<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">
<title>eToc Alert</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!-- body {
background-color: #FFFFFf;
color: #000000;
font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;
font-size: 12px
}
p {
font-size: 12px
}
ul {
list-style-type: disc;
color: #cc0000
}
li {
margin-bottom: 1em
}
li span {
color: #000000;
}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<P align=center><A
href="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/modl/90/1"><IMG alt="" hspace=0
src="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/sda/8427/MODL_synergy.jpg"
align=baseline border=0></A></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=3><b><EM>The Modern Language Journal</EM>
celebrates 90 years with the publication of the first issue of
2006</b></FONT> <BR><b>From the Editor, Sally Seiloff
Magnan</b></P>
<P align=left>Begun in 1916, <i>The Modern Language Journal</i> enters its 90th year of uninterrupted publication with this issue. From a first print issue of 42 pages, the <i>Journal</i> now averages 164 pages per quarterly issue and is available in print and digitally to individuals, libraries, and consortia worldwide. The electronic dissemination of the <i>Journal</i> has increased its availability and usage under the careful guidance of Blackwell Publishing.</P>
<p>In 2004 the <i>MLJ</i>’s electronic access allowed it to reach over 135,000 scholars around the world. Given that the highest previous circulation number of 12,000 existed at the end of Robert Roeming’s editorship in 1970 (Magnan, 2001, p. 109), the current distribution of the <i>MLJ</i> is now higher than ever before in its 90-year history…</p>
<p>The stature of scholarly journals is no longer well characterized by print circulation figures, which do not reflect readership accurately in this digital age. In addition to data about how often individual articles are accessed, some scholars consider citation indexes to estimate a journal’s scholarly reach. In the <i>Thomson Journal Citation Reports
Social Science Edition 2004</i>, the <i>MLJ</i> ranked first in the applied linguistics category in the immediacy index (2.348), which considers how quickly articles in a journal are cited. Its impact factor was 0.750, which gives the average number of times articles published in the <i>MLJ</i> in the past 2 years were cited during 2004. The cited half-life was 7.8 years; this figure gives the median age of <i>MLJ</i> articles cited in 2004.</p>
<p>In closing, I want to stress that figures such as the ones included in this 90th birthday summary of the status of the <i>MLJ</i> tell only partial stories and can also be misleading. They must be interpreted and used with care. Nonetheless, it is fair to say that at age 90, the <i>MLJ</i> is a vibrant journal with a far reach and a strong scholarly impact.</p>
<p>I thank Blackwell Publishing for taking the <i>Journal</i> into this new millennium and the digital world it represents, and the University of Wisconsin Press, the NFMLTA, and the 16 editors before me who shepherded it to the international stature it enjoys today. The next decade will take the <i>Journal</i> to its 100th birthday by which time electronic publishing and diversity of research methodologies can be expected to have enriched our discipline even further.</p>
<p>To read this letter from the editor in its entirety,
click here: <A
href="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/modl/90/1">http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/modl/90/1</A>.</p>
<P>
<HR id=null>
<FONT size=1>Need assistance with a related Blackwell Publishing product or
service? Find information online at BlackwellPublishing.com for </FONT><A
href="http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/static/ordering.asp"><FONT size=1>Books
Customer Service</FONT></A><FONT size=1>, </FONT><A
href="http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/cservices"><FONT size=1>Journals
Customer Service</FONT></A><FONT size=1>, and </FONT><A
href="http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/authors/"><FONT size=1>submission
policies</FONT></A><FONT size=1>. For help with offers included in this email,
please contact Jamie O'Brien at </FONT><A
href="mailto:blackwell@bos.blackwellpublishing.net" ><FONT
size=1>blackwell@bos.blackwellpublishing.net</FONT></A><FONT
size=1>.<BR><BR>This email was sent from the Blackwell Publishing office at 350
Main St., Malden MA 02148 USA. Contact details for all our offices are available
online at </FONT><A
href="http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/contacts/global_offices.asp"><FONT
size=1>http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/contacts/global_offices.asp</FONT></A><FONT
size=1>.<BR><BR>Unsubscribe: If you would rather not receive messages from
Blackwell Publishing in the future, please </FONT><A
href ="mailto:leave@bos.blackwellpublishing.net?subject=unsubscribe fmhult@dolphin.upenn.edu - A" ><FONT
size=1>send us a reply email</FONT></A><FONT size=1> with a subject line of
"Unsubscribe fmhult@dolphin.upenn.edu - A."</FONT>
<P></P>
</body></HTML>