STATEMENT ABOUT LEGITIMACY OF ARTICLES APPEARING IN THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING CHANNELS FROM THE PREVIOUS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The purpose of this post is to call attention to 11 articles listed as “Published online: 19 August 2019” under the heading “Latest articles” that are in my view illegitimate and in violation of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers of which Taylor & Francis, publisher of the Journal of Marketing Channels and a subsidiary of Routledge, is a party to.

The publisher has been formally notified by me via e-mail 29 August 2019 through Tracy Roberts, Publishing Director (HSS), Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (Tracy.Roberts@tandf.co.uk) that there are ethical and other problems with journal editorial processes that require the retraction of articles as detailed below.

This will provide Taylor & Francis with the additional opportunity to comply with the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers to include, but not restricted to, maintaining editorial independence, maintaining the integrity of the research record, and addressing appeals and complaints in a timely manner.

It will also allow us to make academic users aware of the questionable provenance of the articles listed below. The articles have been advertised in two broadcast e-mail messages dated 21 August 2019 from Taylor & Francis indicating that a series of articles are available online under the Journal of Marketing Channels title. There are at least two very serious ethical problems with all of these articles.

Please allow me to note that although – with one exception – I did indeed accept these papers for publication, to my knowledge the copy editing has NOT been examined and approved by an academic editor.

My experience with Taylor & Francis is that they create many errors in the articles (sometimes more than 100 in a single article even after I had professionally edited and formatted the article before submission to production) that were not in the originals such that the supervision of an academic editor is essential to ensure that what is being published is technically and theoretically faithful to the author’s intent. This is usually accomplished by the academic editor reviewing the Editor’s Proof provided by the publisher and comparing it to the accepted research submitted by the author(s).

There is no academic editor in place to supervise the current publication, effectively violating the tacit agreement between the publisher and academia that the content of academic journals is always approved by an academic editor BEFORE publication online or in print. This essentially makes the articles and any associated issues illegitimate.

The questionable articles appearing on the Journal of Marketing Channels website are:

Retail internationalization: A review and directions for future research
Boryana V. Dimitrova, Bert Rosenbloom, Trina Larsen Andras & Saejoon Kim
Pages: 1-21 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1646183

Building loyalty in e-commerce: Impact of business and customer characteristics
Srinivasan Swaminathan, Rolph Anderson & Lei Song
Pages: 1-14 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1646184

Multi-tiered private labels portfolio strategies: Effects on consumer behavior
Rodolfo Vázquez-Casielles & Silvia Cachero-Martínez
Pages: 1-11 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1646185

Marketing channel evolution: From contactual efficiency to brand value co-creation and appropriation within the platform enterprise
Boryana V. Dimitrova, Brent Smith & Trina Larsen Andras
Pages: 1-12 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1646187

Franchising in the Balkans: History, status, and challenges
Marko Grünhagen, Nada Mumd?iev, Barbara Harca, Tamara Milenkovic-Kerkovic & Jasmina Dlacic
Pages: 1-27 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1646188

Performance implications of store format diversification for international retailers
Boryana V. Dimitrova, Brent Smith & Saejoon Kim
Pages: 1-20 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1647911

An empirical assessment of the Consumer Agency Model: Evidence from India and China
Marko Grünhagen, Rajiv P. Dant & Benjamin Lawrence
Pages: 1-15 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1647912

Two decades of the Journal of Marketing Channels: Impacting the present and directing the future of marketing channel research
James E. Zemanek Jr., Erik Christopher Taylor, Trang Phuc Tran & David Carl Loomis
Pages: 1-11 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1647914 [This link generates a 404 error. See below. –ch]

Cross-selling across stores or within a store? Impacts of cross-buying behavior in online shopping malls
Wirawan Dony Dahana, Makoto Morisada & Yukihiro Miwa
Pages: 1-26 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1646186

Work–family conflict in the sales force redux: A compendium of influencers
Alan J. Dubinsky & Cindy B. Rippé
Pages: 1-16 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1647909

Omnichannel approach: Factors affecting consumer acceptance
Susana Costa e Silva, Carla Carvalho Martins & João Martins de Sousa
Pages: 1-12 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1647910

Provenance, evolution, and transition of personal selling and sales management to strategic marketing channel management
Rolph E. Anderson, Alex H. Cohen, Paul F. Christ, Rajiv Mehta & Alan J. Dubinsky
Pages: 1-15 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1647913

I must also note that the following "article" has NOT, repeat NOT, been accepted by me although this is stated as a note under the text on the first page of the PDF version of the article. In fact, the paper was still under review and acceptance was not recommended by either reviewer.

The paper is:

Two decades of the Journal of Marketing Channels: Impacting the present and directing the future of marketing channel research
James E. Zemanek Jr., Erik Christopher Taylor, Trang Phuc Tran & David Carl Loomis
Pages: 1-11 | DOI: 10.1080/1046669X.2019.1647914

It does not now appear to be accessible from this link although it was previously accessible and does not now appear on the Journal of Marketing Channels website. However, as a minimum since a digital object identifier (DOI) has been assigned and it is a part of the research record, this article should be immediately and formally retracted and retraction details appropriately noted in the associated issue.

Further, as the 11 remaining articles are of questionable provenance as noted previously given that the necessary and proper step of having their copyedited version (Editor’s Proof) approved by the academic editor before publication has not been taken, all 12 articles should be retracted and so noted in the research record to maintain its integrity.

Sincerely,

Neil

Neil C. Herndon, Ph.D.
Previously Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Marketing Channels

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