Citation
McGreal, S. and McIhatton, D. (2015), "Publishing Trends in the Journal of European Real Estate Research", Journal of European Real Estate Research, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JERER-06-2015-0026
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publishing Trends in the Journal of European Real Estate Research
Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of European Real Estate Research, Volume 8, Issue 2
With the Journal of European Real Estate Research (JERER) now into its eighth volume, it is useful to reflect across the various issues of the journal’s patterns or trends occurring in publishing. Since JERER was launched in 2008, it has attracted articles from many international authors, although the majority originate within Europe. Between 2008 and 2014, 20 nationalities authored articles that were published by JERER and, despite the European focus of the journal, 9 per cent of articles have authors from outside Europe largely drawn from the USA and Australia. At the European level, authorship is geographically dispersed with 15 countries represented. Most notably, research published by the UK-based authors account for approximately 37 per cent of the total, with The Netherlands, Italy and Germany making up 13, 10 and 10 per cent, respectively. In common with most journals, there is a trend for multiple authorships, though a significant number of single authored papers are also apparent across the various issues of JERER.
Thematically, the main focus of research within the journal has been from investment, economics and finance fields within real estate contributing approximately 45 per cent of the total research base. The study of markets, both internationally and regionally, is the second largest topic area accounting for 14 per cent of the total published works, with a similar figure for planning-, regeneration- and development-related research. Sustainability has continued to grow in importance between 2008 and 2014 and makes up nearly 9 per cent of the total. Education- and information technology -related works (7 per cent), valuation (5 per cent) and corporate real estate (4 per cent) research have featured steadily, although not on the same scale as other topic areas. Management topics make up the remaining 2 per cent of the publications. In this context, it is interesting that the five most downloaded papers includes two within the real estate investment field, two from housing – one reflecting influences on house price and the other from an energy perspective. The other most downloaded paper also captures a sustainability theme but from the office occupier perspective, an area of investigation in which the journal would welcome more papers.
Usage of the journal continues to be on an upward trajectory with the number of downloads in 2014 (8,417) up by circa 35 per cent compared to 2013, and most interesting is the year-to-date downloads for 2015 (at end of May 2015) that are up by 30 per cent relative to the picture in 2014. These statistics demonstrate the increasing maturity of the journal, and the high-quality output that has been published over the past seven years. In terms of usage of the journal by country, the UK tops the list, but Malaysia, China and Australia, the three non-European countries, are second, third and fifth, respectively, reflecting wider interest in the journal beyond Europe. Of the European countries, Germany generates the fourth most number of downloads, Sweden is the sixth and The Netherlands is the seventh.
Clearly, the success of any journal is down to the quality and relevance of the published papers, and, in this respect, the Editorial Executive of the journal wishes to both thank current contributors and encourage other authors to submit their best-quality papers to the JERER.
Stanley McGreal and David McIhatton, Built Environment Research Institute, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK