Editorial

Abstract

At the European Journal of Industrial Relations (EJIR), we have been concerned with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on research and publication. First, we have monitored possible effects on the flow of submissions. In total, during 2020, submissions to the EJIR have increased compared to 2019 (+26 percent). They have been, in comparison to the previous year, relatively slower in the second and fourth quarters, when healthemergency restrictions were highest. Thanks to the commitment of our reviewers, the journal’s work has proceeded smoothly so far, and we already have (as ‘OnlineFirst’) some excellent articles that were submitted after the start of the pandemic. Second, we are concerned with possible inequalities, in particular with regard to gender given the unequal division of care duties and the possible different effects of work-fromhome and of school closures. In the absence of gender self-declaration data, we looked at the approximate, binary indicator of the first author’s first name (some studies on gender and publications prefer to look at the gender of the last author, but in our field the first author seems more representative). The share of female first authors on the total submissions of 2020 has been, at 36.3 percent, slightly above the average of previous years, but it was lower in the second and fourth quarters (23.8 and 29.4 percent, respectively). The number of observations is too small to confirm any significant trend. Yet, a decline in female-authored submissions has been registered in the life sciences (Ribarovska et al., 2021) and it is therefore important to keep monitoring the situation in case of lagged effects of the enduring pandemic. In the meanwhile, the EJIR is keen to encourage authors with caring duties and reassure them not to hesitate to contact the editor if in need of advice, extensions on resubmissions or specific editing for their submissions. A further specific issue for the EJIR concerns the implications of the health emergency for qualitative comparative research, which has traditionally constituted a strong stream in the journal. Researchers are demonstrating initiative and entrepreneurship in developing new methods, adapting the traditional ones, and investigating the rise of remote working and the advances of work digitalization. As always in the study of work, we cannot let data availability considerations become an excuse for forgetting those sectors, jobs and tasks that are less visible, but no less essential or less critical for today’s society and economy. As four articles on the topic of outsiders show in this issue, industrial relations research needs to be ‘inclusive’, especially at times like this.