Welcome to the Year 2024. We are already in the middle of second month of the year (as of writing this editorial) at which some of you have been still enjoying a term break since the last Christmas season, others have been fully engaged with a series of academic activities and duties. Whichever case you might be in, it is hoped that all JOMA readerships enjoy working in their chosen field in a meaningful and productive manner throughout the year.

Turning to the Journal matters, I would like to share with you what was developed and progressed last year and what is to be implemented now and future. You will be, the foremost of all, delighted and encouraged by the fact that the ever-growing eagerness, in terms of quantity and quality, of journal readerships as a whole to make a purposeful contribution to the Journal as a major outlet in the field of maritime studies being an author, a reviewer, a guest editor, or other capacities. Your continuous involvements are (and will be) highly appreciated since this type of exercises does individually and collectively enable us to build our ‘group intelligence’ in maritime studies upwards. In doing so, we can change the world into a better place to live in for our generation and ones to come.

Below are the ones that your editor-in-chief would like to share for information, attention and due action, if related:

  • JOMA has received a steadily growing number of manuscript submissions during the year of 2023 as were the cases of the previous years. More importantly, the quality of submitted works has been noticeable enhanced. The recently published impact factor of the Journal reflects this trend and development (see more at the Journal website). The acceptance rates for publication have subsequently and inevitably dropped due to the limited space for publications. Increasing either the page number of each issue or the issue number of each volume will still remain an option, as indicated in the previous editorial. Your editor-in-chief shall keep his eyes on the developmental pattern and, if necessary, take due action in a natural course of timeline; you will be accordingly updated, in that case. The baseline is, however, the scientific quality and significance of the submissions.

  • The editorial board is kept updated and expanded so as to better reflect the fields being covered by the Journal. Those of you, having both an interest in and an adequate qualification and experience for the role of editorial board member, are encouraged to contact the editor-in-chief with a fully updated CV of yours and a cover letter (or email) showing your motivation and suitability for the role. You could alternatively suggest to the editor-in-chief a ‘qualified’ colleague(s) of yours for the role. See more about it at the “Call for Editorial Board Nomination” (2021, Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 123).

  • The Journal keeps such a practice as each volume has, at least, one special issue dedicated to a selective topic. If you and/or your networked team in a sub-field of maritime studies in general are interested in doing so as a guest editor(s), you are always welcome to initiate such a special issue and suggested to contact your editor-in-chief with a drafted Call for Papers for further discussion. An informal enquiry could be also made to him (via the journal email). A sample of the Call for Papers can be found at the Journal’s website (see the section of ‘Journal Updates’) for your reference.

  • Each issue is planned to contain one Book Review. You are mostly welcome to write one for future issues. Either a newly published book or a seasoned but not-yet-widely read and cited one could be the one to be reviewed for wider circulation to the maritime research and professional communities through this book review section. Please contact the editor-in-chief with your intention and details of a book being considered before taking your action.

  • The Springer (the journal publisher) and editorial team do still work on the way towards inclusion of the Social Sciences Citation Index. It takes substantially more time than initially projected; it is genuinely hoped that JOMA will be covered by the Web of Science in the next few years.

  • As another reminder, those of you who plan to submit work(s) to JOMA for publications are strongly recommended to use an officially affiliated (rather than private, unless no alternative) email address as a corresponding one. See reasons for it at the footnote 1 of the editorial (Song 2022, p. 278).

Finally, as was the case of the previous year, your editor-in-chief is pleased to announce that the (now 4th) annual ‘Best Paper Award’ and ‘Best Reviewer Award’ in the Announcement Section of this issue. Big thanks do duly go to all the contributing authors whose papers were published in the Volume 22 and all reviewers and guest editors who spared their valuable time with us for making a critical review and editorial duties on those papers appeared and to be appeared in forthcoming volume(s).

Your editor-in-chief is, as usual, looking forward to receiving any comments and feedbacks from YOU as a current and future contributor to the WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs. Please drop me an email whenever you feel it could be helpful, useful and insightful to the common good of the Journal. Wish you enjoy reading the first issue and subsequent ones of 2024.

Your Editor-in-Chief

Dong-Wook Song

joma@wmu.se