Editorial

Citation

Özbilgin, M.F. (2006), "Editorial", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 25 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/eoi.2006.03025baa.001

Editorial

Merely two months after re-launching the journal Equal Opportunities International (EOI), I am delighted that we are in a position to publish our inaugural issue under new management. I would like to acknowledge the immense support that the editorial board members, reviewers, authors as well as colleagues in Emerald publishing have afforded to bringing this issue to press and re-launching the journal. Although the EOI was established in 1982, Emerald press acquired the journal only very recently. Taking on the editorship of the journal in February 2006, I have had an exciting period of work in which we have established a new editorial board and journal policy.

With the new editorial board, the main aim that we have set for the journal is to make EOI the journal of choice for best international scholarship in the field of equality, diversity, and inclusion at work and in organisational settings. In a short period of time, it is pleasing to see that we have made considerable progress towards our aim. In this editorial, I will explain our recent efforts towards providing a home for best scholarship, through a rigorous process of refereeing which provides extensive developmental feedback.

One of the most important improvements that we have implemented so far is creating an editorial board which reflects the international and cross-disciplinary nature of the journal. EOI now has an editorial board which reads like, in the words of one of the editorial board members, who's who in the field of equality. As an introduction and thanks to the 120 members from 21 countries, and representing the whole spectrum of disciplines in the field, the editorial board is listed in full in this issue, including the review board at the end of this editorial.

We have formulated a transparent editorial and review policy that is shaped by the views of the board members. The new policy identifies a clear set of roles for the board members. These include contributing to the academic debates in the journal by submitting papers, supporting the development of the journal policy, introducing and promoting the journal in various academic fora and completing two reviews per year for paper submissions to the journal.

Setting up a triple blind-review system was also a key achievement for the journal. The current review system also offers a departure from the judgement based systems in many eminent journals in the field. The EOI supports a review system which provides authors extensive developmental feedback even when the paper submission is rejected. The triple blind-review system generates feedback in the range of 2500-5000 words. The reviewers are reminded to provide feedback that explains how the papers can be improved. We have also reduced the review period for paper submissions to a maximum eight weeks. The reviews are expected to be free from sexist, racist, disablist, homophobic and ageist statements as well as statements that target, bully, or degrade the person of the authors. We have adopted the review guidelines that were developed by Alison Konrad with her kind permission. The guidelines are sensitive to differences between qualitative and quantitative papers, clearly specifying criteria by which the papers should be evaluated in each methodological tradition.

One of the more innovative developments in the journal has been the establishment of the Professional Insights section, which is edited by Myrtle Bell, to whom I feel extremely indebted for her unyielding support and constructive feedback in all editorial matters. The Professional Insights section hosts conference reports as well as interviews with eminent scholars and activists in the field such as Cynthia Cockburn, an interview with whom is featured in this inaugural issue. In the new format, we have also gained a Book reviews section, which is edited by Finola Kerrigan. There will be single and multiple book reviews as well as extended book review essays. The aims and scope of this section are also explained further later in this editorial.

One of the ways that journals gain readership is through association with scientific networks and conferences. We have made considerable progress towards connecting the journal with a large number of scientific international conferences. Emerald Press will be offering a best paper award on behalf of the journal, EOI, at the Gender and Diversity in Organizations (GDO) track of the Academy of Management (AoM) Conference from 2007. Furthermore, we have established links with the International Employment Relations Association (IERA) Conference, the European Academy of Management (EURAM) Conference, the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) Conference, the British Universities Industrial Relations (BUIRA) Conference, and the British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference as well as other regional and more focused seminars and symposia.

The EOI is currently listed in more than ten scientific indices. In the age of academic rankings which link an academic's tenure, career, and esteem to their ability to publish in journals which are listed in prestigious indices such as the ISI and the SSCI, it is needless to state the significance of preparing EOI for inclusion in these indices. We have started making necessary preparations for an application to these indices. Your support in individually writing to ISI and SSCI and appealing for inclusion of the journal in these indices would be most appreciated.

For 2006, we have commissioned seven special issues, the proposals for which were assessed by a selection of editorial board members. The paper submissions to the special issues will go through the same triple blind-review system of the journal. However, the special issues bring a further dynamism to the journal and improve its visibility across different specialist fields.

The journal web site is now operational and serves as an interface for accessing the journal policy, author guidelines, editorial board information as well as the electronic paper submission system (JADE). Please visit the journal web site for further details: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/eoi.htm.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the editorial boards, the authors, and the reviewers for their contribution to the re-launching of the journal and its progress to date towards its objectives. However, I am bitterly aware that we have a long journey ahead in order for us to reach the mighty aim of making the EOI the journal of choice for best scholarship in the field. I will outline below our future work on the journal:

Refereed papers

We have received a large number of papers since we have set up the journal. Some of these papers have been returned to the authors after editorial scrutiny. The act of rejecting paper submissions has been more difficult than I had personally envisaged. Nevertheless, only 2 months after the re-launch, we have a substantial number of papers in the review process. We have also received many commitments for paper submissions from editorial board members and externally. It is only through the collective effort of the editorial board members that we can increase the rate and quality of paper submissions to the journal. Therefore, I would like to invite the authors in this issue and the editors to serve as ambassadors for the journal and promote paper submissions to the journal.

The review process relies heavily on the excellent work that the reviewers do. There are now over 180 reviewers in our database. However, we need more reviewers to cope with the immense task of triple blind-review. Because we are not sending more than two papers to each reviewer per year, we need a larger number of reviewers. I would be grateful if you could sign up for reviews or encourage your colleagues and doctoral students to sign up for reviewing papers by emailing me at m.ozbilgin@qmul.ac.uk.

Your help is also very much appreciated in generating paper submissions to the journal by authoring papers and encouraging colleagues and doctoral students to consider the journal as an outlet for their work. EOI has a firm commitment to international, cross-disciplinary and comparative scholarship. Therefore, we would most welcome papers that have such flavour.

One of the key strengths of the EOI is its interest in papers on the whole spectrum, rather than sectional analyses, of themes on equality, diversity, and inclusion issues, not only across traditional categories of sex, gender, ethnicity, race, class, and disability, but also on less traditional categories of age, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, faith, social background among others in organisational, and work settings. The journal seeks to provide critical and situated insights that cross disciplinary boundaries.

Special issues

We have commissioned several guest-edited special issues for publication in 2006 and 2007. Paper submissions to the special issues will be subject to the same triple-blind peer review system. Needless to say, we would appreciate all the support we can get in advertising the special issues and generating paper submissions to these special issues. The special issues are on the following themes (see the journal web site for full details of the call for papers):

1. 1.

   Public policy on democratizing access to education for marginalized groups guest edited by Mary Gatta Gatta@rci.rutgers.edu paper submission deadline: 1 May 2006.

2. 2.

   "Gender inequality" in science, engineering and technology (SET), guest edited by Pooran Wynarczyk Pooran.Wynarczyk@ncl.ac.uk paper submission deadline: 31 July 2006.

3. 3.

   Gender, management and governance in the public sector, guest edited by Jim Barry J.J.Barry@uel.ac.uk, Elisabeth Berg Elisabeth.Berg@ltu.se and John Chandler J.P.Chandler@uel.ac.uk paper submission deadline: 31 August 2006.

4. 4.

   Equality and diversity in marketing, guest edited by Finola Kerrigan Finola.Kerrigan@kcl.ac.uk and Anja Schaefer A.Schaefer@open.ac.uk paper submission deadline: 1 September 2006.

5. 5.

   Equality and inequality in work and employment, in conjunction with the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA), guest edited by Hazel Conley Hazel.Conley@uwe.ac.uk paper submission deadline: 29 September 2006.

6. 6.

   The politics of equality: professionals, states and activists guest edited by Shona Hunter S.Hunter@lancaster.ac.uk and Elaine Swan Elaine Swan E.Swan@lancaster.ac.uk paper submission deadline: 3 September 2006.

7. 7.

   Diversity and relational perspectives to the study of global knowledge workers guest edited by Katerina Nicolopoulou kn3@soton.ac.uk, Mine Karata-Özkan mko@soton.ac.uk, and Ahu Tatli a.tatli@qmul.ac.uk paper submission deadline: 1 December 2006.

Professional Insights

The Professional Insights section is newly established under the editorship of Myrtle Bell. The section hosts conference reports and interviews with eminent scholars and activists with long service record in the fields of equality, diversity, and inclusion. For this inaugural issue, there is an interview with Cynthia Cockburn. We would welcome your suggestions for interviewing similarly significant scholars or practitioners in the field.

We have also begun receiving conference reports from scientific conferences in the field. The conference reports fill an important gap by bringing to our attention newly presented material at conferences, overcoming the delay in the process of scholarly publishing and by recording important presentations which often remain underreported.

If you would like to volunteer to interview a scholar, write a conference report, or nominate colleagues, please contact Myrtle Bell at MPBell@uta.edu.

Book reviews

We have also received a number of books for review in the last couple of months and these have been despatched for review. Scholars are often too reserved to put their work forward without external prodding. Therefore, please accept this as an invitation to submit your book to Finola Kerrigan, Finola.Kerrigan@kcl.ac.uk, the book reviews editor. It would be ideal if you also let us know a couple of names (with email addresses) who would make ideal reviewers for your books, and we can approach them independently.

The book reviews section hosts single book reviews, themed reviews of a number of books and extended book reviews. If you have suggestions or nominations for review or would like to review a book, please email Finola Kerrigan.

Acknowledging the reviewers

Besides the significant contribution that the editorial board members make to the review process, EOI has enlisted the support of a large number of external reviewers. Although the reviewers constitute the backbone of the academic publishing process, it is rare to see their contributions acknowledged. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the below reviewers who have contributed to the review of manuscript submissions since February 2006:

Sujoya Basu, Myrtle P. Bell, Francesca Bettio, Celia Brackenridge, Paula Brough, Ronald Burke, Amy McMillan-Capehart, Ardha Danieli, Rosemary Deem, Susan Eisenberg, Liviu Florea, Cynthia Forson, Nathan Goates, Alex Haslam, Tiffany Hansbrough, Geraldine Healy, Jeff Hearn, Lea Henriksson, Brenda Johnson, Julie Kmec, Fatma Küskü, Rebecca McCormick-Gumbrell, Paul Lazear, Barbara Lee, Yuwei Lin, Beverley Metcalfe, Anne Munro, Samuel M. Natale, Katerina Nicolopulou, Alexia Panayiotou, Nancy Papalexandris, David Perfect, Efstratios Ramoglou, Loriann Roberson, Patricia Roos, Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, Birgit Schyns, Peggy Stockdale, Aysit Tansel, Helen Watt, Diana Woodward, Pooran Wynarczyk, and Jeongkoo Yoon.

Your events, organisations, and news

We have also set up a bimonthly update for the journal which goes out to over 180 members. If you would like to receive this update, send me your email address at m.ozbilgin@qmul.ac.uk. Let us know your events, organisations and news and we shall advertise them through the bi-monthly circular. Simply prepare an outline of maximum 100 words and email this to me.

Equal Opportunities International, Editorial Review Board

UK

Ahu Tatli (Queen Mary, University of London)

Alex Beauregard (London School of Economics)

Alison Pullen (University of York)

Anne-Marie Greene (Warwick University)

Cara Aitchison (University of the West of England)

Celia Brackenridge (Brunel University)

Christina Hughes (Warwick University)

Cynthia Forson (Queen Mary)

Damian Grimshaw (UMIST)

Diana Woodward (Napier University)

Dianah Worman (CIPD)

Diane Perrons (London School of Economics)

Elaine Swan (Lancaster University)

Elizabeth Stokoe (Loughborough University)

Ellen Annandale (University of Leicester)

Gözde Inal (Queen Mary, University of London)

Joanna Brewis (University of Leicester)

John Chandler (University of East London)

Kim Hoque (The University of Nottingham)

Liz Lloyd (University of Bristol)

Michelle Ryan (Exeter University)

Mine Karataç Özkan (Southampton University)

Ruth Simpson (Brunel University)

Steve Fox (Lancaster University)

Sue Durbin (University of the West of England)

Sue Lewis (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Sue Shaw (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Surya Monro (Leeds Metropolitan University)

North America

Bernardo Ferdman (Alliant International Univ.)

David A. Kravitz (George Mason University)

Diana Bilimoria (Case Western Reserve Univ.)

Fiona Jamison (Berrier Associates)

Henderikus J. Stam (University of Calgary)

Jacqueline Hood (University of Colorado)

Jennifer Pierce (University of Minnesota)

Joyce Jacobsen (Wesleyan University)

Julie Kmec (Washington State University)

Linda Hite (Indiana U.-Purdue U. Fort Wayne)

Loriann Roberson (Arizona State University)

Pat Armstrong (York University)

Susan Woods (Cornell University)

Rest of Europe

Alexia Panayiotou (University of Cyprus)

Daniel Sabbagh (CERI)

Ellen Cornelia Kuhlmann (University of Bremen)

Francesca Bettio (University of Siena)

Hanife Aliefendiolu (Eastern Mediterranean U.)

Janne Tienari (Lappeenranta Univ. of Technology)

Kathleen Cannings (Uppsala University)

Kerstin Rosenberg (Karlstads University)

Kirsten Scheiwe (Universität Hildesheim)

Lea Henriksson (University of Tampere)

Lidia Greco (Bari University)

Lineke Stobbe (Vrije University)

Mats Alvesson (Lunds University) Mats Alvesson (Lunds University)

Minna Salminen-Karlsson (Linkopings University)

Ragnhild Sollund (Norvegian Social Research)

Asia, Pacific, South America, and Africa

Anne Ross-Smith (Univ. of Technology Sydney)

Barbara Pocock (University of Adelaide)

Judith Pringle (Auckland Univ. of Technology)

Kuriakose Mamkoottam (University of Delhi)

Sujoya Basu (Indian Institute of Management)

Sunita S. Sengupta (Indian Inst. of Management)

Tayo Fashoyin (International Labour Office)

Vimolwan Yukongdi (Assumption University)

In this issue

Thanks to the expediency and rigour of our reviewers and the considered attention of authors, three research papers have passed the triple blind review system and made it to press in this inaugural issue. The Professional Insights section features an interview with Cynthia Cockburn and conference reports. The Book Review section features a review of the Handbook of Workplace Diversity, an edited volume by Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle. Both sections also have their editorials which outline their vision for future issues.

Asian business owners in the UK are hailed as champions for breaking away from ethnic disadvantage through entrepreneurial success. The first paper in this issue, by Spinder Dhaliwal and Peter Kangis, explores intergenerational aspects of entrepreneurship for this group through an in-depth and small scale study. The authors reveal that the intergenerational transformation of patterns of entrepreneurship as well as reasons for setting up business ventures have brought about new complexities and gender dynamics for the second generation Asian entrepreneurs. Challenging the received wisdom in this field of study, the paper also suggests that intergenerational transformation has not necessarily resulted in second generation of Asian entrepreneurs to adopt a linear lines of progress and consequently to move into higher value-added activities than their predecessor generations.

Barbara Bagilhole's research on a group of women pioneer priests in the Church of England reveals the complexity of women's experience in this non-traditional domain of work which continues to exclude them from its top positions of hierarchy. The paper demonstrates women priests' strong identification with their work and their efforts to alter the gender order which erects structural barriers on their way to achieve equal rights. The paper also provides a set of policy recommendations, inviting the Church to make public its disapproval of discrimination and commitment to equality of opportunity by taking effective steps to eliminate barriers in the way of women's access to its ranks as well as senior positions of hierarchy.

Susan Kirby reports her study in which she examines a group of American undergraduate officers in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) associations and the way their expectations of job discrimination affect some of their job seeking practices. Particular emphasis is placed on the students' expectations of coming out or remaining in the closet in their future employment. The study reveals that coming out remains an important concern for this sample of American undergraduate students, most of whom expect to face sexual orientation discrimination. However, the research also highlights that the sector in which the future employment is located, the general characteristics and openness of student's chosen career paths in relation to sexual orientation issues as well as students' own agency and awareness account for the expectations of coming out or remaining closeted for these students.

Despite their divergent emphases on ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation issues, respectively, the three research papers that we host in this issue have a common theme that threads through. This is the evidence that they provide to demonstrate that despite progress towards equality of opportunity, inequalities prove resilient to change or transform to gain new complexities. It is the objective of this journal to explore the new realities of the world of work with a view not only to document but also to offer policies and interventions to eliminate incipient and established forms of inequalities that plague social and economic organisation of life and work.

It is with great pleasure that I have written this first editorial piece. I can only hope that we sustain our current momentum towards our collective aim of achieving better standards of scholarship which informs the way we understand and practice equality, diversity, and inclusion in the world of work. Thank you once again for your continued support to this process.

Mustafa F. Özbilgin