Editorial

Citation

Selmer, J. (2015), "Editorial", Journal of Global Mobility, Vol. 3 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-07-2015-0025

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Global Mobility, Volume 3, Issue 3.

JGM has applied for SSCI status

I don't care to remember how many times, in response to an invitation to submit a manuscript to JGM, I have heard something like: “My university only recognizes ranked journals” or “I work with young scholars and they need to publish in ranked journals.” Although introduced with the best intentions in mind, rankings make for an uneven playing field in the market of academic journals. This common regulation is close to a monopolistic rule that makes starting a new journal very difficult as it is conserving and protecting the ranked journals. I have a feeling that publishers are aware of that and help push promising new journals, such as JGM, to become ranked sooner, rather than later. I am very happy to report that Emerald has applied to Thomson Reuters for JGM to assume SSCI status. Statistics for JGM look good and the forecast is positive. Emerald has already applied to Scopus and ERA (Australia) and is also planning to apply for ABS (UK) and ABDC (Australia) for JGM. But the SSCI is “the jewel in the crown” and once JGM has achieved that status, the journal will be “out of the cold.”

Besides achieving ranked status, JGM provides a better service than many established academic journals by offering a prompt and professional revise and resubmit process. Our one-month turnaround policy for the first submission is very attractive, especially since we use the best reviewers within the field of global mobility, ensuring high quality, developmental feedback to authors. Furthermore, while the industry benchmark for the average time to the final decision on a manuscript is 180 days, the JGM editorial team manages to do that in little more than 70 days.

JGM is the only academic journal to consistently and exclusively focus on expatriate management and global mobility issues. The journal is managed “by global mobility experts, for global mobility experts.” Processed by the editorial team of specialists, articles will be read by like-minded scholars and practitioners. Accordingly, the coverage of JGM ranges from traditional, assigned business expatriates to emerging groups of global workers, such as international business travelers, as well as new topics, such as expatriate divorce. The main focus is on white-collar or skilled workers or professionals and their immediate context at work and outside work. New upcoming Special Issues include “Is It Just About the Money? New Perspectives on Expatriate Compensation,” guest edited by Yvonne McNulty and Michael Harvey; “Alternative Forms of Global Mobility: Fresh Insights About Frequent Flyers, Short-Term, Rotational and Virtual Assignments, International Business Commuters,” guest edited by Maike Andresen, Michael Dickmann and Arno Halberger as well as “Expatriates in Context: Expanding Perspectives on the Expatriate Situation,” guest edited by Fabian Jintae Froese and Soo Min Toh. These are all ground-breaking, hot themes that are sure to expand our understanding of global mobility.

In this issue

The first paper, authored by Raija Salomaa, examines expatriate coaching. As an emerging field, identifying new factors that may contribute to the success of coaching is essential for developing this area of research. The succeeding paper, with Christian Linder as the author, investigates symbolic leadership adjustment in the Philippines. Given that the perspective of leadership adjustment is less common in expatriation literature, it is both timely and relevant. Karin A. King is the author of the third paper introducing a new conceptual model of global talent management. The model specifies some of the most important components and actors who take part in the talent system. The fourth paper, written by Yifan Zhong, Cherrie Jiuhua Zhu, and Mingqiong Mike Zhang, is a literature review of Chinese MNEs' expatriates. Identifying research gaps and proposing a future research agenda, the paper contributes to the literature on this relatively new category of expatriates. The final paper of this issue is authored by Paula Makkonen who studied self-initiated expatriates in China. Based on employer perceptions, the paper explores the emerging topic of employment issues of this kind of expatriates in a foreign context.

When you now submit a manuscript to JGM, you may find your article published in a ranked academic journal. Furthermore, all previous authors of JGM will be recognized as having published in a ranked journal when JGM gains SSCI status. Of course, the competition will continue, but now on a level playing field. We will just keep getting better in providing superior service to our authors and continue to increase the quality of the content for our readers. A new era dawns, when the ranked academic research journal JGM may dominate the domain of global mobility and expatriate management.

Jan Selmer