Logistics journal sees jump in submissions and special issues

As the Editor in Chief of the Logistics journal, I am striving to continuously improve the scope and reach of the journal, and explore innovative new topics that we are facing.  In 2022, global logistics is more important than ever.  We have witnessed massive bottlenecks at the ports, increased consumer demand, increased product shortages, problems in vaccine distribution, and a host of other issues and problems.  Research is logistics management is sorely needed in all of these areas.

Today the editorial staff and leaders reviewed the Logistics journal’s progress in 2021.  I am pleased to note that we have made considerable progress, and are making a real impact on global logistics.  While article quality is of course important, as the Editor I am most interested in ensuring that the topics and reach of the journal is global in nature, and targets the most important topics that are facing the logistics industry.

First the good news.  Submissions are up – we saw the number of submissions more than double, which means that people are noticing that the journal is relevant, and worthy of consideration.  As the journal is able to receive indexing certification from the Web of Science and Elsevier, we will likely continue to see this rise in 2022.  A journal rejection rate of 40% is not what one would consider as “elite” in terms of acceptance rates – however, that is not our objective.  My objective is to get good, solid insights from academic and practitioners onto the pages of the journal.

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So who is submitting to the journal?  I’m proud to announce that the reach of the journal is truly global.  We are seeing submissions from Germany, Brazil, the US, Sweden, Lithuania, India, and a host of other countries.  I’m especially excited to see submissions from Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.  We clearly need to get more submissions from China and the UK, and that is one of my goals for next year.  But the true global nature of our authors is testimony that logistics is a topic that everyone can contribute to.  We have a great blend of quantitative and empirical articles.

To give you a flavor of what we are seeing, I’ve shown the most cited papers in the last 12 months, as well as the most cited papers of all time.  Blockchain applications in logistics is clearly a hot topic at the current time, followed by agricultural logistics, humanitarian pandemic logistics, and last mile delivery.  These are topics that are also going to be featured in special issues.

Some of the topics for 2022 special issues ahve to do with “lights out logistics” (or the rise of the machines!), risk management, sustainable logistics, agricultural logistics, maritime logistics (something that is very relevant to the LA Ports right now), and block chain logistics.  I hope that academics and practitioners alike will consider publishing in the Logistics journal in 2022!