We are happy to report some important developments that have materialised in Social and Environmental Accountability Journal (SEAJ) in 2015. First, the previous governance structure has been replaced by a smaller Executive Editorial Board and an extended Editorial Board, in line with practice in most other research journals. The enlargement of the editorial board, with the addition of a group of outstanding SEA scholars, heralds the health and vitality of this research community and guarantees the future of its project. We will not list here the new editorial board members (the information is available elsewhere in SEAJ), but we would like to express in these lines our admiration for their research contribution and our gratitude for accepting the invitation to join the SEAJ team.
Second, in addition to the Australian Business Deans Council's Journal Quality List, SEAJ was listed last year in the Association of Business Schools’ Academic Journal Guide 2015, as well as in the Scopus database. Undoubtedly, this recognition provides the journal with a visibility that contributes to the dissemination of social and environmental accountability research, as well as to the recognition of SEA research in the innumerable research assessment exercises that we academics must undergo.
This recognition is not without its costs: we need to make sure that research assessments do not unduly influence the SEAJ project. In this regard, it is unfortunate that we have to report that we are seeing an increasing number of submissions to SEAJ that lack any real awareness or engagement with the SEA literature. The obvious advice for any scholar intending to submit his/her research to SEAJ is to firstly become familiar with the journal (together with other journals that regularly publish SEA research); to attend the CSEAR Conferences that are organised worldwide (https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/csear/conferences/); and to seek the opinion of more experienced SEA scholars. The new editorial board is an important piece of information in this regard.
We would like to express our gratitude to the authors and reviewers of the papers published in volume 35. This volume includes a special issue on Economic Democracy and Accountancy (Bebbington and Campbell Citation2015). The role of social accounting in new/alternative forms of economic governance is an important research avenue in the field. In this regard, we invite you to consider the call for papers for a special issue on ‘Social enterprise, accountability and social accounting', to be published in 2017 and guest edited by Hannele Mäkelä, Ericka Costa and Jane Gibbon.
The main section of the journal has covered a broad range of topics this year, from shadow accountability to integrated reporting. However, in this editorial we would like to focus on one particular aspiration of SEAJ. This journal was born with the explicit purpose of covering an alternative space in the SEA literature. Its aim is to create a new academic literature, and to provide ‘a forum for a wide range of different forms of academic and academic-related communications whose aim is to balance honesty and scholarly rigour with directness, clarity, policy-relevance and novelty' (SEAJ’s aim and scope). It was anticipated that submitted papers would be around 5000 words in length and therefore substantially shorter than those published in, for example, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal. In this regard, SEAJ was developed to publish timely, innovative research communications that do not find room in the lengthy review process of other journals. In particular, the journal is open for review papers and commentaries. A case in point is Tweedie and Hazelton's (Citation2015) review essay on the potential of Piketty's (Citation2014) Capital in the Twenty-First Century for SEA research – something which could hardly be more well-timed, given the worldwide impact that this book had last year. Another example could be Francisco Ascui's (Citation2014) review paper on carbon accounting, which was awarded the Reg Mathews Memorial Prize in 2014. Congratulations again to Francisco.
This final issue of volume 35 also includes ‘A New Era: Extending Environmental Impact to a Broader Sustainability Agenda the Case of Commercial Group', by Suzana Grubnic, Christian Herzig, Jean-Pascal Gond and Jeremy Moon – the case study that was awarded the 2015 CSEAR Teaching Case Study Competition. Congratulations also go to Suzana and her team.
One special feature of SEAJ, consistent with its aim of engaging with academic discussions, is the articles and books reviews section. This was possible in this volume thanks to the dedication of Connie Beck, Hannele Mäkelä and Helen Tregidga. In this issue, we would like to thank Connie in particular, who is stepping down as review editor after eight years, for her fine work, as well as Michele Rodrigue, who has accepted to join the Reviews Editors team.
These lines also give us the opportunity to say farewell to Professor Nola Buhr, after her retirement from academic life. Nola has been one of the pillars of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research, serving as International Associate for CSEAR and International Advisory Board Member for SEAJ. Nola's contribution to furthering our understanding of environmental reporting through in-depth case studies is widely acknowledged. Nola's involvement in SEAJ includes the edition of one special issue on ‘Indigenous Peoples: Accounting and Accountability' (Buhr Citation2012), as well as her leadership in the recent discussions on the future of CSEAR (Buhr and Russell Citation2014). Thank you, Nola.
Finally, this is John Ferguson's last editorial as joint editor. Over the four years John has served in this role, SEAJ has continued to follow a very positive trajectory. In addition to the journal's inclusion on various national journal rankings and Scopus, submissions to the journal have also increased. Moreover, the journal attracts good quality research from an internationally diverse authorship – this is no doubt partly attributable to the hard work of CSEAR international associates, who do an incredible job in supporting CSEAR activity and promoting the journal around the world. John would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have supported him in his role and have contributed to the success of the journal – in particular, the Reviews Editor Team, Rhona McLaren in her role as Editorial Assistant, and Jeffrey Unerman as Convenor of the SEAJ board. We also welcome Matias Laine, as new SEAJ joint editor starting in 2016.
References
- Ascui, F. 2014. “A Review of Carbon Accounting in the Social and Environmental Accounting Literature: What Can it Contribute to the Debate?” Social and Environmental Accountability Journal 34 (1). doi:10.1080/0969160X.2013.870487.
- Bebbington, J., and D. Campbell. 2015. “Economic Democracy: Exploring Ramifications for Social and Environmental Accountants.” Social and Environmental Accountability Journal 35 (2): 77–85. doi:10.1080/0969160X.2015.1054590.
- Buhr, N. 2012. “Indigenous Peoples: Accounting and Accountability.” Social and Environmental Accountability Journal 32 (2): 59–63. doi:10.1080/0969160X.2012.718897.
- Buhr, N., and S. Russell. 2014. “Raising our Collective Game: CSEAR Future(s).” Social and Environmental Accountability Journal 34 (2): 117–123. doi:10.1080/0969160X.2014.938476.
- Piketty, T. 2014. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Translated by A. Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
- Tweedie, D., and J. Hazelton. 2015. “Social Accounting for Inequality: Applying Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century.” Social and Environmental Accountability Journal 35 (2): 113–122. doi:10.1080/0969160X.2015.1062788.