Editorial: After Five Years

Increasingly journals are using a variety of measures to benchmark the quality of their publications. Upon reflection one can source numerous statistics from reliable sources to find key indicators that showcase both the breadth and depth of relevance of a journal within a global academic and industry community of practice. We thought it especially important to present some key indicators in this editorial, which will illustrate both the impact the journal has had over the last five years, and the positive course it is on in the next five years. These figures are a celebration not only for the editorial board and review board but for the many individual researchers who have painstakingly undertaken their research and sought to publish in the journal, despite its relative infancy. May these indicators continue to attract more international contributors as we seek to build on the robust foundations laid in the first five years. In the next five years, we will focus on maintaining the academic rigor displayed to date, while making it even easier for authors to submit their manuscripts and track their papers through the review process online. Since its inception, the Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research (JTAER) has had a citation count that is comparable to the first four years reflected by other electronic commerce (EC) centric journals in the Scopus data base. To this end JTAER can claim that it is on a similar trajectory to the other electronic commerce journals that preceded it. JTAER was included in the Scopus data base in 2008. Number of Papers Published per Annum 21 21 25 22 21 Table 1 shows the number of JTAER citations significantly rising particularly after the journal's inclusion in the Scopus data base. On average the journal publishes about 22 papers per annum. The partial count from the 2011 Scopus data base indicated in July that 32 citations had already been recorded for JTAER. Please note that the SNIP and SJR for 2010 were last updated in September 2010. In the Scopus data base JTAER's h-index is 8. This is one of several indicators that will continue to strengthen over the short-term. While the h-index is not often favorable to newly established journals, in this instance 8 is a good starting point from which to work on [1]. The global appeal of JTAER is demonstrated by the breadth of the authors' affiliations and countries. …