Daedalus (journal)

• 1. Introduction

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  Daedalus began its life in 1846 not as a journal at all, but as a record of proceedings for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For more than a century it carried that institutional title, circulating among scholars as a document of the Academy's activities. Then, in 1958, it took a new name drawn from Greek mythology: the craftsman who built wings of feathers and wax. That name, Daedalus, signals something about the journal's ambitions. It invites a question worth following: what kind of publication earns the name of a mythmaker, and what makes it unlike almost any other academic journal in the world?

• 2. Invitation Only

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  Daedalus does not accept open submissions. Every piece that appears in its pages arrives there because the journal asked for it. That invitation-only model sets it apart from the vast majority of peer-reviewed publications, where scholars compete for space by submitting work unsolicited. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which the journal represents, shapes each issue around a theme, then convenes the contributors it wants. The result is a curated conversation rather than a competitive marketplace of manuscripts. MIT Press has served as the publisher behind that process, bringing the journal into distribution while the Academy retains its curatorial authority.

• 3. Open Access Turn

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  In January 2021, Daedalus moved to an open access model, a shift that changed who could read it. Before that point, the journal's contents sat behind subscription barriers like most academic periodicals. The move placed its peer-reviewed, invitation-only essays in front of any reader with an internet connection. For a quarterly publication with roots in 1846, that transition marked a meaningful departure from more than a century and a half of restricted circulation. The open access decision also aligned the journal with a broader movement reshaping academic publishing, one in which the American Academy of Arts and Sciences chose to participate rather than resist.