Abstract
To our readers, authors and reviewers, thank you for all the hard work you have done to ensure that The Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation, as a new venture, continues to grow in both quality of content and number of submissions. Also, thank you to the IACCM (International Association for Contract and Commercial Management) staff who have worked hard to promote this journal to their members, and most of all for their fine contribution in translating our research papers into executive summaries for our general IACCM readership. The journal has survived its second year and as we head towards our third year I want to make some announcements and give some future directions for this journal as we seek to consolidate and grow.
Above all else, I want to congratulate and say farewell to our friend and colleague Professor David Van Slyke. David was promoted to Dean of The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, NY. Having worked with David to establish and grow this journal it is obvious why David would be promoted to Dean. I also have no doubt that he will succeed in this role given his humor, dedication to his craft and commitment to quality, fairness and transparency. While we will miss him as a co-editor, as anyone in the role knows, being the Dean is a demanding role and so we will say goodbye to David in 2017, although he assures me he will always be part of JSCAN. To David, congratulations on your new and very important role, and I wish you all the success in the world.
With change always comes opportunity. In 2017 we will be instigating some changes to the structure and requirements of the editorial review board. This will include the creation of an expert advisory board, an associate editor, a succession plan for journal leadership and renewal of the editorial review board. These changes will significantly strengthen the journal, its operations and governance to ensure that we grow capacity in future journal leadership from across the globe and benefit from our global networks of academics, researchers and business and government partnerships. A detailed message and email will be sent to all our editorial board members requiring your action in early 2017.
‘Ask the Experts’ webinars
One of the most exciting initiatives emerging out of the SAGE–IACCM relationship is the commitment we are seeing from JSCAN authors to be part of the ‘Ask The Expert’ webinar series run by the IACCM. This will have several benefits. These include the following. (1) Webinars are very well attended by members of the IACCM and so authors will present their work to leaders interested in and curious about their research topic area. This expands the audience of people’s research and engages people in discussion about the future direction of research. (2) It opens up avenues and opportunities for future research collaboration. (3) It adds to the impact and engagement of research by presenting research live to leaders across the globe—all webinars are recorded live and kept for prosperity for people to listen to at their convenience. We have a number of ‘Ask the Expert’ webinars currently being organized with JSCAN authors. As an author, you do not need to do anything to be part of a webinar; IACCM will contact you in due course, if they have not done so already.