2008 Annual Report

This annual report of the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) summarizes developments in structure and operations, in addition to descriptive statistics on manuscript reviews, over the 12-month fiscal year period from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

Structure and Operations

Editor Selection

John Deighton was renewed for a second term at the October 2007 Policy Board meeting at ACR in Memphis. His second term began July 1, 2008, and will run for three years. Deighton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Associate Editors

The associate editors for the past fiscal year were Jennifer Aaker (Berkeley), Eric Arnould (Arizona), Russell Belk (York University), Susan Broniarczyk (Texas), Tulin Erdem (NYU), Gavan Fitzsimons (Duke), Stephen Hoch (Wharton), Mary Frances Luce (Duke), Ann McGill (Chicago), Geeta Menon (NYU), Stephen Nowlis (Arizona State), Laura Peracchio (Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Brian Ratchford (Texas-Dallas), Marsha Richins (Missouri), and Baba Shiv (Stanford).

Because of the large number of submissions, the editor has expanded the list of associate editors for his second term. As of July of 2008, JCR has 19 consumer behavior experts serving as AEs.

2008-2011
Jennifer Aaker (Stanford)
Rohini Ahluwalia (Minnesota)
Eric Arnould (Wyoming)
Soren Askegaard (Southern Denmark)
Russell Belk (York)
Tulin Erdem (NYU)
Gavan Fitzsimons (Duke)
Stephen Hoch (Wharton)
Frank Kardes (Cincinnati)
Angela Lee (Northwestern)
Mary Frances Luce (Duke)
Deborah MacInnis (USC)
Ann McGill (Chicago)
Geeta Menon (Wharton)
Brian Ratchford (Texas-Dallas)
Rebecca Ratner (Maryland)
Baba Shiv (Stanford)
Stijn van Osselaer (Erasmus)
Gal Zauberman (Wharton)

Eleven former associate editors agreed to stay on for a second term, and eight new associate editors joined the group. We thank Susan Broniarczyk, Stephen Nowlis, Laura Peracchio, and Marsha Richins for their excellent service during the editor’s first term.

Editorial Review Board

The editor has changed the timeframe of the Editorial Review Board for his second term. Instead of changing the composition of the board every three years, he will make changes on an annual basis. Membership on the ERB will be determined by reviewing history and publications.

The full list of current members is at http://ejcr.org/ERB.php.

Policy Board

Barbara Bickart (American Association for Public Opinion Research)
Ron Faber (International Communication Association)
Joel Huber (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences)
President Chris Janiszewski (American Marketing Association)
Vice President Annamma Joy (American Anthropological Association)
John Lynch (Association for Consumer Research)
Mahesh Maheswaran (Society for Consumer Psychology, APA Division 23)
Roland Rust (American Statistical Association)
Norbert Schwarz (Society for Personality and Social Psychology, APA Division 8)
Craig Thompson (American Sociological Association)
There is one open position (American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences).
The American Economic Association no longer sponsors JCR.

Publisher and Author Rights

JCR continues to be published by the prestigious University of Chicago Press. The Press underwent a change in management this past year, emphasizing the importance of maintaining scholarly standards as a nonprofit academic publisher. Commercial publishers are profit driven, whereas academic publishers are dedicated first and foremost to the core goals of universities. The Press has as its mission the dissemination of scholarship of the highest standard and the publication of works that promote education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Authors reap the benefit of a publisher with over a century of commitment to the scholarly enterprise, ensuring the distribution of research throughout the world. In addition, the Press supports and encourages authors’ own efforts to promote their research by granting generous rights for distribution and reuse of their articles.

Preprints and Official Publication Dates

Articles accepted for publication appear online within a week or two as preprints (not formatted or copyedited) after the authors send in their final materials. We have an official online publication date of two months following receipt of all final materials from authors. Articles will appear in the hard copy version nine months after acceptance, but the online publication date (two months) is the official publication date for citation purposes. The DOI (digital object identifier) should be used for citations prior to the hard copy publication issue date, and in addition to the usual reference after the hard copy publication date.

Trainee Reviewer Program

The trainee program continues to be a success. Regular reviewers are asked to provide (if they wish) the name of an advanced doctoral student or new assistant professor who would be capable of reviewing the same manuscript. The regular reviewer serves as mentor (discussing the review before submission and after the final decision with the trainee). The trainee review is not considered in the same manner as a regular review during the review process, but simply provides future reviewers with an opportunity to participate in an actual review process, comparing their reviews with reviews of more experienced reviewers.

Manuscript Review Histories

As another educational initiative, JCR provides Manuscript Review Histories. We are posting (with the approval of all participants) complete sets of review materials. We hope these materials will be useful for educational purposes. http://ejcr.org/teaching-sets/teachingsets

Database for Manuscript Processing

Launched in March 2007, JCR uses a custom online database for manuscript processing and archiving. All reviews and manuscripts are now submitted through the system, which also serves as an online archive. Authors and reviewers can locate and retrieve past and present reviews and manuscripts at any time from any computer that has access to the Internet. We currently have all data since July of 2005. The database includes descriptive statistics for all activity, and provides useful reports for the editor.

Manuscript Submission: http://jcr-admin.org/submit_manuscript.php
Author Login: http://jcr-admin.org/authorlogin.php
Reviewer Login: http://jcr-admin.org/reviewerlogin.php

JCR Outreach

The managing editor gave outreach presentations this year at the University of Calgary, University of Alberta, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Indiana University. The presentation is an overview of the structure and review process at JCR, with tips for surviving the review process. It is directed at doctoral students and assistant professors. The presentation is always very well received, and three more talks are scheduled in 2008 at the University of South Carolina, University of Michigan, and University of Colorado.

Sponsorship of ACR Doctoral Symposium

The Policy Board of JCR, Inc. is an official sponsor of the ACR Doctoral Symposium. JCR, Inc. is subsidizing some of the consortium’s expenses, and all student participants will receive a complimentary one-year subscription to JCR.

Publicity Initiative

The publicity initiative continues to be extremely successful. JCR prepares press releases for every single article published in JCR. JCR research continues to be picked up by Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Times (London), Scientific American, Psychology Today, the Toronto Globe and Mail, Der Spiegel, the New Yorker magazine, Time magazine, and many other venues. We believe that JCR is the only journal among its competitors that provides this service for its authors. The JCR website lists all of the hits from around the world in its publicity section. http://ejcr.org/inthenews.php

Annual Awards

The 2008 Ferber Award winner (plus one Honorable Mention) and Best Article for 2005 Award winners (a tie) have been selected. The Ferber Award winner was selected by a group of three judges (John Sherry, Joseph Alba, Darren Dahl), and the Best Article Award was selected by the Policy Board. Both awards were selected after receiving nominations from the Editorial Review Board. The winners will be announced at the Saturday ACR Awards luncheon in San Francisco. All award information will be published in the December 2008 issue, and posted on our website following the announcements at ACR. Nine reviewers will receive an Outstanding Reviewer Award in 2008, and one reviewer will receive the Distinguished Service Award at the ERB Business Meeting in San Francisco.

Descriptive Statistics on Manuscript Processing

Manuscript Flow (Submissions only)

During the 12-month period from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 the editorial office received a total of 683 manuscripts for review: 478 new manuscripts and 205 revised manuscripts. 

1997-2008

2007-2008

Total Workload (New and Revised Papers)

2005-2008
Deighton’s first term

For the period of July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, the average number of manuscripts (new and revised) assigned to editorial review board members was 5.8 and the average number of manuscripts assigned to associate editors was 28.3.

Reviewer Performance and Turnaround Time

The last column in the following table shows that the overall turnaround time (excluding desk rejected manuscripts) was 47 days for the recent fiscal year. ERB members averaged 23.6 days for their reviews, Associate Editors averaged 8.5 days to produce their reports, and the editor averaged 5.1 days to complete his decision letters.

Turnaround time dropped 9.7 days this past year.

Decisions

The following table summarizes editorial decisions between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008 and previous years. The reject numbers include desk rejects. The desk reject rate for new manuscripts was 29.3% this year.

Submissions and Decisions by Institution and Country

Manuscripts submitted for review came from 1609 authors at 434 institutions in 44 countries.

Articles were accepted for publication from 187 authors at 87 institutions in 13 countries.

Institutions (Accepted Authors: July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008)

Countries (Accepted Authors)

Annual Meetings at ACR


ERB Reception and Business Meeting

The 2008 JCR Editorial Review Board Reception and Business Meeting will be held Friday, October 24, 4:30-6:30 in the Room Grand C of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Francisco. The Business Meeting will begin at 5:30. The Editorial Review Board, Associate Editors, and Policy Board members are invited to attend.

Associate Editor Meeting

The 2008 JCR Associate Editor breakfast meeting will be held Friday, October 24, 7:00-8:30 am in the Regency B room at the Hyatt Regency.

Policy Board Meeting

The 2008 JCR Policy Board breakfast meeting will be held Sunday, October 26, 7:30 am–12 noon in the Regency B room at the Hyatt Regency.

Contact/Information: JCR@bus.wisc.edu