Hi folks,

The lack of list traffic has indicated to me that the world is not really
ready for an informally administered peer-reviewed free e-journal
publishing reviews of archaeological and archaeology-related texts. There
are, as I see it, two potential solutions. I am already implementing #1
below, and I am asking for your help in implementing #2.

1. Archreview is in the process of establishing a more traditional
approach to the review process. While we still expect to publish a great
range of reviews from a more broad range of perspectives than the typical
peer-reviewed journal, we are now in the process of negotiating agreements
with several high-profile publishers for review copies of books. Once
received, I will list the copies available and ship them to reviewers who
apply for the specific books listed as available. The same deadlines
previously published here will apply, but this practice will offer our
reviewers a wider variety of potential subjects, and, potentially, attract
more reviewers and more subscribers.

2. Simply put, this e-journal needs more participation by existing members
and more members generally speaking. I do not want to see Archreview
members contributing spam to the already spam-heavy archaeology mailing
lists I currently subscribe to, but I would very much like to see our
membership grow. In this, I am asking for your help. Please consider
quietly recommending this mailing list to your students, colleagues or
co-workers.

I very much believe in what we are trying accomplish here, and I appreciate
the efforts of those who have followed through with reviews and
comments. I also support the freedom and inexpense of the medium we've
implemented, however, archaeology on the internet is still, and for good
reason, not taken as seriously as it should be. Archreview, following a
more traditional scholarly model than most of the mailing lists and web
sites out there, and remaining a free-of-charge service, has the potential
to help change the views of both the professional and academic
archaeological communities concerning internet resources. This is,
undoubtedly, a worthy goal. However, it will require substantially more
effort than what this list has so far engaged.

Please help in any way you can.