1 Infrastructure

At the end of 2025, I was thrilled and humbled to learn that every one of our nine associate editors was willing to serve another year in their roles. This group of smart, thoughtful, and exceedingly hardworking colleagues has been the backbone of the journal and the reason we are able to provide thorough and timely feedback to our authors. I am beyond grateful that they elected to continue their service through the end of 2026.

Still, in the interests of institutional continuity (and not having to fill nine roles at once!), I invited three additional scholars to serve as associate editors. These new EB members will serve for at least two years, and it is my expectation that two years will be the minimum period of service going forward. Our new associate editors expand the EB’s topical and geographic expertise in exciting ways and they have already been valuable participants in our monthly meetings for some time. With their additions, in alphabetical order by surname, our EB roster now consists of Hayal Akarsu, Matthew Canfield, Simanti Dasgupta, Monica Eppinger, Gökçe Günel, Julia Hornberger, Jeffrey Kahn, Meghan Morris, Mayur Suresh, and Riaz Tejani. Neil Kaplan-Kelly and Jeffrey Omari continue to perform a double duty as both associate editors and book review editors, while Jennifer Curtis remains in her role leading PoLAR Online and collaborating with me on our shared venture, In Other Words. I am profoundly thankful for the time, energy, and generosity that all these editors devote to PoLAR and to the colleagues who entrust us with their scholarship.

The EB continues to vote on manuscripts in panels of three, although given our temporarily expanded numbers we now have four panels and (given our new members) we have shuffled panel compositions. The panel format continues to work well by expanding the EB’s decision-making capacity and thereby reducing the processing time for each manuscript, without overburdening editors. I’m now more confident than ever that, regardless of their number and other minor details related to their functioning, the panels strike a nearly optimal balance between the needs of authors and editors. I am also convinced of the value of synchronous conversation among editors and not-so-secretly pleased by the spirited exchanges that occasionally unfold during our monthly meetings.

In addition to our new associate editors, I am also thrilled to introduce Christy Quinto, who joined PoLAR in January as our new Managing Editor following a competitive national search. Christy holds a PhD in anthropology and is also a seasoned publishing professional—it’s hard to imagine a better combination of skills and experience. Beyond those qualifications, Christy is an inspiringly organized person as well as a skilled planner who is able to anticipate the needs of the journal and its many stakeholders far in advance. She brings pragmatism, empathy, and long-term planning to the task of managing PoLAR and we are collectively—and I am personally—deeply fortunate to have her on our team.

Finally, since January 2026, we have welcomed three additional Scholarship Liaisons to the journal as well as redefined the role. Now, PoLAR’s Scholarship Liaisons work directly with me and Christy to identify appropriate reviewers for each manuscript that passes desk review. Securing reviewers, even with the changes to PoLAR’s review process described in my November 2025 letter, remains one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of running the journal, and the Scholarship Liaisons’ contributions have significantly eased that burden. In alphabetical order by surname, they are Alreem Alameri, Alaa Hajyahia, Shalini Iyengar, and Heyu Zhang.

2 Special Sections

In my inaugural editorial letter one year ago, I announced that PoLAR had temporarily paused acceptance of any special section proposals pending the development and ratification of a new policy regarding them. I’m very happy to share that the EB achieved its goal of approving a new Collective Publication Policy (CPP) by the end of 2025—and, furthermore, that we have received and are currently evaluating two proposals crafted pursuant to that Policy. The development of a concrete and publicly available policy on collective efforts makes PoLAR relatively unusual among peer publications, but we felt that thoughtful guidance and transparent communication are essential to ensuring the quality, fit, and success of these ventures.

As with other policy changes developed by the EB, the exact contours and mechanics of the CPP are likely to be refined over time. Nevertheless, having now had the opportunity to put the CPP into practice twice, we are confident that it provides a solid foundation for collective efforts. The process as it currently stands involves 1) aspiring guest editors submitting a short (2–5 page) proposal with information specified in the CPP, 2) an EB discussion of the proposal and an initial decision on whether to proceed, 3), if the decision is to proceed, feedback from the EB regarding possible improvements, and 4) an EB vote on revised proposal. Like the evaluation of article manuscripts, the EB’s discussion is conducted synchronously via Zoom, but unlike article manuscripts the EB sits en banc rather than in panels when it first discusses the proposal and it later votes asynchronously by electronic poll.

Our hope is that both the journal and the guest editors will be more directly and meaningfully engaged in the process of seeing collective efforts to fruition. Too often, special collections involve little more than an initial agreement to contribute and a final, panicked effort to salvage what remains. PoLAR’s CPP reflects the EB’s belief that journals have a responsibility to more clearly articulate standards and structures for collective publication efforts, and that guest editors have a responsibility to undertake much of the thematic development and ongoing monitoring necessary for a collective effort to be successful. We are excited to welcome submissions for special sections under the new CPP and look forward to working with more of our scholarly community in this capacity.

3 AAA Portfolio Changes

In my November letter, I referred to upcoming changes in the AAA’s journal portfolio due to the conclusion of its contract with Wiley as of December 2027. I had hoped then to share news with you now—and, while I do indeed have some developments to announce, they are not as definitive as I would like.

Much of the relevant background is now known within the APLA and AAA communities, but I will summarize it briefly here. As the AAA began preparing for the conclusion of its contract with Wiley, the organization became convinced of the need to reduce the size of its portfolio. Other publishers were unwilling to accept a portfolio of around twenty anthropology journals. Over the course of 2025, the AAA considered various approaches to portfolio reduction, but the pertinent information for APLA and PoLAR was that the AAA did not plan to continue publishing PoLAR as one of its portfolio journals. This meant that PoLAR, if it was to continue, had to find a publisher of its own.

During 2025, I worked with Heath Cabot (then-President of APLA) and Will Garriott (Treasurer) to seek another publisher for PoLAR. This was not an easy task given the longstanding and escalating pressures faced by academic publishers and their understandable disinclination to take on a small journal in a subfield of anthropology; however, Heath, Will, and I—as well as the leadership and membership of APLA—were deeply committed to ensuring PoLAR’s continued existence if doing so was at all possible.

In late 2025, we were fortunate to receive a provisional publication offer from Cambridge University Press. Truthfully, I could not imagine a better publishing partner. Cambridge is one of the oldest, most prestigious academic publishers in the world and yet it is not a gigantic operation in which a journal of PoLAR’s size may be easily overlooked. Furthermore, Cambridge’s portfolio enjoys a remarkable strength in the interdisciplinary area of law and social science, and includes journals such as Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Society Review, the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, the Asian Journal of Law and Society, the International Journal of Law in Context, and the Journal of Law and Religion. We would be in stellar company. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—the terms of Cambridge’s offer to PoLAR are generous, and put us in a good position to grow the journal at sustainable pace to eventual financial self-reliance.

As of this writing (April 2024), the AAA’s Executive Committee has approved the Cambridge offer and granted APLA and PoLAR permission to proceed with crafting a publication contract to be entered into by the AAA and Cambridge. (As neither APLA nor PoLAR are independent legal entities, they are incapable of being parties to the contract themselves.)

I’m afraid that this is where the good news pauses, although it will hopefully not end here. Final contractual terms will likely take longer than I had anticipated because the AAA is unable to make commitments to PoLAR while its own search for a publishing partner for the remainder of the portfolio is underway. Additionally, key elements of any such contract—whether Cambridge will be granted access to PoLAR’s back catalogue, whether Cambridge will be allowed to take charge of PoLAR’s licensing (both of which would be beneficial for PoLAR)—remain at the AAA’s discretion, and outcomes on these points are unknown.

That said, I am hopeful that the AAA will see the value of allowing PoLAR to move to Cambridge, rather than forcing its dissolution, and furthermore that the AAA will agree to terms that give the transition every chance of success. I am also extremely grateful for the help I have received in moving this process forward from Dominic Boyer (Chair, Anthropological Communications Committee), Will Garriott, Elif Babül (President, APLA), and from editors of other journals hoping to exit the portfolio. Most of all, I am heartened by the continued interest and support shown by Cambridge and the Executive Publisher of its journals division, Rebecca O’Rourke.

4 Gratitude

I want to close this letter by thanking a group of colleagues without whom the journal could not function regardless of my own best efforts and those of the EB: our reviewers. PoLAR reviewers are invaluable contributors to the success of the journal, lending their expertise and their care to authors they do not know and may never meet. Having served on the editorial boards of other journals, I know that our reviewers are unusually conscientious and their willingness to engage rigorously but generously with senior scholars and early career researchers alike is part of what makes this journal special. Consequently, in this letter—and in every letter going forward—I will close with a note of appreciation to our most recent reviewers as well as a list of their names.

PoLAR reviewers 1 January 2026 – 31 March 2026

Thank you for your contribution to our community and to our field.

Deepa Das Acevedo, Emory University, is Editor-in-Chief of PoLAR:  Political and Legal Anthropology Review.