European Journal of Marketing: Valuing Its Past, Charting Its Future

Evolution in Journal Approaches

The European Journal of Marketing, launched in 1967, has a rich 52-year history of quality of publications and diversity of published work. Today, EJM is well-positioned as a broad-based journal within the marketing field – global in reach and impact – with dedication to the centrality of making strong connections between research excellence and managerial relevance in marketing. EJM had almost a million downloads last year!

Throughout its history, EJM has been perceived as a very user-friendly journal for authors, reviewers, and readers. The culture has been an appealing blend of rigor in the review process combined with an openness to innovation from among its various stakeholders. It is a journal that, around the world, evokes high regard as a welcoming forum for considering many types of work in the field. The scope of submissions to EJM is quite impressive – and for a long while, that scope and its submission count were made more manageable by a team of Associate Editors who professionally and diligently led the review processes within their particular topical/methodological domains, overseen by able editors-in-chief. This system worked well for its time.

In recent years a number of leading journals in marketing began to experiment with different forms of editorial processing of manuscripts. The broad goal for the changes has been to provide as efficient and effective an approach as possible for both authors and reviewers, and to the greatest degree possible, ultimately consistently publish the very best papers from among increasing numbers of submissions. Each journal that has modified its process has done so mindful of its own unique positioning, it aims for the future, and the best interests of its multiple stakeholders and the marketing discipline as a whole. EJM is no different, and beginning in late 2017 we began moving toward implementing elements of our own revised process with new submissions while also working hard to ensure to the best of our ability that authors and reviewers who were going through revisions under the prior system were handled as expeditiously as possible. At this point, EJM is ready to fully implement its new system.

New Manuscript Reviewing Process at EJM

The editorial leadership team is pleased to announce that the new manuscript reviewing system is now fully operational at EJM within ScholarOne, and the old system is fully retired as all manuscripts processing therein have reached fruition. Thus, EJM is now able to formally announce and fully support the following step-wise approach.

1. All manuscripts submitted to EJM through ScholarOne will initially come to the Editorial Manager and Editor-in-Chief (EiC) for initial screening as to potential fit for the journal.

   What This Means:

   Nobody likes to be desk rejected. But a rigorous process of initial screening is essential in journals such as EJM to endeavor to reduce the likelihood that (a) authors are tied up in review for a number of weeks when the clear likelihood of the particular paper receiving a revision opportunity is assessed to be very low, and (b) reviewers are spending their valuable volunteer time working on manuscripts that ultimately are very unlikely to be able to move into revision.

    

2. Once a manuscript passes through initial screening with the EiC, it will be forwarded along through ScholarOne to one of EJM’s three Regional Editors (RE) for reviewer assignment. Our REs are as follows:
   • Americas – Andrea Dixon, Baylor University, USA
   • Asia-Pacific – François Carrillat, University of Technology, Sidney, Australia
   • Europe, Middle East, and Africa – Debbie Keeling, Sussex University, UK

   The assigned RE will serve as the point of primary contact for the authors from that point forward.

    

3. When the reviews are back in the RE’s hands, if based on the reviews the RE assesses the potential for successful revision to be low, then she or he will recommend the paper be rejected. This decision and the file will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) and assuming he agrees, then a rejection letter and the reviews will be sent to the authors.

   On the other hand, if the RE assesses the potential for revision to be more favorable, then she or he will immediately assign an Associate Editor to the manuscript. Importantly, the AE does not know the identity of the author, and thus serves as an impartial content/method expert for the paper. In light of the reviews, the AE will craft a Summary Evaluation for the authors that is designed to provide them with a roadmap for revision of the paper. When ready, the complete files on the manuscript will be returned to the EiC for review and assuming he agrees, then a revise and resubmit letter, the AE’s Summary Evaluation, and the reviews will be sent to the authors.

    

4. Once the revision is resubmitted along with author notes to the AE and the reviewers, it will travel through a second round of a similar process. Further rounds would occur as needed, but our strongly held goal is that this system will greatly reduce the “time to market” of papers with potential for publication in EJM, and also that the AE expert guidance will aid authors in cutting through typical diverse and even ambiguous direction often received from journals on revision.

Toward the Future of EJM

The above revised manuscript processing approach has been implemented based on the goal for EJM to offer authors and reviewers the best possible experience with us, regardless of the ultimate decision outcome. EJM receives a very large number of manuscripts annually from all corners of the world, and publishes 12 full issues annually. The editorial leadership team likes to remind folks that while EJM’s roots obviously are solidly European, its name is decidedly not the Journal of European Marketing! Rather, EJM is a truly global journal that seeks excellent manuscripts from across the various geographic reaches, diverse content areas, and multiple methodological approaches within the academic marketing discipline.

If you look back across EJM issues over the last decade you will find that beyond Europe, a phenomenal amount of great work has come from Australia and New Zealand, as well as the United States and Canada, and all points across Asia and otherwise around the globe. And as an editorial leadership team, it is our strongly held belief that while specialty marketing journals are invaluable in providing outlets for maximizing knowledge development within the various subfields of the discipline, the field of marketing is inherently subject to fragmentation and as such it is important for us as a community of marketing scholars that robust, dependable, and forward-looking general marketing journals also thrive.

The launch of the new manuscript processing approach for EJM well-positions it for the future to continue as a strong and attractive outlet for excellent work across the broad-based field of marketing. As we move forward this year, we have already begun the process of inviting new people to join the journal team as AEs, Editorial Review Board members, and Senior Advisory Board members in order to broaden our bases of expertise and expand the diversity of the EJM team on multiple dimensions. The editorial leadership team hopes that you are enthused about the opportunities ahead for EJM, and please feel free at any time to reach out to reach out to us if we may be of service to you.

Thank you for your goodwill and your support of the European Journal of Marketing!

Editorial Leadership Team

Greg W. Marshall
Editor-in-Chief
Rollins College (USA)
Aston Business School (UK)

François Carrillat
Regional Editor, Asia-Pacific
University of Technology Sydney (Australia)

Andrea L. Dixon
Regional Editor, Americas
Baylor University (USA)

Debbie Keeling
Regional Editor, Europe-Middle East-Africa
University of Sussex (UK)

Editorial Management Team

James Ryan
Editorial Manager
Rollins College (USA)

Judith Moyle
Editorial Assistant
Aston Business School (UK)

Senior Publisher
Richard Whitfield
Emerald Publishing (UK)

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