From the incoming Editors

Citation

Greenley, G. and Lee, N. (2008), "From the incoming Editors", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm.2008.00742aaa.002

From the incoming Editors

We were very pleased to be invited to be the new Co-editors of the European Journal of Marketing. For us it will be an exciting challenge to develop and enhance the reputation and standing of EJM, given its long history of 41 volumes since 1967. In taking over the Editorship from David Carson and Audrey Gilmore, we acknowledge their outstanding contributions to the development of EJM, and we wholeheartedly thank them for their dedication to their tenure as Editors. Indeed, the articles to be published during 2008 (Volume 42) are as a result of their Editorship, and the year will be a period of transition as we develop the editorial aims and policy of EJM, and accept new articles for publication in future issues.

Thanks to the sterling efforts of previous editors, of Emerald, and of the marketing field as a whole, we are taking over a journal in excellent health. EJM is recognized as one of the world’s leading marketing scholarly journals, and continues to receive a healthy number of submissions each year. Of particular note is the fact that EJM has now significantly advanced through the process of becoming SSCI indexed, and during our tenure we intend to continue this process. However, while we will do our utmost to honour EJM’s history, we are also fully committed to moving EJM forwards to greater heights. In order to do so, we believe EJM as a journal must have its own unique position in the minds of scholars. In other words, we want to clearly answer your question; “why should I submit my best work to EJM?” In order to do so, we will over the course of the coming year be introducing a number of exciting initiatives.

As befits a high-quality academic journal, the overall aim of EJM will explicitly be the dissemination of insightful and new marketing knowledge. However, within this remit we hope to add a more unique standpoint. Europe has long been the wellspring of many crucial advances in the social sciences, which have been characterised by originality, idea generation and critical response, rigorous methodology, and eclecticism. Drawing from this, we encourage novel and ground-breaking contributions from a wide range of research traditions within the broad domain of marketing, particularly encouraging innovative ideas in conceptual developments and research methodologies. We do not wish to be biased towards either empirical work or pure theory, nor towards one particular methodology or approach. Further, although we aim to retain a European brand identity, we actively encourage global contributions, from scholars across the broad domain of marketing. In keeping with this, EJM will be an outlet for research that is:

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  based on rigorous, high quality scholarly work of international standing;

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  from a diverse range of methodological, philosophical and theoretical approaches;

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  situated within either a pure or applied research tradition; and

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  derived from stringent theoretical conceptualisation, and appropriate and defensible research methodology.

We will be receptive to controversial topics, new and maybe radical ideas, developments that challenge existing theories and paradigms, as well as the development and testing of new theories. We believe that such contributions are essential in the process of advancing marketing knowledge. However, no matter how novel or controversial a manuscript may be, it will still be held to the same standards detailed above. Unsupported ideas (i.e. pure opinion), or controversy for its own sake, are rarely, in our view, valuable contributions to the marketing discourse. Furthermore, unlike some marketing journals we will also be receptive to the submission of what could broadly be referred to as “replication” studies. We believe, as many others do, that replications have an important and unique role in advancing marketing, and moving “knowledge claims” towards a place where they can more confidently be called “knowledge”. Nevertheless, such studies will be held to the same standards, and must remain able to demonstrate a clear and significant contribution. Studies that simply replicate well-known results in other countries or cultures are unlikely to generate significant contributions, but those that offer new application insights or theoretical insights likely will.

In pursuing the challenge of developing and enhancing the reputation and standing of EJM, we will also be introducing a number of amendments to the editorial process. First and foremost, along with many other top journals, we will be moving to a fully electronic submission and review process, and full guidelines are available on the EJM web site and on the rear inside cover of this issue. We will no longer accept hard-copy submissions, or reviews, unless special dispensation is absolutely essential. Initially, we will desk review all contributions. Those that meet the objectives of EJM will be forwarded to three referees. Those that are unlikely to meet EJM’s objectives will be rejected at this early stage. We believe that it is, in fact, more beneficial for authors to receive quick feedback on their work when it is unlikely to be consistent with the ethos of EJM, than spend time in a review process with minimal chance of success. In doing so we hope to give the authors greater opportunity to submit their work to a more receptive outlet. We will be revising the guidance that is given to referees when reviewing papers, to help with the rigor and consistency of the reviewing process, and to facilitate constructive critical review. Whilst we expect authors to address all the issues raised by referees, they do not necessarily need to agree with all their comments. As we are encouraging debate and exchange among scholars, we believe that this should also take place during the review process. However, as the Editors we must be convinced that authors are working towards enhancing the rigor and quality of the contributions of their articles through the review process. In other words, we aim to be “editors” in the true sense of the word, rather than merely “review collectors”. If there is significant disagreement across reviews, or between reviewers and authors, we intend to adjudicate, and if necessary make an editorial decision on the manuscript’s suitability. Finally, we will aim to make a final acceptance decision in no more than two rounds of reviews, with turnaround of about two months for each round.

We are also planning to review the composition of the Editorial Board, in order to ensure that we have the spread of expertise to help us develop and enhance the reputation of EJM. As well as this, we also aim to investigate over the coming year the introduction of Area Editors, consistent with many other leading journals, as we believe there are several benefits. Our vision for Area Editors for EJM is to have a set of leading scholars, one for each substantive area of marketing, who act as “sounding boards” and scholarly experts in their particular area. Unlike many other journals, we would not expect EJM Area Editors to review each manuscript in their area, nor to be allocated all manuscripts in that area to find reviewers for. Instead, the Area Editor’s role at EJM will be more fluid. At times an Area Editor will be required to assist in the finding of suitable reviewers, but more often to act as an authoritative expert on the substantive area of each manuscript, which may involve a number of specific duties.

As we have implied above, we are also planning to encourage some changes in content. In particular, we are excited about the introduction of “target articles” to EJM. A target article will be a single article in an issue which we feel has content likely to stimulate some debate. Once a target article is selected, we intend to solicit two to three short commentaries from scholars, and then give the author(s) a chance to respond to these commentaries. The article, and associated rejoinders, will be published together in the same issue. This is true to our philosophy of the advancement of knowledge being driven by debate and differences in opinion. We hope to select a target article from every issue beginning from Volume 43 (2009), and we also envisage this selection to be something of an honour for the author(s), and a clear signal of the esteem of those who are asked to comment. We are also keen on the submission of more articles focussed on the advancement of marketing research methodology, and the application of new methods to marketing problems. Such articles have an important place in the development of marketing knowledge, and EJM will be receptive to them as long as they are presented in a clearly understandable and applied manner. The EJM has also had a long history of outstanding special issues. We will look to continue this, and encourage even more innovative and original topics, in conjunction with the Area Editors.

We look forward to working with colleagues during out tenure as Editors, and to moving EJM forward as a major international journal for disseminating new and insightful marketing knowledge. We hope that partnerships among reviewers, researchers and editors will flourish as positive exchanges that will help us all to better understand the wide domain of marketing. Most importantly though, we hope that you will consider EJM to be the natural home for some of your very best work.

Gordon Greenley, Nick LeeIncoming Editors