As “the premier journal devoted to the development of advertising theory and its relationship to practice,” the Journal of Advertising (JA) is experiencing a period of growth, expanding to new markets, and rising to new heights. Go to JA’s website and you will find that, at the time of this writing, the two most-read articles boast a combined 58,000-plus views. And these are not just casual readers. EBSCO reports that nearly half of these views are of the full article.
With submissions from around the globe on nearly every aspect of advertising, it brings me to the question raised in the title of this, my first editorial: What comes next?
Although it may sound like a song from Hamilton, it is a question that frequently occupies my thoughts as the 13th (and third female) editor of JA. Shintaro Okazaki and editors before him have done remarkable work, and I am truly honored to stand on their shoulders. It is not my intention to slip into platitudes, but I do have some personal convictions about advertising that guide my philosophy as editor, some of which I shared during my interview for the editorship with the American Academy of Advertising (AAA) Publications Committee. I plan to address these points in future editorials to provide a more complete discussion of the topics and encourage others to weigh in with their submissions.
First, the philosophy guiding me as editor is the continued advancement of JA’s positioning as the preeminent journal devoted to cultivating advertising theory. While boundaries are blurring for all fields, one of the things that is important for JA is to make submissions relevant to advertising. I am aware there are many attempts to define advertising. JA’s aims and scope defines advertising in the broadest sense to include “[a]ll research related to all types of advertising.” Papers which are not about advertising or which do not make clear the relevance of the work to JA will be desk rejected. Please help us reduce the number of desk rejections by ensuring submissions cover some aspect of advertising and fit JA’s aims and scope.
Second, understanding and addressing advertising’s role in the broader discipline and society continues to be a topic worthy of our discussion and research. JA encompasses a far-ranging spectrum of social, political, ethical, cultural, environmental, global, and economic (among other) perspectives while maintaining an ambition to publish theoretical papers with practical importance. This wide spectrum requires many approaches and implies that more voices and perspectives are needed. JA welcomes submissions from anyone, anywhere in the world, doing research on advertising.
Third, advertising scholars, researchers, and practitioners are confronted with complex problems, and rigorous academic efforts are needed for progress. A major goal is to assess and develop understanding about what constitutes the “science of advertising” and also the “philosophy of advertising.” This is perhaps where JA can make its greatest contribution.
This leads me to my goals as editor, which are to (1) maintain JA’s standards of publishing high-quality, high-impact papers; (2) recruit good submissions that cover all areas and methods in advertising from a diversity of authors throughout the world; (3) support author-friendly editorial practices that uphold values of integrity, honesty, and ethical conduct while providing balanced perspectives; (4) identify papers that give insight into how advertising has worked in the past, how it works now, and how we believe it will, or could, work in the future; and (5) disseminate JA widely to those who need and want it.
The ability of advertising researchers to achieve goals will require critical evaluation and reflection. And theorizing alone is not enough; we must also engage with a broader audience. With that said, I offer several suggestions for advertising researchers and scholars based on observations from my time as an associate editor (AE) of JA and since my transition to editor began on August 1, 2019.
Suggestion 1: Make JA your first choice for peer-reviewed research on the “development of advertising theory and its relationship to practice”
We are happy to receive all submissions, but we need more submissions that are specifically targeted to JA. Declined papers repurposed from other journals should be positioned to fit our aims and scope and literature. As noted, this will help reduce the number of desk rejections and will also help fuel ongoing discussions within the broader field.
Suggestion 2: Send in more submissions to the Literature Review Corner and Research Notes sections
As of this writing, since my transition to editor began, we have received only three Literature Reviews and five Research Notes. I do not want these areas to overshadow original research article submissions, which are the bread and butter of JA. However, to broaden the impact of our research (an aforementioned goal), a positive step is to take advantage of the full range of publishing formats provided by JA.
Suggestion 3: Submit hard-hitting pieces that are introspective of advertising as an academic field and industry
Sample topic questions include: What is the place of advertising research? Has advertising research made a difference, and what is its contribution? What are obstacles that stand in the way of progress in our understanding of how advertising works? What are we doing to fix the flaws in advertising scholarship? How do we improve participation of underrepresented groups as an issue of equity and better production of advertising research? How have rising expectations to meet productivity increases influenced advertising scholarship? Have they had broader impacts? Readers might not care about every issue raised here—and this is by no means a complete list—but I hope to use these ideas to encourage submissions, as a jumping-off point for future editorials, and also to stimulate thought.
Suggestion 4: Pay it forward
Help us achieve JA's three-prong approach to enhance scholarship, education, and training. Here are some suggestions of positive steps we can take. Readers can use JA to inform conceptual and methodological discussions and journal submissions. Reviewers can help by making the articles in JA even stronger with suggestions about what authors can do to fix identified problems. Faculty can recommend JA to students and colleagues and assign JA as reading in advertising theory courses. Faculty can also e-mail me to recommend their best students for the doctoral student reviewer training program. Doctoral students can use JA as a basis to write dissertations on advertising topics and to formulate research agendas. Practitioners who might be reading this can make submissions and use JA and its Research Notes section to make informed decisions.
I close on a personal note and express my gratitude to Shintaro for all he has done to ease my transition to editor—every article published in this issue was accepted under his editorship—and to all who make the Journal of Advertising the preeminent journal it is today.
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Advertising
Acknowledgments
In preparing this editorial, I have benefited from critical comments and suggestions by Ron Faber, Herb Rotfeld, Marla Royne Stafford, and June Stemmle.