The moving wall (sometimes called an "embargo") refers to the gap of content between the archival (or past) and current (more recent) issues of a journal. The moving wall is set by a journal’s publisher and ranges from 0 to 10 years, although the majority of journals in the archive have moving walls of 3 to 5 years.
The wall "moves" back every year in early January. This is when another year of content is added into the archive.
So in 2018 for a journal with a moving wall of 5 years, archival content goes up to 2012, not 2013 as simple subtraction might suggest.
To find the moving wall, navigate to any journal landing page, you will see a menu to the right of the journal's title that says “Journal Info.” The moving wall is listed below "Description" and "Coverage" in that area. Let’s look at an example, The Georgia Review.
In this case, the moving wall is 3 years which means archival access in 2018 is available through 2014.
In practice, this means you can also calculate the moving wall by subtracting an additional year from the number listed.
So in 2018, a journal with a 3 year moving wall minus 1 means that content after 2014 may not have been available.
If you can't access a specific issue of a journal and aren't sure why, it might be because of the moving wall.
If you ever have questions about access, or are unsure of whether you should be able to read certain issues of a journal, you can always check with your librarian to see how to get access to the content you need or contact us in User Support.