Archaeological dialogues has always been dedicated to finding novel ways to stimulate discussion. With issue 19(1), we introduce a new space in the journal designed to further this quest to promote productive debate: in addition to our signature discussion articles, interviews, review articles and notes, a new section called ‘Reactions’ is being added. This is intended to offer a venue for readers who wish to engage thoughtfully with pieces published previously in the journal. When a contributed article is chosen as a discussion piece, the editorial committee invites a panel of scholars to offer comments that are published with the main article and an author's reply. However, we recognize that there are always scholars beyond the selected group of commentators who have significant things to add to the conversation. Now a designated space for continuing the dialogue has been opened, and our readers are invited to take up the challenge.
Authors may respond to articles of any type, not only discussion pieces. However, the contributions selected for publication in the ‘Reactions’ section are expected to be serious, substantial, scholarly reflections, in the style of comments published with discussion articles. The editorial committee will decide whether contributions meet the standard for publication, and angry polemics or offhand ‘letter-to-the-editor’-style musings are not what we have in mind. A good model is the inaugural contribution to the ‘Reactions’ series, which is a response by Catherine Hills to an article by Rachel Pope in the previous issue. Based upon her own career experiences, it offers some reflections on the situation of women archaeologists in 20th-century Britain that enrich, challenge and complement the perspective of the original article. It was this piece, which did not fit any of our established categories but was too compelling to turn down, that provoked us to launch this new venture. We invite our readers to extend the conversations provoked by articles published in AD with additional reactions.
