With this issue Comparativ includes three new features. Firstly in a short intro the editors
of the journal relate themes and arguments of the single issue to the wider programmatic
concerns of Comparativ. Since its founding in 1991 the journal has published new research on
world and global history at the crossroads of a wide range of area studies by means of thematic
issues in which a selection of articles presents one topic from different and yet integrated
angles. In this way Comparativ serves to bring joint inquiries to the fore and provides a
forum for collaborative studies on connections and comparisons along the many scales that have
become relevant for the flows of past and present people ideas and goods as well as for the
ever renewed attempts to control such fluidity. Secondly we complement our book review section
with an annotation section that provides an increasing number of shorter summaries of newly
released works. In doing so we respond to the growing number of monographs and edited volumes
that make it increasingly more difficult to gain an overview of select and assign books for
reviewing. Thirdly Comparativ has been incorporated into the DOI system which assigns
persistent identifiers to the single article to increase the integration into as well as
retrieval from digital databases and library catalogues.
