Editors’ Statement

• Published date: 01 January 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12133
• Date: 01 January 2017

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 19, 3 (2017)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12133

Editors’ Statement

This year marks a change in the editorial team

at the International Journal of Management Re-

views (IJMR). Professor Oswald (Ossie) Jones steps

down as Co-Editor-in-Chief, having been in the post

since 2010. Professor Caroline Gatrell is joined by

Dr Dermot Breslin, who has acted as Associate Editor

with the journal since 2012. Since becoming Editor-

in-Chief, Ossie has overseena dramatic increase in the

journal’s reach and impact. Downloads of IJMR pa-

pers have increased from 128,524 in 2010, to 214,903

in 2015. At the same the journal’s impact factor has

increased from 2.286 to 4.854. Since 2010 signif-

icant improvements have been made to the journal

in terms of time to first decision, the strength and in-

volvement of the editorial board,and the international

profile of IJMR (Macpherson and Jones, 2010). In ad-

dition, published papers have adopted more rigorous

approaches to reviewing the literature, with a greater

proportion being based on the principles of a system-

atic literature review (Tranfield et al. 2003).

Over the coming years we plan to continue to

develop IJMR as the leading global review journal

in organisation and management studies, with a

focus on three key areas of distinction. First, past

editorials have identified papers of a more conceptual

nature as an area of future development for the

journal (Jones and Gatrell, 2014; Macpherson

and Jones, 2010). Moving forward, papers should

seek to make significant conceptual contributions,

offering a strategic platform for new directions in

research, and making a difference to how scholars

might conceptualise research in their respective

fields. Second, IJMR continues to be distinctive in

its generalist appeal, with a focus on theoretical

underpinnings and accessible to a broad range

of research traditions. As a result it differentiates

itself from other leading academic journals with an

exclusively propositional style. Third, the journal

promotes contributions which have an interdisci-

plinary reach. In a world of increasingly complex

research challenges, such issues and problems

require solutions that cut across disciplinary bound-

aries (British Academy, 2016; Stern, 2016). We take

forward Jones and Gatrell’s (2014) commitment

towards interdisciplinary research, and welcome the

opportunity such approaches create in opening up

new possibilities for research trajectories and insights.

As IJMR moves forward we encourage contribu-

tions that are engaging and seek to challenge and

shift paradigms (Kuhn, 1962), and believe the ‘jour-

nal has an important role to play in encouraging au-

thors to experiment with more innovative approaches

to reviews of the literature’ (Jones and Gatrell, 2014,

page 260).

Caroline Gatrell and Dermot Breslin

(Co-Editors-in-Chief)

References

British Academy (2016). Crossing Paths: Interdisciplinary

Institutions, Careers, Education and Applications. Avail-

able: http://www.britac.ac.uk/interdisciplinarity.

Kuhn, T.S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Jones, O. and Gatrell, C. (2014). Editorial: the future

of writing and reviewing for IJMR.International Jour-

nal of Management Reviews,16, pp. 249–264. DOI:

10.1111/ijmr.12038.

Macpherson, A. and Jones, O. (2010). Editorial: strategies

for the development of International Journal of Man-

agement Reviews.International Journal of Management

Reviews,12, pp. 107–113. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.

2010.00282.x.

Stern, N. (2016). Building on Success and Learning From

Experience: An Independent Review of the Research Ex-

cellence Framework.Department for Business, Energy and

Industrial Strategy, London.

Tranfield, D., Denyer, D. and Smart, P. (2003). Towards

a methodology for developing evidence-informed man-

agement knowledge by means of systematic review.

British Journal of Management,14, pp. 207–222. DOI:

10.1111/1467-8551.00375.

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