A note from the publisher

Citation

(2001), "A note from the publisher", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 8 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij.2001.13108eaa.002

A note from the publisher

Emerald, the new name and vision for MCB UP Ltd

For 2002 the publisher of Benchmarking: An International Journal will be changing its trading name from MCB UP Ltd to Emerald. You may wonder why! Well basically it's to reflect the success of our Emerald Fulltext database – our electronic database which, along with much other material, contains current and archival content of this journal.

As a reader you'll almost certainly know the Emerald name because electronic usage of the material contained in our journals has doubled every year since 1996 and the trend continues. Here are some interesting statistics representing the performance of the Emerald database in 2000:

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  nearly one million user sessions in 2000;

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  over 5.5 million articles delivered to users in 2000 (more than 16,000 per day);

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  between January 2000 and May 2001 the number of academic institutions with access to the Emerald Fulltext database more than tripled;

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  a total of 92 per cent of the world's top business schools choose Emerald journals and 93 per cent of them have contributed articles to Emerald journals ("top" business schools based on Financial Times business school rankings 2000).

Why are we telling you this? Well, partly to explain why this journal will look different in 2002 and why it will carry a new logo. We will be introducing a new logo and giving all our titles a new cover design for 2002 to reflect the Emerald brand. More importantly, however, frequently it's the case that the users of material published in our journals are also potential suppliers (authors).

If you're thinking of submitting an article for an Emerald journal in 2002 please be assured that you'll have the full reach of the Emerald Fulltext database on your side to ensure that your work reaches the widest global audience.

Special issues in 2002

Benchmarking: An International Journal is going to publish two special issues in 2002. Some of the well-known academics in the areas of benchmarking theory and applications are editing the special issues for this journal.

The first special issue deals with the benchmarking and evaluation of information systems, which is edited by one of the most active research groups in Information systems evaluation in Europe – Professors Sarmad Alshawi, Zahir Irani and Marinos Themistocleous of Brunel University. The special issue will include some interesting papers to address the overall approaches and strategies of implementing IS benchmarking, benchmarking tools and testing techniques and evaluation of IS during its lifecycle.

The second special issue is on corporate environmental benchmarking edited by Professor Joseph Sarkis from Clark University. Professor Sarkis has been active in researching the implications of environmental issues on corporate, business and operational strategies.

The Quality Internet Research Register

As part of its commitment to the dissemination of information, Emerald provides this online forum for the circulation of pre-publication information on research in selected subject areas. The Quality Internet Research Register is delivered by Emerald in association with the European Centre for TQM and the Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organizational Excellence and is sponsored by, among others, Benchmarking: An International Journal.

The Quality Internet Research Register reports on current and recently completed research worldwide. It includes, but is not restricted to the following areas of quality research – TQM, service quality, worldwide trends in quality assurance, benchmarking, IT driven quality initiatives, the role of innovation in sustaining quality, learning through quality, teamwork and empowerment and energising quality initiatives through creativity.

You can access the research register at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters/quality.htm