A complete collection of UPIAR is now available in digital format on the Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) website, upon the efforts of English ufologist and archivist Isaac Koi.
UPIAR (UFO Phenomena International Annual Review) was the first peer-reviewed UFO periodical ever existed. It was launched in 1976 and was published up to 1984.
An odd fact is that it was an Italian project, later followed by similar publications in the USA (Journal of UFO Studies, by CUFOS) and in the United Kingdom (Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena, by BUFORA).
It was the initiative of CNIFAA (Comitato Nazionale Indipendente per lo studio dei Fenomeni Aerei Anomali), an Italian UFO association based in Bologna.
Its editors were Renzo Cabassi, Roberto Farabone, Francesco Izzo, with an international advisors board including J. Allen Hynek, Richard Haines, David Jacobs, Bruce Maccabee.
The journal obtained the praise of quite a few scientists-ufologists, but always suffered from economical troubles, especially since a few imitations were started.
In 1981 UPIAR was awarded the First International Science Achievement Award by the American Fund for UFO Research, at BUFORA 2nd London International UFO Congress.
After four yearly volumes, a quicker supplement was tried, UPIAR Research in Progress (URIP) under the editorship of Spanish ufologist Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, publishing four issues (1982-1984).
In 1982 UPIAR organized an International Colloquium on Human Sciences and UFO Phenomena in Salzburg (Austria), later publishing the full proceedings.
In that same year, a dedicated publishing house was created as UPIAR Cooperative Society, whose members were all ufologists. When UPIAR ceased publications as a review, the eponymous company continued publishing quality UFO monographs in English (ten so far, plus two in Spanish), and also became the publishing house of the newly-born Italian Center for UFO Studies (CISU), publishing its journal UFO - Rivista di informazione ufologica (46 issues since 1986), a series of monographs (45 so far) and low circulation books in Italian (23).
UPIAR website is still offering both UPIAR and URIP complete collections for sale to collectors.
UPIAR complete indexes and abstracts of all published articles can be downloaded from here.
