Editor's Introduction

In presenting the first Enterprise & Society issue I have helped assemble as Editor, I'd like to express my appreciation for the exemplary accomplishments of my two predecessors: Ken Lipartito, who has just "retired," and Will Hausman, our founding editor. Starting in 1998–1999, Will led our organizing group through the complicated transition from an annual publication (Business and Economic History, based on the BHC's yearly meetings) to a quarterly journal with refereed articles and numerous book reviews. It was my privilege to assist him as E&S's initial book review editor. Will's experience and tough-mindedness, honed through guiding many BEH volumes into print, proved invaluable. When Will announced his intention to step aside to create space for new leadership after Volume 4, I happened to be BHC president and thus became a member of the search committee that recommended Ken's appointment to the Trustees. Over the next four years, Ken used his extensive networks among business history colleagues internationally and "laterally" in related fields to extend the journal's reach spatially and discipline-wise. In mid-2006, he too requested that the Conference begin the process of recruiting this journal's third editor-in-chief, in order that he could return to scholarly research (Ken will be traveling to Hagley and other archives this year to develop a history of organizations and surveillance).

This time, however, the search proved far more difficult than in 2003. The financial environment for academic journals had changed more rapidly than anticipated. As before, prospective editors approached deans with requests for support budgets, hoping to bring an Oxford University Press journal of international reputation to their campuses, but discovered that administrations now expected journals to be revenue generators, not funding seekers. Two decades in the making, an elaborate reconfiguration of publication dynamics had matured, spreading from the sciences to the social sciences and involving publishers' consolidations, stunningly high annual subscription rates, bundling of multiple journals into packages for research libraries, etc. In consequence, the commercialization of scholarly communication yielded cash flows to journals, sometimes sizable, portions of which could augment institutional revenues. Such prosperity was not the case at Enterprise & Society, which had run six figures into the red in its initial years and was gradually reducing its debt to Oxford. Thus, despite their interest and energy, promising candidates for the E&S editorship found their institutional homes less than enthusiastic about the prospect of hosting the journal. By the close of 2006, the BHC had received no completed applications and the journal's future seemed distinctly uncertain.

After a series of email exchanges and several discussions at Hagley, Roger Horowitz and I determined to explore whether we could devise a proposal to provide a shared home for Enterprise & Society at Hagley and my university, Rutgers-Camden, thereby dividing the funding pie into manageable slices. Several months later, with the generous cooperation of Rutgers Arts & Sciences Dean, Dr. Margaret Marsh, and Hagley Library Director, Dr. Terry Snyder, we were able to finalize an agreement. I soon offered the BHC my candidacy as prospective editor, with administrative activities split between Rutgers and Hagley. The BHC's Print Media Oversight Committee seconded this plan and forwarded it to the Trustees, who concurred. Almost immediately, Carol Lockman (managing editor at Hagley) and I moved into training mode, for Oxford proposed a second transition—to a paperless, server-based submission, refereeing, and production process handled through an organization called Manuscript Central.

Starting in March 2007, we spent three months learning the systems, framing email templates, revising instructions for authors, and running test submission and review processes. We also gathered information from Ken and his Associate Editors about articles "in the pipeline." Enterprise&Society's Manuscript Central (MC) server came onstream May 15; by year's end we had received about sixty electronic submissions, solicited nearly 200 reviewers' reports, and had substantially expanded our refereeing force. We made lots of errors while learning the system (helpful fixes coming promptly from OUP staff), gradually becoming able to help colleagues unfamiliar with MC's multiple screens and operational protocols.

After six months, several substantive results...