Have you been reading our journals?

The Royal Irish Academy was founded in 1785 and it began publishing scholarly articles in its Transactions in 1787. Now six journals are published by the Academy: Ériu, Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, Irish Studies in International Affairs, Mathematical Proceedings of the RIA, Biology and Environment and Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature.

After early experiments with online publishing from the late 1990s, in 2009 the Academy joined JSTOR to enable students and researchers to gain access to over 200 years of scholarship. In January 2021 we announced two 'Read and Publish' deals with IReL and JISC institutions, which substanitally increase access to our journals in universities across the island of Ireland and provide researchers the opportunity to publish new work open access at no cost. The results of digitisation and Open Access programmes have been very positive: between 1 January and 28 August 2021, there were 215,781 downloads of RIA journal articles. That represents 9,675 articles accessed spanning two centuries. Below is a list of the top ten articles downloaded by our readers. While a number of the articles on the list are Open Access (as indicated), we have also made the remaining ones free to read and download for this entire week (Monday 6 to Sunday 12 inclusive).

1. Who is Better off? Measuring Cross-border Differences in Living Standards, Opportunities and Quality of Life on the Island of Ireland  Open Access
Adele Bergin and Seamus McGuinness
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2021)
Number of views: 4155

2. Reflecting on the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace Process: 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement Open Access
John Doyle
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2018) 
Number of views: 3297

3. Hearth and home: the vernacular house in Ireland from c. 1800  Open Access
Barry O'Reilly
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature (2011) 
Number of views: 2489

4. The Rise of Populism and the Crisis of Globalisation: Brexit, Trump and Beyond 
Michael Cox
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2017)
Number of views: 1880

5. Unionism, Identity and Irish Unity: Paradigms, Problems and Paradoxes  Open Access
Jennifer Todd
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2021)
Number of views: 1609

6. Climate, disease and society in late-medieval Ireland  Open Access
Bruce M.S. Campbell and Francis Ludlow
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature (2011) 
Number of views: 1464

7. Three Connections between Rising Economic Inequality and the Rise of Populism 
Nat O'Connor
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2017)
Number of views: 1454

8. Getting Ready: The Need to Prepare for a Referendum on Reunification  Open Access
Brendan O'Leary
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2021) 
Number of views: 1426

9. Bush, 11 September and the Conflicting Strategies of the 'War on Terrorism' 
David Hastings Dunn
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2005)
Number of views: 1220

10. The Good Friday Agreement and a United Ireland  Open Access
Rory Montgomery
Irish Studies in International Affairs (2021) 
Number of views: 1173