Is northern hemisphere Winter at the end of the year, or the beginning of the year? Would you expect a journal's Winter issue to precede the Spring issue or follow the Fall issue? The law journal editors don't really know either. The tendency is to have the Winter issue precede the Spring issue in the same year, but there are many examples where the opposite occurs, where the journal publishes the Fall 2004 issue and then subsequently the Winter 2004 issue (examples are: Hofstra L. Rev., John Marshall L. Rev., Marq. L. Rev., U. Cin. L. Rev., U. Pitt. L. Rev.). The Georgetown Immigration Law Journal became so confused that they did it both ways, as in, 18#2 Winter 2004, 18#3 Spring 2004, 18#4 Summer 2004, 19#1 Fall 2004, 19#2 Winter 2004. A similar problem occurs when journals combine issues into Fall/Winter or Winter/Spring leading to confusing designations such as, Law & Contemp. Probs. 67#1/2 Winter/Spring 2004 ... 68#1 Winter 2004. Many journals opt for month designations, and that certainly has more clarity.
Posted by doyle at September 27, 2005 12:17 PM