Journal of Consumer Policy - About Journal of Consumer Policy
Impact and Indexing
JCP provides a distinctive and unique platform for publishing quality research across different fields focusing on consumer policy and law. This is reflected in the following indicators.
- Clarivate has announced that as of 2023, Impact Factors will be published for all journals in the Web of Science indices. The 2022 Impact Factor for the Journal of Consumer Policy is 2.3.
- SCOPUS-based indicators published by ELSEVIER continue to highlight the Journal's strong impact. JCP continued to be listed in the Scimago Journal and Country Rank (SJR) with an SJR factor of 0.7. It is therefore placed in the first quartile within business, management, and accounting.
- Moreover, JCP received a CiteScore of 3.4 in 2021, ranking it 33 out of 144 journals or in the 77th percentile in Business, Management and Accounting. From volume 41 onwards, JCP is indexed in the Clarivate Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), meaning it will be indexed within the Web of Science as of 2023.
- The Journal's Google h5 index reached 21 in 2021.
Scope and Focus Areas
The Journal of Consumer Policy is an international, interdisciplinary, and specialised Journal, uniquely covering the dynamics of consumer policy in a global context. JCP is the one most explicitly devoted to consumer and environmental policy research compared to other journals. It combines contributions from several social science disciplines, primarily business and economics, social psychology, economic and environmental psychology, behavioural economics, and consumer law. Given that JCP has a strong policy focus, a question that should be answered in each original article is: What are the implications for consumer policy and research?
While intentionally broad in scope and thus covering numerous topics of societal relevance, the Journal has recently focused on sustainable consumption, digitalisation, international consumer law, and behavioural public policy. Analyses of the relationship between consumer policy and environmental policy have, especially since 1995, had a prominent place in the Journal. The Journal continues to publish special issues on this topic that are the latest examples of this vital feature of the Journal, such as one on Behaviour Change for Sustainable Consumption.
Moreover, consumer law is a central feature of JCP, and it is now the leading dedicated English-language peer-reviewed Journal for consumer law scholarship. Although a topic of immense practical relevance, the community of consumer law scholars is relatively small. JCP regularly publishes high-quality papers on consumer law, particularly on emerging topics such as digitalisation and sustainability (Special Issue in 2020, The Future of Consumer Law and Policy – Internationalisation, Digitalisation and Sustainability), but also on regular issues such as developments in regional consumer law (Special issue in 2018 on Consumer Law and Policy in Africa). JCP also seeks to develop consumer law scholarship strategically, and one of our editorials set out the need for consumer law scholarship on global legal issues.
The Journal was founded in 1977. It was then published by the German publisher Luchterhand Verlag and from the outset, was a quarterly journal comprising approximately 500 pages a year. JCP was acquired in 1983 by the Reidel Publishing Company, which later merged with Kluwer. Since the merger of Kluwer and Springer in 2005, Springer has published the Journal. Since the merger of Springer and Nature, the publisher is now SpringerNature.
Editorial Process
The Editors' team has always been multidisciplinary in its composition. As of 2021, it consists of two economists, one economic psychologist, and two legal scholars. Furthermore, both the Editors' team and the Editorial Board have been very international throughout the Journal's existence. The present Editors' team covers the U.S. (Cornell University), Italy (European University Institute (EUI)), the U.K. (University of Warwick; University of Cambridge, UK), and Denmark (Aarhus University). In 2021, we invited a new, even more international and multidisciplinary Editorial Board of 57 members, 22 different nations worldwide, and many of the leading university departments in consumer policy research are represented.
All submitted papers (apart from those rejected by the Editors after their initial reading because of poor fit) are subjected to thorough double-blind peer reviews by two or sometimes three reviewers. These are typically selected from the Editorial Board, but other specialists regarding the topic are also asked in several cases. One of the Editors is responsible for handling the paper, but final decisions regarding acceptance or rejection are always taken in consultation among the five Editors.
Special Issues 2005-2022
A list of the special issues (all fully double-blind peer-reviewed) since 2005 verifies the above claim that the Journal is at the forefront of current debates in consumer policy and law:
- The Protection of the Weak Party in a Harmonised European Contract Law
- The Politics of Necessity
- Effects of the Euro Changeover on Consumer Behaviour
- Shopping for Human Rights
- The Consumer, the European Union, and Media Law
- The iConsumer and the Role of Consumer Law
- Nanotechnologies and the Consumer (special section)
- Time allocation, Consumption, and Consumer Policy
- Putting Sustainable Consumption into Practice
- Behavioural Economics, Consumer Policy, and Consumer Law – An Interdisciplinary Perspective
- From Knowledge to Action - New Paths towards sustainable consumption
- The Regulation of Over-indebtedness of Consumers in Europe
- From Rule Export to Institution Building: Consumer Law at the EU's Doorsteps
- Consumer Socialization, Buying Decisions and Consumer Behaviour in Children
- Behavioural Economics, Environmental Policy, and the Consumer
- Conceptualizing the Consumer of Financial Services: A New Approach?
- Sustainable Textiles: The Role of Consumers, Civil Society, Corporations, and Government
- Consumer Law and Policy in Africa
- Celebrating 40 Years of the Journal of Consumer Policy: The Future of Consumer Law and Policy – Internationalisation, Digitalisation and Sustainability
- Behaviour Change for Sustainable Consumption
- Consumer Law in South America