JCMS Fiftieth Anniversary

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10069920
AutoresMichelle Cini (0000-0003-2602-8397), Amy Verdun (0000-0002-4876-753X)
Año2012
Volumen50
Número2
Páginas195-197
Fecha de publicación2012-02-08
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJCMS Journal of Common Market Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-9886 • E-ISSN: 1468-5965
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-5965.2011.02223.x
OpenAlexW2108568099
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas16

In March 2012, the Journal of Common Market Studies is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Much has been achieved since that first issue. The journal started off focusing on the Common Market. In 1962 the European Community (EC) had been under way for a few years and the United Kingdom was not yet a member. The Community of Six was moving towards a Customs Union and joint policies were being developed with agriculture being the most salient area of policy-making. JCMS focused on these exciting developments internal to the European Economic Community (EEC). It also explored the relations of the EC outside of Europe and the impact of the Common Market on various parts of the world such as Africa (Balogh, 1962) and India (Singh, 1963) as well as publishing various pieces on the Atlantic Community (for example, Buchan, 1963). It also reported research on other areas of the world – for example, on Customs Unions in Latin America, (Del Valle, 1966), monetary integration in Central America (Triffin, 1965), and on economic and monetary integration in Latin America (Griffin and Ffrench-Davis, 1965). Obviously, many early articles focused on Britain and the EC, but there were also articles on West Germany or the Netherlands or on specific policy areas. Some articles had nothing to do with Europe (for example, Balassa, 1971; Denham, 1969; Hampton, 1969; Odell, 1968; Schmitter, 1970). JCMS was also home to numerous articles that sought to tease out the nature of European integration. Some exciting pieces in the first issues on this matter include an article by Jean Monnet (1963) and another by Karl Deutsch (1963) on the role of supranational organizations, as well as one by Mitrany (1965) analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both federalism and functionalism in assisting towards a European Union. In this period, we also find an article by Hoffmann (1964). Seminal pieces that sought to understand the nature of European integration are, for instance, ‘Of Blind Men, Elephants and International Integration’ (Puchala, 1972), ‘Preferences and Power in the European Community’ (Moravcsik, 1993) and ‘European Integration since the 1980s’ (Marks et al., 1996). The journal has changed considerably over the past decades. Of course, with the EU more deeply integrated and expanding, many more articles deal with the Union's nuts and bolts. In recent years there are much fewer (if any) pieces that focus on regional integration outside the EU. The type of empirical analysis and methodology chosen has changed, keeping up with the trends in social sciences more generally throughout these decades. The way authors, reviewers and assessors look at journals has also changed over the 50 years of the journal's existence. In 2012 the focus is much more on quantifiable ways to judge the quality of a journal. Impact factors and other quality assessments have become paramount in the field. In the 1980s and 1990s, JCMS was the leading journal in European integration, in part due to lack of competition of other journals. In the 1990s new journals were launched, such as the Journal of European Public Policy and European Union Politics. Other journals, such as Journal of European Integration, traditionally published by a minor press, were transferred to a leading press, and thus joined the queue of European integration journals to be taken most seriously. With all this competition it is not surprising that there has been a growth in publications of articles focusing on European integration. Yet, despite all the competition, in 2012 JCMS is still proud to be the top interdisciplinary journal that focuses on European integration (Mattli and Stone-Sweet, 2012). To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary, the editors have planned various events. They will hold a competition to identify, by popular vote (supported by a committee of three experts in the field), the leading article in each of the five decades. The current editors also plan to hold a former editors' panel at the UACES annual conference in Passau, Germany, scheduled for early September 2012. We also intend to have Jacques Delors give a special commemorative Annual Lecture in April 2012 in Paris that will subsequently be published in JCMS. Finally, the editors have prepared some visuals (posters) that show the developments in JCMS publishing over the past decades. We will display these at leading conferences over the course of 2012. In 2009, the editors circulated a call for proposals for an anniversary special issue, which is also published alongside this issue in March 2012. Last but not least, the reader will notice that the 2012 issue has a different look and feel from the earlier print version of the journal. The editors and publishing house timed the new look of the journal to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary celebrations. We hope you will enjoy its new form. Before closing, let us put in a plug for those considering reviewing 50 years of JCMS with a view to finding the best articles. There will be a vote to determine that. Please, all make your voice heard

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