The current edition of Iraq may be the last to appear in a regular print-run. As detailed in previous editorials, we have come to an arrangement with Cambridge University Press whereby they will fund the Author Processing Costs for Gold Open access online publication for those authors who cannot afford it. This is an excellent result, as it makes our authors’ research widely accessible around the globe and does not reinforce institutional financial inequalities. However, this also means that from the next issue the journal will be completely open access, which means completely online. If subscribers wish to carry on receiving the journal in a physical copy, they will need to order print-on-demand copies, which unfortunately will be at a higher price than the regular copy of Iraq costs now. You should be able to register for a print-on-demand copy via the BISI website: https://www.bisi.ac.uk/membership/register/.
This situation may change in the future, as may much that has to do with the economy.
For this issue we are pleased to have an extra editor on-board: Jana Matuszak. This volume of the journal contains six articles that were the result of two conferences with the title of Approaches to Cuneiform Literature, one of which was held online in March 2022, and the other of which was held in-person in London in March-April 2023, both organized by Jana Matuszak and Mark Weeden. The motivation for these conferences was to celebrate the intellectual legacy of research done at SOAS, University of London, between 1948 and 2020. The end date of 2020 is when Assyriological teaching, and thus slightly later also research, at SOAS were unceremoniously scheduled for cancellation due to market pressures. A number of the contributors have dedicated their submissions to Andrew George, who was largely responsible for the excellent reputation of SOAS Assyriology over the last 40+ years. We expressly encourage these dedications.
Otherwise, this issue of the journal contains a good mix of research by older and younger scholars, archaeological, iconographic and further topics. We are happy that Iraqi scholars have started submitting to the journal again, after CUP arranged to have it listed on SCOPUS, the international citation index. This citation benchmark is important for Iraqi colleagues’ promotions and institutional recognition. We are grateful to Saadi al-Timimi and Mark Altaweel for translations of abstracts into Arabic, to our many peer reviewers for their careful comments and suggestions, and to the members of the editorial board for their continued support. Readers will note that this issue of the journal has been delayed by some months; this is in large part due to a cyberattack that had a significant impact on CUP’s journal publication network. We thank all our subscribers for their patience.
