''Third World Quarterly'' is a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

published by

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, established in 1979. , its

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

is Shahid Qadir. It was published eight times per year until 2011 when publication increased to ten times per year. It is now published monthly. According to the ''

Journal Citation Reports ''Journal Citation Reports'' (''JCR'') is an annual publicationby Clarivate Analytics (previously the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters). It has been integrated with the Web of Science and is accessed from the Web of Science-Core Collect ...

'', the journal had an

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as i ...

of 2.156 in 2018, ranking it 11th out of 41 journals in the category "Development Studies."

Controversy

In September 2017, the journal attracted controversy after it published an article entitled "The Case for

Colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

" by political scientist

Bruce Gilley Bruce Gilley (born July 21, 1966) is a Canadian–American professor of political science and director of the PhD program in Public Affairs and Policy at the ''Mark O. Hatfield School of Government'' at ''Portland State University''. He is the fo ...

. This was described by Portia Roelofs and Max Gallien of the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

as "a travesty, the academic equivalent of a Trump tweet, clickbait with footnotes."

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

theologian

Nigel Biggar Nigel John Biggar (born 14 March 1955) is a British Anglican priest and theologian. From 2007 to 2022, he has been Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford. Early life Biggar was born on 14 March 1955 in Cast ...

himself became the subject of controversy after defending Gilley's article. On 19 September 2017, a large number of the journal's

editorial board The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. Mass media At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, a ...

resigned in protest citing a flawed peer review process for the colonialism submission and inaccurate statements from the editor-in-chief, Shahid Qadir. In all, 15 of the 34 members of the international editorial board were signatories to the resignation letter, and a petition to retract the piece at

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

had more than 10,000 supporters. Board member

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

opposed the retraction, saying "Rebuttal offers a great opportunity for education, not only in this case."

References

External links

* Area studies journals Development studies journals English-language journals Monthly journals Publications established in 1979 Taylor & Francis academic journals {{area-journal-stub