FROM THE EDITOR

From the Editor

This issue marks the last of my term as Editor-in-Chief, and I am pleased to be handing over to Dr Clement Masakure of the Department of History at the University of the Free State, who has been a member of the editorial team for some years now. He will, I know, have fresh ideas to bring in invigorating Historia in the future, as we enter a new era in academic publishing perennially, one it seems, always on the cusp of change.

Among the most recent of these changes is the decision taken at the annual general meeting of the Historical Association of South Africa (HASA) that, from 2024, Historia will no longer be circulated in hard copy. The costs of printing and postage and the dire state of the South African postal system have rendered unviable the circulation of independently owned journals such as Historia. Many of us will regret this decision, but the journal has never been as accessible as it is today, albeit electronically. Our international profile has recently been enhanced by the recognition and listing of Historia in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which directs readers to more than 20,000 open access journals across 136 countries and more than 9,500,000 articles published in 80 languages.

Open access publications have recently received some bad publicity, with predatory journals being responsible for charging exorbitant author processing charges and failing to exercise due academic diligence. Our application to DOAJ was rigorously assessed and our policies of peer review, consistency, and accessibility carefully scrutinized. The maximum pages fee charges are clearly stated in our website -https://hgsa.co.7a/historia/ - and all go towards journal production including layout, copy editing, and myriad other tasks.

Historia is accessible via the University of Pretoria's Open Journals Platform and SciELO. Historia remains searchable via Sabinet, too. We have moved our article submission facility to the University of Pretoria's journal management platform and are decommissioning our Gmail account. To submit articles, please go to https://upjournals.up.ac.7a/index.php/historia/about/submissions.

It is my pleasure to welcome Edwin T. Smith of the University of Pretoria as our incoming Reviews Editor, and to add my congratulations to the recipients of HASA's Johan Bergh Historia award for 2022, in recognition of their contribution to the study of history at third year level. They are: Lindelani Mulaudzi (UCT); Julia Kolbe Collingwood and René Sachs (University of Pretoria); Refiloe Dhladhla (UFS); and Nadia Bartel (Wits).

Finally, I record my thanks to all who have assisted and supported me over the last four and a half years. Being editor of a general historical journal has expanded my reading and historiographical horizons, often opening me to histories I would not otherwise have known. On occasion it has burdened me with the weight of repeated exposure to pasts of oppression and sadness, but it has also connected me to many people with deep commitment to our profession who shared generously of their time and experience.

Julie Parle, November 2023