As we are now stepping down and handing over the editorial responsibility for EMR to a new team led by Bruce Kogut, we would like to share a few thoughts with our readers, contributors, reviewers and editorial board members. First of all we would like to thank EURAM and its leadership, notably its chairman, Joan Enric Ricart, for the trust they put in us when they decided to entrust the editorial responsibility of EMR to us. It was a lot of hard work – much more than we thought we had bargained for in fact – but definitely an exciting and gratifying experience. We of course need to thank all the authors who chose EMR as the journal to which they submitted their work; these authors were obviously betting on the future of such a new journal and their faith in the development of EMR was a very strong encouragement for us. We also cannot forget in our thanks the many reviewers and editorial board members without whose essential contribution an academic journal simply cannot exist. The guest editors of the two special issues, Peter McKiernan and Chris Carter for the special issue published in 2004, Anne Huff and Kathrin Möslein for the 2005 special issue did a superb job in selecting excellent and intriguing papers from the submissions to the EURAM conference that they organized, in Saint Andrews and Munich, respectively. Finally, we need to thank the journal's first editorial assistant, Patricia Biron, without whom our job would have been impossible; her commitment and professionalism in dealing with authors, reviewers, the publisher and the editors were critical at every stage in the process.
When we accepted the job, we realized the challenge was tough. Starting a new academic journal in the crowded field of management, with a clear ambition for both relevance and academic rigor, is no easy task. Our job was definitely made easier by both the quantity and quality of the submissions we received. During the 3 years of our tenure, 120 papers were submitted to EMR. These papers came from 30 different countries and all major regions of the world, providing us with the global reach and perspective that we were hoping for, in line with our European roots and the diversity they bring. From these submissions, we ultimately published 16 papers which all went through a rigorous review process, with some papers going through as many as four rounds of reviews before being definitely accepted for publication. In this process, many interesting and valuable papers had to be turned down. With a final publication rate of 13%, we believe we have managed to achieve the quality objective that EURAM set for us. But ultimately that is for you to judge.
We are particularly pleased that Bruce Kogut, whose considerable contribution to the field of management is widely acknowledged, has accepted the challenge of taking EMR to new heights. It is testimony to how valuable the vision of having a major management journal based in Europe is. We are very glad to pass the editorial responsibility on to him and his team and are convinced Bruce will succeed in making EMR one of the top academic journals in its field.
Sincerely
