DOWN MEMORY LANE: 40 YEARS OF PUBLICATION Dr. George Kurian Editor - 1970-2008, Managing Editor - 2009-present

Abstract

The first issue of the Journal of Family Studies was published in Autumn 1 970. However, a lot of preparatory work had preceded this first edition before this could become a reality.In view of the increasing impact of international migration, especially non-European immigration to North America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as a number of countries from Europe, I felt there was need for a study of the family from a cross-cultural perspective. In 1968, I received strong encouragement to go ahead with the idea of publishing The Journal of Family Studies, from Professor Carle C. Zimmerman, former Professor of Sociology, Harvard University. He encouraged me to correspond with scholars from major universities in the world to seek support to my idea of publishing a journal from a crosscultural perspective. Therefore, I decided to correspond with scholars from all over the world. I contacted about 300 and nearly half of them responded. Most of them were very enthusiastic, while a few were lukewarm about the well-known family Sociologists. As a first step, I invited over 30 well established scholars representing universities in North America, Europe and other regions in both Sociology as well as Anthropology to submit articles. A brochure with the title of articles by eight well known scholars was mailed to a number of universities throughout the world. The response was overwhelming and most encouraging with pre-paid subscriptions. I then set about to get scholars of established reputation, who represented some of the most respected academic institutions in the world, to accept positions on the editorial board. These members are of great assistance in our review process and often suggest people to review manuscripts. To this day we work hard to find qualified reviewers for articles which deal with various cultures representing different countries. Many eminent scholars from our editorial board have retired. They all made a great contribution in helping us maintain the quality of the Journal. Their encouragement and support will be remembered. With the help of the Communication Media at the University of Calgary, a cover design was created by Adrian Van Vliet which was original and attractive, representing the family throughout the world. This design continues to this day unchanged as a permanent recognizable logo of the Journal.In the early years from 1970-1975 we published two issues per year. We published three issues per year from 1 976- 1 993 in view of the increasing number of articles. The quality of the articles are maintained by the Associate Editors representing many well established universities in the world as other scholars who made invaluable contributions with critical reviews of the articles. In view of the cross-cultural perspective of the Journal we publish abstracts of articles in English, French and Spanish. We have maintained a valuable section of Book Reviews. Dr. James Frideres of the University of Calgary was the Book Review Editor from 1973-2004. He was most diligent about his role in spite of his various research commitments.In 1972, one of the colleagues in the Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Dr. Eugen Lupri, suggested the idea of publishing a special issue. In Vol. 3, No. 1, 1972, the title of his first special issue was Comparative Perspectives on Marriage and the Family, and was edited by Dr. Eugen Lupri and Dr. Gunther Luschen of the University of Illinois, with contributions from many outstanding scholars. Since that time, we have published one special issue per year. Since 1993, we published two special issues and two regular issues per year. With increasing receipt of articles reviewed by various scholars, we began publishing five issues per year in 2009. However, commencing in 201 1 the Journal will begin publishing six issues per year. We still have a backlog of good articles which is of great concern to us.The Journal gets keen support from the Committee for Family Research (CFR) of the International Sociological Association. …