"Annali.Reviews.Online" (ARO) is a new electronic journal devoted entirely to book reviews in keeping with a trend that is becoming widespread in international scientific publishing. Reviews of the newest scientific literature that until now were published in the "Annali dell’Istituto Italo-Germanico / Jahrbuch des Italienisch-Deutschen Historischen Instituts" will henceforth be published exclusively in ARO.

ARO will appear three times a year and review mainly new publications focusing on European history, with special attention on the German- and Italian-speaking areas. Furthermore—not unlike its German-language cousin "sehepunkte"—ARO will have an epoch-spanning, interdisciplinary, and international orientation.

This model of specialized electronic journals has successfully established itself internationally in the area of reviews precisely because critical reviews of new scientific publications can thus appear much faster and contribute to their dissemination. It thus becomes possible to inform the specialized public as well as a generally interested readership promptly and comprehensively about new research trends and debates. In addition, A.O will be available worldwide and free as an open access journal.

Even though in recent years new journals of reviews have managed to assert themselves in many scientific cultures and also in many historical subdisciplines, we have come across certain deficits also in the era of open access. For example, the transnational dialogue, or rather the transalpine dialogue, continues to exhibit conspicuous gaps in this type of publication. Against this background, we devised ARO as a new review journal that sees itself devoted mainly to the promotion of the scientific dialogue between the German- and the Italian-speaking cultures while also offering a solid basis to the transnational discourse of historians and non-professional historically interested readers. In the coming years, ARO will supply a new and reliable platform to this end.

Each issue will open with a Forum that will address key debates or feature a number of reviews of just one publication, to which we intend to reserve a prominent position.

ARO’s editors will ensure that all publications in the journal satisfy high scientific quality standards. First of all, all reviews will be commissioned by the editors. Secondly, all incoming reviews will be assessed by a team of specialized editors. Thirdly, ARO will collaborate with prestigious institutions in Italy and abroad. And lastly, all contributions will undergo a multi-level review process.

Reviews accepted by ARO will appear in one of four languages: Italian, German, English, or French. Beginning in May 2018, ARO will be institutionally anchored in the Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico in Trento; its editorial offices are also located there.

Christoph Cornelißen / Edoardo Tortarolo