From the Editor
June 2000 (Volume 27, Number 1)

Beginning with this June 2000 issue, the first of volume 27, we are pleased to announce that the Journal of Consumer Research will now be published in both print and electronic editions. The e-JCR can be accessed through the website of the Journals Division of the University of Chicago Press: www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR. For the near term, access to the electronic version of JCR will be unrestricted, but eventually it will be available solely to current subscribers of the journal. Subscribers will continue to receive their print versions as before. In terms of content, the print and electronic versions will be identical at first. Over time a variety of enhancements will be available to e-JCR specifically, including links to bibliographic databases, archives, quantitative or qualitative databases, and computer programs as well as supplemental files of audio and visual materials. The launching of e-JCR represents an exciting new era for our authors and readers. First, it will enhance our ability to attract the best and most innovative consumer research to the journal. Second, it will allow authors to communicate their knowledge contributions more quickly to a growing worldwide audience. Third, through the additional links and supplemental files it will facilitate the sharing of the various bases by which those contributions were achieved, which should multiply the enthusiasm for future consumer research and the new insights that emerge.

Starting also with volume 27, our readers will notice alterations of color and design in JCR's cover. In its earliest years in the mid-1970s, the base color of JCR's cover was a dark tan, which was then lightened to a buff shade during the 1980s. Over the last dozen years the base color evolved in different directions, first to gray and then, for the last nine years, to white. However, over the last 12 years the color of the JCR logo on the front cover has remained a medium or royal blue (against the gray or white background). With a new century, a new editorial staff, and many new developments at the journal (see www.wisc.edu/jcr/), but also with a continuing recognition of our original mission and proud heritage, JCR's cover is changing once again--"back to the future." First, the cover itself has a fresh gloss that makes it more water- and smudge-resistant. Second, the base color has returned to a buff tone, partly to replant our roots and partly to differentiate the journal's place on the bookshelf. Third, the JCR logo maintains the same recognizable shade of blue, but its font has been updated to a crisper contemporary look.

At the back of this issue, as with each of our June issues, is the JCR Style Sheet, which all authors should adhere to when submitting their research for review. Several refinements to the style sheet have been made, based on a variety of suggestions from authors, reviewers, associate editors, and policy board members. These changes involve, but are not limited to, diskette copies of manuscripts, submissions with photographs, the accompaniment of supplementary materials, a stronger injunction against revelations of the author's identity or affiliation in the manuscript, and a policy on the availability of procedures and stimuli for data-dependent articles. One of the most frustrating but avoidable deficiencies of many manuscripts submitted for review at JCR is the extent to which authors ignore style sheet requirements. While this practice occasionally makes the review process more cumbersome, it nearly always signals to reviewers and the editorial staff a lack of awareness or sufficient effort to accommodate the journal's mission, policies, and procedures, which inevitably lowers the probability for a successful outcome in the review process.

Finally, in August 2000 I will be moving to a new academic home, in the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. However, the editorial office and the managing editor of JCR, Mary-Ann Twist, will remain at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This means that there will be no changes in procedures with respect to the daily operations of JCR. All correspondence, manuscripts, and reviews should continue to be sent to the JCR office at Wisconsin, as listed on the inside of the front cover of the journal. In going onward, I wish to thank sincerely the University of Wisconsin, its Marketing Department, and the dean of the Business School, Andrew Policano, for the generous support given to me personally and to JCR.

David Glen Mick 
Editor
January 2000