As many will know, I have been involved in editing journals for a very long time.  In particular I have been associated with the International Review of Retail Distribution and Consumer Research since its inception.  For the last few years I have been looking to step down as editor and have finally achieved this goal.  I have just completed the publication of the final issue under my editorship.

In the final issue under my tenure I have allowed myself the luxury of an editorial looking back over the founding and development of IRRDCR.  The editorial – origins, reflections and ending – started out as a brief goodbye, but somehow turned in a 6000 word musing on retail academic journal publishing, the rise of metrics on journals and academics and the changing nature of the academic endeavour (and its management).  Some of this I view as positive, but other changes have had a damaging impact on the subject and its study, and on journal (and other forms of) publication.

I don’t intend to summarise in depth the editorial here (and it is too long to provide), but if you are interested then the first 50 people should be able to download the final published version from here. A pre-proof version is provided as a pdf here.

I will provide though a brief description of its contents.  The first section provides details of the origins of IRRDCR (and why it is such a mouthful) arising as it did from the break-up of the relationships behind the short-lived International Journal of Retailing.  This section also explains the particular approach we (Founding Editor Professor John Dawson and I) stood for and tried to champion, arising from a distinctive European approach to retail research and a counterpoint to the approach to academic retail research in the United States.

The second section provides two sets of reflections; first on the editorial process and then secondly on retail research itself.  The IRRDCR began in pre-email and pre-internet times and ends where everything (almost) is automated.  There are benefits and drawbacks to this, and I discuss some of them.  Retail research itself has altered as the wider pressures of academia and its management of the ‘research process’ have taken their toll.  Again, I reflect on these changes and the stresses and strains they produce (as well as the benefits). I hope that through all this, IRRDCR has tried to reflect a more engaged and interesting agenda, but fear the trends are too powerful.

Anyhow, the International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research is now in new editorial hands, Professor Ulf Johansson from Lund University, and it will be interesting to see how it develops.

Reference

Leigh Sparks (2021) Editorial – origins, reflections and ending. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 31, 5, 499-510. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09593969.2021.2009004