Degrowth is a diverse, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and rapidly growing area of research which deserves its own space in the academic discourse; it cannot thrive across disconnected journals, expending considerable energy defending its own existence against established disciplinary norms. Our journal not only provides a home for Degrowth, but it is a home built with values which are consistent with our vital research. It is a ‘knowledge commons’ free and open to all, with no barriers and no profiteering. This is the home we have been striving to create, and we are now delighted to welcome you in. 

The process of building Degrowth began with a blog post written by Ben Robra and Timothée Parrique for degrowth.info (see Robra & Parrique, 2020). Since then, we have published our manifesto (Degrowth journal, February 2022) and the editorial collective has worked tirelessly, but convivially, to make the journal a reality. We are a small group of volunteers who meet regularly to advance the idea in practice. It has not been an easy journey. All work is unpaid, from consultation to authoring, reviewing, editing, administration, copy-editing, and layout. Whilst we have learnt a great deal from other commons-based, peer-to-peer managed, open access, and non-profit scientific journals, most of our systems have been developed from scratch, including systems for communication, submissions, website, data management, volunteer management, and publications, to name but a few. After closing the first open call, the editorial collective handled 55 submissions, which include research article manuscripts, essays, perspectives, book reviews, and thesis summaries. Our energies are naturally also spread across our other responsibilities as scholars, educators and activists. We are therefore immensely proud that our shared project is finally materialising. We want to take this opportunity to shed some light on the choices we have made throughout this process concerning organization, technology, and our overarching ethos of slow science.