MIT Press's longest running journals

April 12, 2022

Celebrating 60 years of the MIT Press: Our longest-running journals

raldrich | 60th Anniversary, Journals

Highlighting our six oldest and most distinguished journals, from African Arts to Leonardo

As we continue our 60th-anniversary celebrations, we’re turning an eye toward an integral part of our publishing program: our outstanding journals division. We published our first two quarterlies—The Journal of Interdisciplinary History and Linguistic Inquiry—in 1970 and founded our journals branch shortly afterward in 1972. A lot has changed in the fifty years since.

Today, the MIT Press journals division publishes more than forty titles, frequently adding select publications of long-standing repute or innovative, fresh material to its list. In 2020, we launched in partnership with UC Berkeley, Rapid Reviews: COVID-19, a peer-reviewed, open-access overlay journal created to combat misinformation in COVID-19 research. And in 2019, we introduced the Harvard Data Science Review—another one of our many open access journals—which publishes articles that help to define and shape data science as a scientifically rigorous and globally impactful multidisciplinary field.

In the spirit of celebrating our earliest days and our six decades as a publisher, today we’re highlighting six of our longest-running and most distinguished publications. We’re honored to be a part of their legacy and look forward to many more years of scholarship together.

Learn more about these six journals below, or explore all of our journals on the MIT Press Direct website.

African Arts—publishing since 1967

African Arts presents original research and critical discourse on traditional, contemporary, and popular African arts and expressive cultures. Since 1967, the journal has reflected the dynamism and diversity of several fields of study, publishing richly illustrated articles in full color, incorporating the most current theory, practice, and intercultural dialogue. The journal offers readers peer-reviewed scholarly articles concerning a striking range of art forms and visual cultures of the world’s second-largest continent and its diasporas, as well as special thematic issues, book and exhibition reviews, features on museum collections, exhibition previews, artist portfolios, photo essays, contemporary dialogues, and editorials.

Explore popular articles from African Arts—these are available for free until the end of April.

Daedalus—publishing since 1955 

Drawing on the nation’s most prominent thinkers in the arts, sciences, humanities, and social sciences, as well as the professions and public life, Daedalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, explores the frontiers of knowledge and issues of public importance. Recent issues have examined Access to Justice; Inequality as a Multidimensional Process; Science and the Legal System; Why Jazz Still Matters; Political Leadership; Ethics, Technology, and War; Russia Beyond Putin; and The Prospects and Limits of Deliberative Democracy.

Daedalus has even deeper roots, having been published from 1846 to 1958 as the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The journal continues to innovate today; it became fully open access in 2021, furthering the publication’s goal of making knowledge and scholarship more broadly accessible.

Explore popular articles from Daedalus—articles in Daedalus are always available open access.

The Journal of Interdisciplinary History—publishing since 1969

The Journal of Interdisciplinary History features substantive articles, research notes, review essays, and book reviews that combine the study of history, spanning all geographical areas and periods, with other scholarly disciplines. The editors encourage contributions that demonstrate how methodological connections with other disciplines, and the methodologies of other disciplines, can throw light on the past.

The Journal of Interdisciplinary History recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and we interviewed founding co-editor Robert Rotberg about the journal’s history.

Explore popular articles from the Journal of Interdisciplinary History—these are available for free until the end of April.

Leonardo—publishing since 1968

Leonardo is the leading international peer-reviewed journal on the use of contemporary science and technology in the arts and music and the application and influence of the arts and humanities on science and technology. Leonardo is interested in work that crosses the artificial boundaries separating contemporary arts and sciences. Featuring illustrated articles written by artists about their own work, as well as articles by historians, theoreticians, philosophers and other researchers, the journal is particularly concerned with issues related to the interaction of the arts, sciences, and technology.

This year we also celebrate a milestone in our relationship with Leonardo: We have been publishing together for 30 years. Happy anniversary, Leonardo!

Explore popular articles from Leonardo—these are available for free until the end of April.

The New England Quarterly—publishing since 1928

For over ninety years, The New England Quarterly (NEQ) has published the best that has been written on New England’s cultural, literary, political, and social history. Contributions cover a range of time periods, from before European colonization to the present, and discuss subjects germane to New England’s history—for example, the region’s literary and artistic productions, its political practice and philosophies, race relations, labor struggles, religious controversies, and the organization of family life. The journal also aims to link regional history and literary cultures to broader scholarly studies by encouraging work that treats the migration of ideas, people, and institutions from New England to other parts of the United States and the world. In addition to major essays, features include memoranda and edited documents, reconsiderations of traditional texts and interpretations, and book reviews.

Explore popular articles from the New England Quarterly—these are available for free until the end of April.

The Review of Economics and Statistics—publishing since 1919

The Review of Economics and Statistics is a 100-year-old general journal of applied (especially quantitative) economics and the longest-running journal to be published through MIT Press Direct. Edited at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Review has published some of the most important articles in empirical economics. From time to time, the Review also publishes collections of papers or symposia devoted to a single topic of methodological or empirical interest.

Explore popular articles from the Review of Economics and Statistics—these are available for free until the end of April.

Explore more of MIT Press’s journals