Changing issues: sixes and specials
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EDITORIAL
Changing issues: sixes and specials Ray J. Paul1 1
Department of Information Systems & Computing, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, U.K.
European Journal of Information Systems (2006) 15, 1–3. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000609
Sixes This is the first of six issues for this volume/year of the European Journal of Information Systems. We have increased the number of issues because the continuing success of the journal enables us to offer our readers increases in both the quality and number of papers. The journal’s improving success can be measured in three ways. First an improving impact factor, which climbed to 1.000 last year. Second, against the general trend for journals, we have an increasing subscription list. And third, but not least, an improving ranking in journal league tables. For example in the November 2005 issue of the Communications of the ACM, Nerur et al’s (2005) paper clearly places the European Journal of Information Systems as the top non-North American Information Systems journal and sixth in the world. This result is consistent with the majority of tables I have seen in the past 2 years. We intend to keep improving but also to encourage our authors to write papers that are clearly written to disseminate our subject. To help authors, as I recently mentioned in my Editor’s View paper (Paul, 2005), we ask of our authors that their papers have the appropriate responses to the following three questions: What story are you trying to tell the reader? What will the reader know after reading your paper that was not known before? Why should anyone believe you? While clarity and good content in research papers are obvious activities for the editors and associate editors to pursue, we shall continue to offer our readers the benefits of opinion papers, Editor’s view papers (at least six agreed for 2006 onwards), and where the occasion warrants it, ‘something different’. A good example of the latter is the last issue of the European Journal of Information Systems, the ‘Personal Reflections on Claudio Ciborra’s Life and Work’ special issue (Cordella et al., 2005), already acclaimed for its accomplished coverage of the brilliance, wit and humour of this heroic man while advancing through these papers Claudio’s and the authors contributions to Information Systems. The success of this special issue naturally leads me into the second issue of this editorial, that of special issues.
Specials Last year, the European Journal of Information Systems had five issues instead of four, of which three and a half were special issues. We start a new volume with a special issue, and the next two issues at least will also be part or full special issues. This may appear a lot or ‘too many’ because there are some mythologies concerning special issues of which the two most pernicious are: 1. It is easier for authors to get their paper into a special issue than a general issue; and
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Editorial
2. The quality of papers is either on average lower in special issues than in general issues or that some weak pape
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