Editorial: from four to six to eight

As of 2006, JEMS is published eight times a year: an obvious indicator of the success of the journal, which has doubled its frequency and hence its overall annual page length in just four years—from four to six to eight issues. As with the previous expansion in 2003 (see the Editorial in JEMS, 29(1): 3–4), the main reason is the continuing strong increase in the submission rate both of ‘on-spec’ papers and of proposals for special issues. Over the past two years the backlog of excellent accepted papers, completed special issues and book reviews has grown and the Sussex editorial team, in collaboration with the owners and the publishers of the journal, have decided an increase in frequency is appropriate, not only to clear this backlog, but also to create space for a swelling flow of submissions which have come close to a rate of one paper per working day. We are fully confident that this pace of submitted papers and special issues will be kept up, and probably accelerated, given the defining importance of migration and mobility in this global age. Despite, and indeed because of, globalising forces, migration, culture and ethnicity remain at the heart of human existence and interaction. Conferences and major research funding initiatives at national, European and global levels continue to proliferate and JEMS wishes to offer increased space for the best of this ongoing research and scholarship. And as migration itself becomes more complex and diverse, and more interleaved with other processes operating at a variety of scales from the local to the global, so there is an increasing need for a diversity disciplinary, interdisciplinary and post-disciplinary approaches. Following its now-established tradition of theoretical and methodological pluralism, JEMS continues to welcome the widest range of approaches to its subject matter—from econometrics to the contributions of creative writers.

Two further, more technical innovations can be reported. Firstly, JEMS is now (as of 2003) listed on the Web of Science, so—from 2007 for articles published in 2004–05 and cited in 2006—the journal can be evaluated by citation indexing. Secondly, from the end of last year, the journal has been operating via ScholarOne, an online submission and tracking programme which enables both a more efficient processing of manuscripts and a more transparent way for authors to monitor the progress of their paper through the system. Rest assured, though, that JEMS will not lose its ‘personal touch’, in spite of becoming automated!

We hope that these enhancements in the status, administrative efficiency and frequency of JEMS will make it an even more attractive journal for authors, subscribers and readers.

Russell King, Editor
January 2006