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The provenance of Progress in Development Studies

The publication of Progress in Development Studies commenced in January 2001, and the appearance of the first three volumes thereby affords a timely juncture at which to overview and assess the provenance of the journal – in other words, the disciplinary and institutional make-up of the contributors, and the gender balance and country of residence of its authors. As noted in the editorial included in the first issue, Progress in Development Studies provides an international forum for the review of development-oriented work in the social, economic, political and environmental sciences (Potter, 2001). From the start, the journal published main papers, progress reports and book reviews, but over the past three years this has been widened somewhat to include commentaries and observations, that is, short one-off pieces covering reactions to current issues, debates and initiatives, and occasionally, even allowing the appearance of more esoteric items. From the first number, empirically informed case studies that have something to say to a wider audience have been part of the remit of the journal. The submission of such items continues to be encouraged, although the review function remains an important part of the journal’s scope, not least in the form of progress reports. In order to characterize the contents of the first three volumes, the key characteristics of the authors who contributed papers to volumes one to three can be enumerated. This includes the authors and co-authors of all main articles, progress reports and commentaries. Editorials were excluded. In total, 81 authors were identified. Among the array of authors, eleven relatively distinct disciplinary bases were represented (Table 1). Although articles by authors currently working in departments of geography were numerically the most frequent, they accounted for less than 20% of total authors. Indeed, there were almost exactly as many authors drawn from the interdisciplinary field of development studies. In addition, there was a fair scattering of authors from politics, government and international relations, along with economics, Progress in Development Studies 4,2 (2004) pp. 95–98