Where does all the talk about a “US-focus” of logistics journals come from? Göran Svensson, Terje Slåtten and Bård Tronvoll investigated this question (even if not posing it this explicitly) when assessing the “scientific identity” and “ethnocentricity” of logistics journals. Not surprisingly, the composition of editorial teams and editorial boards had an impact on where the articles of a journal came from. (e.g. JBL’s editorial team, board as well as reviewers almost exclusively being based in the US.) Perhaps a bit more surprisingly, there are vast geographical areas (in fact continents) that are neglected in all top logistics journals: South America, Africa, Asia, and to some extent also Australia. Not only is this bad for logistics research, but it compares really badly to e.g. marketing. Although it may stem from what is perceived as “logistics research” in different areas – as noted in an earlier post on logistics education, it is quite telling which departments logistics is housed in globally, e.g. under finance in China, marketing OR management science in Europe and the US etc. (see Yen-Chun Jim Wu‘s 2007 article comparing logistics education schemes).
In any case, Svensson et al.’s article is a wake-up call for logistics journals (and their editors) as much as for logistics researchers from under-represented geographical areas to publish articles from different regions as well. Some special issues in this direction might help…
Gyöngyi
