Trends in Journal of Consumer Affairs Feature Articles: 1967–2007

Abstract

Examining trends across time in feature articles published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, descriptive statistics report on areas of change and stability in authorship, author affiliations, coauthorship, topical subject matters, data collection and analysis methodologies, and citations. While the first four decades of publication have been accompanied by significant changes in both the journal and consumer research in general, the journal continues to address the important purposes for which it was founded.

Five decades of the Journal of Consumer Affairs: A bibliometric analysis

“…Following James and Cude (2009), we initially divide our data into articles reporting (a) quantitative, (b) qualitative, and (c) neither quantitative nor qualitative methodologies. We also add a category for mixed methods.…”

“…The Journal of Consumer Affairs ( JCA ), founded by the ACCI in 1967, became the first peer‐reviewed academic journal devoted to consumer interests (DeVaney 2016). Its founding occurred during the “third wave” consumer movement (Bryant, 1999) partly in response to the lack of journals in the consumer field (Bivens, 1967; James and Cude, 2009). JCA 's primary purpose is to publish research that explains consumers and their behavior and implications involving the macro environment.…”

Parting Perspectives from an Aging Editor (& thanks for all the fish)

“…The journal started to regain visibility with scholars in marketing, journalism and mass communications. The quantity and variety of submissions were growing (see James and Cude 2009). I ended the use of associated editors in an effort to shorten the time taken for reviewing manuscripts, an important concern and difficult to execute since electronic contacts were barely starting a decade ago.…”

Privacy in the Information Economy

“…In the 1990s, consumer privacy issues moved to the forefront of consumer affairs and public policy research. According to Google Scholar, ISI Journal Citation Reports, and the Social Science Citation Abstracts, the most cited article of the past 40 years in Journal of Consumer Affairs by Miyazaki and Ferndandez (2001) examines consumer privacy (James and Cude 2009). Similarly, according to the American Marketing Association's web site, the top five most‐cited articles this decade for the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing all deal with privacy issues.…”