Editorial: Open Issues and Issues as They Open

Abstract

This is the editorial for issue seven. An ‘open issue’ is different from a ‘special’ or ‘themed’ issue. Whereas the latter generates work in response to a specific call, an open issue is made up of papers that have been sent to the journal by scholars working on their own independent (or group) projects. As such, an open issue offers an insight into the kind of work that is taking place in a field at a given time, rather than focusing on work produced in response to a specific call, topic or theme. Of course, an open issue is only a snapshot – indeed, only a snapshot of work that falls within the remit of the journal and that has passed peer review and been completed within a given time frame. This issue of Martial Arts Studies is an open issue in this sense. It contains an article by Swen Korner and Mario S. Staller with Benjamin N. Judkins, an article by Kristin Behr and Peter Kuhn, articles by Maya Maor, Veronika Partikova, and Tim Trausch, as well as book reviews by Spencer Bennington, Qays Stetkevych and a conference report by Andreas Niehaus, Leo Istas, and Martin Meyer.