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316 Alphabet Soup
argue, in a name. The journals that remain are those that
specifically ally and align themselves with the Mediterranean
as an entity; they claim something with the label they choose.
Totting these up, we are left with some dozen or so cases, and a
veritable alphabet soup of acronyms: JMA, JMAA, JMS, MA,
MAA, MHR, MPO, MS (twice), and so on (see Table 13.1). 4
Rather than trudging through these serials one by one, in
survey fashion, this discussion will call them to the bar, as it
were, to define and defend their choice of title and of territory,
by posing a series of questions to the entire set:
. When do these periodicals appear?
. Who stands behind them and where are they located? In
what languages do they publish?
. What face do they show the world? What is on the cover?
. How do they explain their mission? What is their agenda?
. What do they mean by ‘Mediterranean’?
. Are they successful?
In the end, we will see what—beyond the obvious—emerges
as characteristic of a ‘Mediterranean serial’, and we can reflect
on the utility, and the possible future, of that categorization.
2. chronological patterning
As Figure 13.1 has already signalled, the birth of these journals
is, on the whole, a relatively recent development. Progenitors
include Méditerranée and Peuples Méditerranéens/Mediterranean
Peoples (launched in 1960 and 1977 respectively), although
it is worth noting that the first of these appears more geographical
in scope, the other more ethnographic, than is the primary
focus of attention here. One version of Mediterranean Studies,
launched in 1978 under the joint auspices of the Faculty of Arts
and of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Malta,
4 Website addresses provided in Table 13.1 were valid as of November
2002. The final category (‘WorldCat Citations’) is derived from an on-line
OCLC FirstSearch of WorldCat for each serial, reporting the number of
‘Libraries that Own Item’ there recorded. WorldCat claims to be the ‘world’s
largest bibliographic database’ (http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/). While its
coverage is not comprehensive, and quite biased towards North American
holdings, it nonetheless can offer one proxy measure of a journal’s level of
circulation.