Paper short abstract:

Starting from the assumption that each journal serves to the needs of a particular scholarly community, the anthropology journals at three levels of generality and status are considered. The question of the ways the articles are solicited, reviewed, edited, and published, are discussed in light of the targeted authors and dynamics of their professional advancement on the national, regional, and international level.

Paper long abstract:

This paper takes an approach to the production of anthropological journals from the point of view of "hierarchy", instead of "hegemony". Starting from the assumption that each journal serves to the needs of a particular scholarly community, with its own rules of professional advancement determined by the job market, the journals at three levels of generality and status are considered. Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology, the journal of the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology of the University of Belgrade, represents a leading national journal in Serbia, Ethnologia Balkanica, issued by the International Association for Southeast European Anthropology, is a journal of regional scope placed at the ERIH list, and American Anthropologist, of the American Anthropological Association, is one of the highest rated journals on the Web of Science. The particular choice of journals stems from the personal involvement with their operation - as a reviewer in all, a co-editor in special issues of the first two and an editorial board member in the later two. The questions of the ways the articles are solicited, reviewed, edited, and published, are discussed in light of the targeted authors and dynamics of their professional advancement on the national, regional, and international level. The concluding remarks consider how instead of trying to combat "hegemony" of the Anglo-Saxon journals, it might be possible to develop ways of leveling the existing "hierarchy", by opening up new spaces for exchange of quality research results and leaving behind the self-colonizing attitudes, such as "we can never catch up with the world."