Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 118C now available in print and online

Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers primarily in the fields of archaeology, history, culture and literature. It is currently edited by Professor James Kelly and Dr Tomás Ó Carragáin. Volume 118C is now available both in print and online.

In his editorial, Professor Kelly writes that...

'In an era of appreciating disciplinary specialisation, interdisciplinary journals like Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy are sometimes presented as an anachronism—survivors from an era when scholarly specialism was not the order of the day, when cutting-edge research was not so rarified as to be inaccessible to the general public, and when the autodidact and gentleman (for they were mostly male) comprised a significant proportion of those engaged in intellectual pursuits as well as of the membership of organisations, such as the Royal Irish Academy, devoted to the cultivation of inquiry and the dissemination of learning. It may well be that this is a charge that can justifiably be levelled at the minority of journals that have declined to adapt in order to meet the expectations of scholars and readers. The world of journal publications is dynamic and fast changing. The most striking index of this is the number of new titles. Among other factors, this reflects the emergence of new scholarly areas, the greater emphasis attached to impact metrics by institutional research offices and the consolidation of journal publication in the hands of a number of major publishing enterprises...' continue reading