (and surely many more accidental visitors and readers), and the PDF files of the contributions of the first issue have been downloaded from the NWR site around 4,000 times altogether (and the HTML files of the contributions around 7,000 times). At the same time, ontos Verlag has been able to sell a number of printed copies and subscriptions, individual and institutional, which indicates that the demand should suffice. We understand this as a clear sign that Open Access and commercial publishing can be combined in ways which do not burden the budgets of either the authors, their institutions or the publisher. Publishing in our Open Access journal is free of charge, and so it shall remain. Our short embargo period of three months, however, excludes NWR from indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). As our business model aims at being maximally fair for scholars, and viable for publishers, we hope that the situation will change as the Open Access publishing sector develops.
Both the first and this second issue comprise around 200 pages. Beginning in 2014, the journal will appear twice a year, and contain roughly 100 pages per issue. Another change will be that the From the Archives and the Interview sections will alternate from the third issue onwards: having both sections in a publication of 100 pages leaves too little space for peer-reviewed articles.
We are dearly thankful to the vast number of highly competent reviewers who have contributed with their time and expertise to tour peer review procedure. The impressive number of submissions to our Articles section we take to show that this journal fills a void and that our concept – although continuously under development – may serve the interest, and needs, of the scholarly community, as we had hoped.
Agora – Scholarly Open Access Publishing in European Philosophy has supported and followed us from the beginning of this journal; in fact, this journal was created under its premises and auspices. It is now time to say good[-]bye and thanks to Agora and all of its helpers. In particular we want – again – to thank Annamaria Carusi who has watched our progress and measured it with questionnaires and analytics. With the Nordic Wittgenstein Society, the journal’s advisory board and our authors and readers, we are in good hands and look confidently into the future.
The editorial board has appointed Alois Pichler the standing section editor of the From the Archives section, and Martin Gustafsson and Lars Hertzberg (Åbo Akademi University) as the editors of the 2014 issues 3 and 4. Issues 5 and 6 (2015) will be edited by Anne-Marie Christensen from the University of Southern Denmark. So the journal sails off to different member institutions of NWS. And at some point, it may return to its shipyard in Bergen – although hopefully not for repairs.
Bergen & Åbo, June 2013
Alois Pichler, Simo Säätelä & Yrsa Neuman