What is the World Cultures Journal?

The World Cultures journal (ISSN 1045-0564) is published twice annually by The Social Sciences Department and the MARC Program (Minority Access to Research Careers) at York College, 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd, Jamaica, NY 11451, USA. Telephone: (718) 262-2982. Fax: (718) 262-3790 or 262-2027, email: Divale@york.cuny.edu. The journal consists of a combination of paper and electronic media. Postmaster: Send address changes to Dr. divale@york.cuny.edu, Social Sciences, York College, 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd, Jamaica, NY 11451, USA.

MISSION: World Cultures provides scholars and students of culture with the benefits of a fifty year old tradition in cross-cultural research - access to most of the important published and unpublished comparative research materials on human cultures by established leaders in the field as well as new contributors. These materials are published in succinct form, commonly as aggregate cultural data in coded form on a large sample of societies, interpreted with the aid of detailed codebooks. Auxiliary materials include sampling frames, bibliographies, descriptions of societal foci, and programs for displaying relationships or distributions in tables, maps, or other forms. The journal does not include the ethnographic publications from which most of the coded data are derived via expert readers, judges, or coders. The provision of such materials is the function of a library or archival system, such as the Human Relations Area Files. Besides ethnographic data, World Cultures publishes data from such diverse sources as historical, economic, or political analyses, weather stations or satellites, such as are applicable to ethnographically described societies and their ecosystems.

The electronic aspect of the journal provides text and numerical file data in a form for manipulation by electronic word processors, statistical packages, and graphics software. General purpose software may occasionally be distributed with the journal under the shareware concept. The reader may tailor the journal to his/her own needs, programs, and applications. Special purpose or instructional software may occasionally be provided such as is made available by contributors.

POLICY: World Cultures welcomes articles, data, and comparative research material, dealing with any aspect of human groups, from social or behavioral scientists of any country. Publication of any comparative database, regional or worldwide, will be considered on the basis of scope and quality. Submissions of programs and teaching materials are welcomed and will be considered from the viewpoint of the evolving skills of the general readership. Brief communications on research, coding, sources, and other materials of interest to comparative researchers are welcomed.

CONTRIBUTIONS. Codes, articles, or other materials should be submitted in printed form or on diskettes, preferably in WordPerfect or Word format. Authors are free to republish material in other journals. Send contributions to Editor, J. Patrick Gray, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, email: jpgray@csd.uwm.edu, phone (414) 229-4822.


SUBSCRIPTION. The subscription fee is at the new lower rate of $30 per volume, which applies to current as well as past volumes. In addition, a starter kit consisting of the MAPTAB program together with selected datasets from prior volumes will be given to new subscribers at no cost. With a faculty sponsor subscription, additional student use subscriptions are $20 annually. Send subscription requests to: Dr. William Divale, World Cultures, Social Sciences, York College, 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd, Jamaica, NY 11451, USA. Telephone: (718) 262-2982. Fax: (718) 262-3790 or 262-2027, email: Divale@york.cuny.edu.

COPYRIGHT. The World Cultures journal is protected by both United States Copyright Law and International Treaty provisions. Therefore, you must treat Journal issues and component files and software JUST LIKE A BOOK OR ORDINARY JOURNAL, with the following single exception. WORLD CULTURES authorizes the user to make archival copies of the Journal for the sole purpose of backing up your diskette files and software and protecting your investment from loss. By saying, "just like a book", the publisher means, for example, that a given issue may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another -- so long as there is NO POSSIBILITY of it being used at one location while it is being used at another.

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