Thanks to the unswerving dedication of a small, but enthusiastic group of people, today the Review of International American Studies is indexed in the prestigious Elsevier Scopus database and features in the European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH+); it has its own profile in the Index Copernicus Journal Master List with the Index Copernicus Value (ICV) for 2017 of 77.29 (per 100!). But there is more: recently the RIAS received an “A” class category in the parametric evaluation of the Italian Ministry of Science and was granted as many as 20 parametric points in the most recent evaluation of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Our distribution flourishes as well: electronic copies of our journal (both full issues and individual articles) are now available to the readers in hundreds of libraries world-wide via the Central and Eastern European Online Library, an important German content and metadata aggregator run by Wolfgang and Bea Klotz and operating from Frankfurt am Main. Likewise, owing to the steadfast loyalty of Beata Klyta, the indefatigable director of the University of Silesia Press and a major champion of our cause, the RIAS is now available in such renowned repositories as CEJSH, BAZHUM or POLINDEX, which institutions render our texts visible to the reading public world-wide.
The article serves as an introduction to the present issue, offering the reader an insight into the Editors' overall concept, as well as an overview of the contents of the issue's "Features" section.
Starting with this issue, our journal will include a completely redesigned Book Review Section, featuring three to five high-quality reviews by leading and emerging scholars from around the world. As for the selection of the books to be reviewed, even though I am a literary scholar, it is my intention as Review Editor to consider books that engage with the U.S. and the Americas as a hemispheric and global phenomenon from a wide range of perspectives and disciplines, including anthropology, art history, and media studies.