The publication year of a journal Volume and its issues is fixed in Brill’s annual publication program. Brill's ERP system is leading for this. Unless (very) exceptional circumstances, the publication year does not change – regardless the publication is on time or behind. The copyright year is the actual year of release of an issue or article. For Advance articles, the copyright year is set by the time of its first publication, which is online - not as part of an issue. The copyright year of an Advance article does not change by inserting the article in an issue. It is not up to individual authors or editors to amend this.
As a result, the publication year could well be different from the copyright year for quite a few articles, as well as for a number of complete journal issues (not in the least during the end of the last quarter of the calendar year).
During Q4 of the year we live in, the copyright year of the next year shall be displayed if parties in pre-press foresee that the article or issue will be published in January or later. Consequently, the copyright year would be this year in case the publication is expected for December.
In case of doubt, the copyright year shall be set based upon the most likely scenario.
For example, if it is certain that a complete issue planned for publication in January 2023 shall be published in December 2022, then copyright year is 2022. However, as this is particularly so for journal issues that are ahead during pre-press and any decision to publish them ahead of the next year would not be taken until (very) late in the course of Q4. For this reason, it is assumed the copyright year of a Q1-bound journal issue will be 2023.
As for Advance articles, there would not be any decision to go either ahead with those or hold them back. During the first part of Q4, it will be clear the copyright year should be 2022 in most cases; when nearing the Christmas break more closely, parties in pre-press will have to reckon with 2023 for the copyright year more often.
Meanwhile, a copyright year that deviates from reality is not a very big deal during this period of year (between end of November and first week of January). Parties in pre-press shall aim to act accordingly the most likely scenario, to the best of their actual knowledge.
