Editorial

Organization Studies, Jan, 2003

The start of 2003 sees major changes for Organization Studies. Jean-Claude Thoenig, the dearly missed Roland Calori and I have been working hard over the last two years to bring about major changes and developments to the journal. Such changes have become necessary as the membership of EGOS grows, the expectations of authors increase and the number of papers submitted and under consideration grows every year. The throughput traffic of Organization Studies is now very busy indeed. It also became clear that competition in the rather delicate ecology of journals was hotting up considerably, both in Europe and the USA. To address these changes, a series of strategic decisions have been taken with the aim of increasing the (already high) quality of Organization Studies, of making it the journal of first choice for a range of authors, increasing the presence of the journal in Europe and the USA and, at the same time, never losing sight of the deep intellectual roots in the social sciences which so characterize Orga nization Studies. A tall order, but one which we have already taken huge steps to address.

The first step has been a change in publisher from de Gruyter, the original Berlin-based publishers since the start of the journal in 1980, to Sage. By no means an easy or an inexpensive move, our new publishers will be able to help increase our presence internationally and, at the same time, Sage are committed to retaining the scholarly quality of the journal. The world of journals and journal publishing has changed massively since 1980 when de Gruyter was an apposite choice of publisher. Now, Organization Studies needs to compete globally both for authors and with an increasing number of international journals in the social sciences. EGOS felt convinced that a scholarly and international publisher such as Sage was an ideal choice. Obvious changes will be the publication of nine issues per year (we previously published six) and this will both expand the number of papers published per year significantly (from an average of 36 to 54 papers per year) and also reduce the waiting time of papers in the publication queue. Authors will get their accepted papers published faster. We will retain special issues but also have, where appropriate, themed sections in the main run of the nine issues. Book reviews will continue to appear in the journal, but 'News and Notes' has moved from the printed page to the EGOS website (www.egosnet.org).

The year 2003 will be my fourth as Editor-in-Chief. As a scholar of change, I have now had first-hand practical experience of a series of major changes in the journal over that period. That experience taught me that I could not have done this alone. Alongside Jean-Claude and the late Roland, I should thank most warmly the work of Susan van der Werff who, in her role as Managing Editor, acted as the repository of tacit knowledge and oversaw the smooth running of Organization Studies. We thank her for over twenty years with Organization Studies and her role in its development. This issue marks the end of Susan's tenure and we wish her well for the future. Thank you, Susan. Thanks are also due to Gillian Drakeley at Warwick, who continues to be my right hand (and sometimes my left too!) as Editorial Assistant. As ever, new papers should be sent to Gill; publishers should now send books for review to Gill.

Finally, I can announce that Haridimos Tsoukas will take over from me as Editor-in-Chief from September 2003. He will be well known to most EGOSians and he will continue to develop the journal after the editorial baton is handed over. He has acted as a trusted Co-Editor for some years and knows the journal well. He will, I am sure, introduce himself in the pages of Organization Studies in September 2003. To ensure a smooth handover between editors, we ask that any papers with revisions requested by 31 December 2002 are resubmitted by the end of June 2003. This will ensure continuity and avoid undue delay while the Editorial Office moves to Athens.

David C. Wilson

Editor-in-Chief

Copyright [c] 2003 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA & New Delhi)