Abstract
Current Status
The oldest of the four major journals in marketing, JM enjoys a prestigious position as the best-cited marketing journal (in two of the last three Institute for Scientific Information citation impact studies), the most selective marketing journal (acceptance rate of 11%), and the marketing journal that receives the most submitted manuscripts (345 in calendar year 2004). In addition, JM has ranked first (Baumgartner and Pieters 2003), second (Theoharakis and Hirst 2002), and first (Hult, Neese, and Bashaw 1997) in the three most recent surveys of the leading marketing journals. It is clear that JM enjoys an enviable position among marketing's most elite academic journals. My charge as editor is to do my utmost to maintain and, hopefully, to enhance the journal's premier status.
The Positioning of JM
Traditionally, JM has been positioned as the broadest, the most readable, and the closest to management practice of the four leading marketing journals. Its two greatest strengths are typified by its two most long-standing article awards: the Harold H. Maynard Award for marketing theory and the Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root Award (formerly the Alpha Kappa Psi Award) for advancing the practice of marketing. Substantively, JM spans the entire field of marketing, so its domain overlaps considerably with that of the other major marketing journals.
It is important that JM maintains its historical strengths. These include publishing the best articles that advance marketing theory and the best articles that are relevant to marketing practice. During my editorship, JM will reinforce its historical strengths while maintaining as broad a positioning as possible. Essentially, JM attempts to publish the best substantive articles in marketing. As such, the best articles that are currently published in Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science that are not primarily focused on methodology would be welcome in JM. Likewise, the best Journal of Consumer Research articles that are relevant to marketing would also be welcome in JM. Ultimately, JM will continue to be substantive and problem driven. It will strive to publish the best work in marketing of any form or style as long as it has relevance to marketing theory or marketing practice.
This positioning implies that JM will not compromise with respect to sophistication. Authors will be encouraged to use the simplest methods necessary to address their subject, but if more sophisticated methods are required, such an approach should not preclude publication. The use of sophisticated methods for their own sake will not be encouraged, but theoretical or methodological sophistication will be encouraged when they help address a substantive topic.
Breadth of Coverage
I believe that all articles in JM should have something substantive to say to one of the primary stakeholders of marketing (marketing managers, consumers, or public policy makers). Aside from this requirement, JM will be open to any topic and any research approach. I especially want to emphasize that JM will be receptive to all methodological approaches, including (but not limited to) survey research, experimental designs, analytical models, ethnographic research, structural equation models, econometric analysis, and conceptual analysis. All research approaches have strengths and weaknesses, and each submitted paper will be evaluated on its unique merits.
Publishing Truly Important Articles
I have found in my own research that, in general, my most innovative articles have had the toughest time in the review process. Those same articles, once published, have had the greatest impact. As editor, I will go out of my way to be sympathetic to truly innovative papers. I will give such papers extra consideration. On the margin, I would rather accept an innovative paper that is controversial than an incremental paper that is perfectly done but unsurprising. I will give the importance of the problem addressed considerable weight in the publication decision. To achieve this, on occasion, I will be willing to overrule a consensus negative evaluation by the reviewers to give an innovative paper an extra chance. I strongly encourage authors to submit work that has an opportunity to shake things up and change the thinking in the field.
An International Journal
The economy is global, and marketing talent is spread around the world. During the seven years that I served as editor of Journal of Service Research, more than half of the papers that I accepted for publication had at least one non-U.S. author. Likewise, non-U.S. authors will have a fair opportunity to publish in JM. That is not to say that publication will be easy—recall that the journal's current acceptance rate is 11%—but I will guarantee that there will be no bias against non-U.S. authors or non-U.S. data. I have also increased non-U.S. participation on the Editorial Review Board.
Connecting to the Business Community
Traditionally, JM has been the leading outlet for managerial research among the leading marketing journals, and I wish to maintain JM's strength in this area. I also want to encourage the submission of articles by practitioners. Because the standard of research sophistication at JM is high, coauthor-ship with academics is often the easiest way for a practitioner to create a publishable article, though some practitioner authors with a prior record of publication in academic journals may well be able to produce a publishable article on their own.
The Editorial Review Board
I have appointed an Editorial Review Board of 90 experts, a slightly smaller board than in recent years. Most of the members of the Editorial Review Board are holdovers from Ruth Bolton's board. To attempt to strengthen and broaden the board, I have altered its composition in a few important ways. First, I have added new board members from a cross-section of the marketing field and have particularly emphasized adding people with a broad point of view and an active, recent research record. Second, I have increased the percentage of non-U.S. board members to the highest percentage at any of the four leading marketing journals. Third, to increase the connection to the business world, I have appointed five new members from the business community, all of whom have significant publication experience.
The Review Process
I will assign two to four reviewers to each manuscript and attempt to have the reviewers represent different points of view. At Journal of Service Research, I maintained an average turnaround time for new manuscripts of approximately 40 days, which I believe was the fastest journal turnaround of any marketing-related journal. I will work hard to maintain a culture of prompt reviews at JM as well. If one of the assigned reviewers is slow, I may sometimes proceed to a decision based on two reviewers rather than wait for all reviews to arrive. I will replace habitually tardy review board members. With most papers, I intend to make a decision in two rounds of review, but the most innovative papers may require more rounds because, by definition, such papers break new ground and thus tend to be more difficult.
Conflicts of Interest
To address potential conflicts of interest, I am formalizing some policies. In most cases, these policies have already been informally maintained at JM by previous editors. First, a guest editor (chosen from the former editors of JM) will make decisions about any manuscripts submitted by the editor's current faculty colleagues, current or former doctoral students, and current business associates. Second, for all award voting conducted by the Editorial Review Board, voters will be prohibited from voting for their own articles or for article by colleagues from the same university or company, and the editor's articles will not be eligible for any award during the editor's term if it is selected by the Editorial Review Board that the editor has appointed.
Administration of the Journal
The American Marketing Association (AMA) is instituting a new process for administering the journal. Under this process, the editorial assistant for the journal, Marti Tiedeman, is located at the AMA offices in Chicago rather than at the editor's university. In addition, I have hired a local editorial assistant, Millicent Locke, for the College Park office. Because all communication is now electronic and conducted through the Internet, this new procedure is anticipated to have minimal negative impact. In fact, the editor and editorial assistant have been in separate locations ever since the previous editor, Ruth Bolton, moved to Arizona State University.
Strengthening the JM Web Site
The AMA is adding value to its Web site overall, and the same will be done with the JM Web site, which is part of the AMA site. Because of the added emphasis on the Web site, I have appointed a Web site editor, Siva Balasubramanian, to plan, manage, and edit the site. Value will be added to the site by migrating several features that previously appeared in the hard copy of the journal. For example, the “Book Review” section, which will be edited by the new book review editor, Ramarao Desiraju, will now appear on the Web site along with each article's summary and author biography and the Marketing Literature Review. Additional features will be added over time.
Summary
Journal of Marketing has a proud history and reputation, and I wish to maintain the journal's strengths and work to make an already fine journal even better. During my editorship, JM will maintain its broad positioning and will welcome research of all styles and topics, as long as they are pertinent to marketing theory or marketing practice. My goal is to make JM every author's first-choice outlet for substantive research in marketing.