Editorial

Citation

Altay, N., Haavisto, I., Kovács, G. and Spens, K. (2015), "Editorial", Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Vol. 5 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-06-2015-0024

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Volume 5, Issue 2.

Passing on the baton of JHLSCM

1. Five years of publications in JHLSCM – a review

The Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management has come a long way. We are currently in the fifth volume of the journal, and it is going strong. The journal has seen submissions and also publications from five continents, and has an incredibly international, if not to say global, editorial board, author base, and reviewer base. Let us start by thanking them all for all their contributions to the journal.

Back in 2009 at the EUROMA conference when Lucy Sootheran from Emerald approached us (i.e. Karen Spens and Gyöngyi Kovács) to ask if we wanted to establish such a journal, it was clear there would be both a need and an interest for it. After all, we had already seen over ten special issues dedicated to humanitarian logistics in various journals, and some of the most cited articles in our sister journals were dedicated to the topic. Still, it took of course a while to set it up “the right way.” What constituted the right way, however? There are a number of characteristics of the journal that were important to their founders and also the first editorial advisory board (EAB).

a. Engaging with the “right” audience. When establishing JHLSCM, there was a need for an academic journal in this field. Practitioner-related outlets existed, though were also not dedicated to humanitarian logistics. Sister journals were dedicated to either logistics/supply chain management (SCM), or disaster management, but not both. There was considerable interest among academics and practitioners to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and to engage in a discussion with one another. The “right” audience was therefore to be a combination of both. JHLSCM achieved this in three ways: first, the EAB of the journal does not only comprise scholars from around the world, but also a number of key practitioners who have shown an interest in the journal. Through its EAB, the journal reaches out to the Humanitarian Logistics Association as well as the American Logistics Aid Network, and to numerous humanitarian organizations. Second, JHLSCM was to be free to access and thereby have an impact on humanitarian logistics practice, not just research. This was the idea from the beginning, but sadly, the publishing house has undergone several major reorganizations, and lost the idea on the way. Free access became first restricted, then abolished in 2015. On the other hand, the journal is now to be included in INASP to secure access in developing countries, and first steps have been completed to include JHLSCM in important journal rankings. Third, JHLSCM engages in a dialogue with academics and practitioners through its link to the Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research Institute (HUMLOG Institute), which continues to serve as a physical meeting place of humanitarian logistics researchers since 2008, and which has vital links to humanitarian organizations through its alliances and most prominently, its board members.

b. Attracting the “right” scope of publications. The scope from the outset was set to humanitarian logistics and SCM, though the interpretation of “humanitarian” was rather broad and the journal also kept on attracting submissions not just with reference to disaster response but all phases of disaster relief (including preparedness and reconstruction), various types of humanitarian programs (from health to nutrition to water and sanitation), and also the link to development. Most important to JHLSCM was though the right level, as to say, scholarly, rigorous research that was relevant to practice. While conceptual research was always welcome, empirical studies, and an empirical relevance of studies, cannot be stressed enough. At the same time, however, the journal did not have any preferred methods or approaches, as long as both rigor and relevance were observed. EAB members come from a variety of background disciplines and together have an impressive versatility in methods knowledge. This is a necessity in order to be able to embrace variety in methods and methodological approaches.

JHLSCM was established on these principles, and started to receive submissions in March 2010 – with the first number then being published in 2011. There were lots of changes along the way, several changes in the publishing team at Emerald, a move from e-mail submissions to a system that could handle the submission and review process, the addition of regional editors, etc. JHLSCM’s regional editors were key in engaging in the debate with academics and practitioners around the globe, whether in Australia and Asia (Peter Tatham, Griffith University), North America (Nezih Altay, DePaul University, and Steve Melnyk, Michigan State University), or Africa (Charles Mbohwa, University of Johannesburg). Through them, the journal has established links to various conferences, working groups of academics, and contributed to also the establishment of such working groups. Peter Tatham has furthermore kept the scholarly debate alive and made it easier for academics to find relevant articles in this and also other journals through his tireless efforts to compile a bibliography of humanitarian logistics.

2. Passing on the baton – introducing the new editors of JHLSCM

Five years later, it is time to introduce more changes to the journal. The future of any journal should not depend on just one or two people and it is essential for JHLSCM as well to keep on collecting and publishing research in this area beyond its founding editors. We are proud, and glad, to present two people who are taking on JHLSCM as co-editors in chief from now on: Dr Ira Haavisto, the Director of the HUMLOG Institute, and Dr Nezih Altay, who has already previously been one of the North American editors of the journal.

Dr Haavisto has become the Director of the HUMLOG Institute in September 2014. With her on the editorial team, the link of JHLSCM to the HUMLOG Institute is ensured, and thereby, the journal continues to have the strategic guidance of the board of the institute, and carries on the dialogue with all the researchers being at or visiting the institute, and with the humanitarian organizations that work with the institute. Dr Haavisto herself has an impressive track record of research, and of research projects with humanitarian organizations. Her main research topics have included performance in humanitarian supply chains (HSC), sustainability of humanitarian aid, disaster indices, and logistics performance, but also warehouse and inventory management in humanitarian organizations around the world. She is currently working on organizational learning within and across humanitarian organizations when it comes to topics of logistics, access to disaster areas, and cascading innovation in the HSC.

Dr Altay already has a vast experience with the journal in the capacity as one of its North American regional editors. It is due to his tireless efforts that JHLSCM has established a good link to various conferences in North America, and has contributed to establishing working groups in humanitarian logistics around these conferences. He is also one of the first scholars who have ever published in this field. Dr Altay is working on a variety of topics related to humanitarian logistics, primarily information management and diffusion among humanitarian actors, logistical issues affecting displace people, sustainability in HSC, and supply chain design in humanitarian operations.

Passing on the baton can mean a number of things. It is not only handing over a duty or responsibility, but also, the seeking of a new generation, and new visions. Yet, importantly, if running a relay, the ones passing on the baton run along the ones taking it on for a while, to motivate, support, and be there for them. This is the way we intend to hand over to the new editors. First, Ira Haavisto took over from Karen Spens, now it is also time for Nezih Altay to take over from Gyöngyi Kovács – but both Karen Spens and Gyöngyi Kovács will remain on the journal as “founding editors” that the new editors are welcome to turn to with any questions, if so they wish. We (Karen and Gyöngyi) are though convinced that JHLSCM could not have made a better choice, and that the journal will continue to flourish under Ira’s and Nezih’s editorial work.

Gyöngyi Kovács and Karen Spens

3. A vision for the future

Thank you Gyöngyi and Karen for founding JHLSCM and bringing us on board! It is calming to know that you will be staying on the board as founding editors of the journal. Our (Ira and Nezih) vision for the journal is for it to be the premier publication choice for humanitarian logistics researchers and a leading knowledge resource for practitioners. Our goal is to continue growing. We hope to accomplish this with a three-pronged strategy:

1. As the field of humanitarian logistics and SCM becomes more professionalized and attracts more research the journal should follow suit and expand its number of issues published in a year. Of course, the number of papers published in a year is closely related to the scope of our field. We expect that as we expand our understanding of HSC the scope of the journal will expand while its boundaries become sharper. So far, JHLSCM has mostly attracted research on post-disaster operations and some development aid-related research. We hope to expand our coverage of non-disaster related humanitarian operations, from civil protection activities to humanitarian health care. Currently, we publish three issues in a year but with the expansion of our scope we hope to increase it to four and eventually to more issues per year.

2.We will continue to emphasize evidence-based research without limiting our researchers in their methodological choices. Evidence-based research and methodological diversity are in line with our vision for two reasons; first, methodological rigor is of paramount importance as we aim to become a premier choice of outlet for academic research in humanitarian logistics and SCM. And second, humanitarian practitioners can relate to research conducted with evidence from the field and they potentially can even implement or try some of the findings in their own operations. Thus, we expect evidence-based research to attract more readers from the field. To accomplish this we plan to not only expand the EAB but also engage them in the process of taking JHLSCM to the next level. Our EAB members will not just review papers but counsel authors to help them build their papers.

3.There is no doubt in our minds that if JHLSCM will become a premier journal for the humanitarian logistics and SCM field, we will need to improve its quality. With “quality” we do not necessarily only refer to the metrics of journal quality frequently used in academia (i.e. acceptance rate and impact factor) but we surely recognize their importance for our submitting authors. Consequently, we will follow through our application for an impact factor. In addition to academic rigor, “quality” for us also includes dimensions like readability, timeliness, and validity. The papers published in JHLSCM should be readable and understandable by non-academics as well; they should focus on contemporary problems and topics; and should solve real problems that are of interest to the practitioners. Properly conducted, executed and presented research on topics and problems that are timely and valid will naturally be of interest to humanitarian practitioners.

We are very excited and motivated about the task given to us and humbled by the trust of our friends and colleagues. The founding editors have done a tremendous job by building JHLSCM on solid ground. The road ahead is full of challenges but it is an honor to follow Gyöngyi and Karen’s footsteps and being entrusted with taking JHLSCM to the next level.

Nezih Altay and Ira Haavisto