Editor's Introduction to Volume 3

Much has changed since we began to publish the Journal of World-Systems Research in 1994. We have gone from ftp to gopher to the World Wide Web. Our logo is a now anachronistic piece of "ascii art" that we keep to remind ourselves of old times. And yet, some things are becoming more similar to the past, and part of this is due to our efforts to smooth the transition from print to electronic. Volume 3 of JWSR will change to an "issue" format and will be paginated consecutively to be more like journals that are printed on trees and to make citation more conventional. Despite these efforts to ape the print age we also aspire to convince our authors and readers to use the capabilities of hypermedia for scientific communication. We are not interested in bells and whistles. But we do want to use the changes in the economics of communication to employ new possibilities. We encourage authors to use graphics, photographs, audio, video and animated graphics in the presentation of their research results. We also continue to encourage appendices that include data sets and bibliographies. These appurtenances are now easily accomodated and can facilitate the purposes of cumulative social science.

The general goals of JWSR have not changed. We seek to promote research on and scientific understanding of the modern world-system and earlier intersocietal networks. And we seek to communicate the results of these activities for educational purposes. We are proud of the contents of Volumes 1 and 2, and seek to keep the same high standards for Volume 3. In August of 1996 the Editorial Board decided that the Editorship of JWSR should be limited to five year terms.

I wish to thank all those who have contributed to JWSR:

• the authors, the referees, the graduate assistants, and the board members for their good counsel,
• Salvatore Babones, the Assistant Editor (who has given freely of his considerable talents),
  
• Dale Wimberley, the book review editor,
• Nick Kardulias for editing the special thematic section on Anthropology and World-Systems,
• Don Roper and Lynn Schaper of Communications for a Sustainable Future (CSF).

These have made it possible.

Chris Chase-Dunn
February 4, 1997