Behoud de Bijdragen, vernieuw de vorm

In the past fifty years the bmgn has prevailed amid a fragmenting journal landscape and rapidly internationalising historical scholarship and has even done pioneering work in digitisation. Successive editorial boards established the raison d’être of the bmgn by initiating historical debate. They have succeeded in this endeavour, although those participating in the discussions may have been overly homogeneous. The bmgn has not been a trailblazer in historiographic innovation, nor should it aim to be, in our view, as a geographically defined journal. The bmgn would benefit in the future from focusing on three form innovations. First, by revising the publication process to make the peer review more useful and appealing. Second, by digressing from article formats, doing more to promote discussion and debate and encouraging experimental contributions. Third, by accepting the primacy of digital publishing and making better use of the opportunities it offers.