Abstract
This issue—Volume 40, Issue 4—marks the culmination of 40 years of publishing the Journal of Developing Societies (JDS). It was founded in 1984 by K. Ishwaran (1922–1998), an internationally well-known Indian anthropologist and sociologist who served as its first editor until 1998. JDS was established for the stated purpose of providing an international and interdisciplinary forum for scholarly analyses of the so-called developing societies. Over the last 40 years, the journal has published theoretical, empirical, applied, historical, and contemporary analyses with an emphasis on issues of development and societal change. The concept of development has not been limited to the contemporary era; rather, the scope of the journal has included processes of societal change in all times and places. The coverage of topics has ranged from the Neolithic agricultural revolution to the socio-cultural effects of space-age technology, from public policy concerns to entrepreneurial activities, from globalization and civilizational change to individualization and the recycling of plastic wastes.
The journal was originally issued twice per year, and one issue was always dedicated to a special topic, region, or country. Scholars from around the globe were invited to serve as guest editors and to organize thematic issues related to their areas of expertise. Today, JDS provides a quarterly interdisciplinary forum for the publication of theoretical perspectives, research findings, case studies, policy analyses, and normative critiques on the issues, problems, and policies of both mainstream and alternative approaches to societal development. The journal seeks to cover the full range of diverse theoretical and ideological viewpoints on development that exist in the contemporary international community.
JDS was originally published by Brill in The Netherlands, and it became a quarterly publication in the 1990s, with both special issues and regular issues. I became the co-editor in 1998 and managing editor in 2006 and helped JDS make the transition to Sage Publishing—first to Sage London and then Sage New Delhi, where it has been published since 2007. Sage Publishing has become a global academic publisher with more than 1,000 journals and the mission of “Supporting an equitable academic future, furthering disciplines that drive social change, and helping the social and behavioral sciences make an increasing impact.” 1
JDS initially had a relatively small number of individual and institutional subscribers in the 1980s and 1990s. But since it joined Sage Publishing, it has increased its readership and impact. Currently, the journal has the following number of institutional and package subscriptions as well as full-text downloads:
51 institutional subscriptions in 2023, 2,307 package subscriptions with academic consortia in 2023, and 80,428 full-text HTML and PDF downloads in 2023.
Note that JDS readers can share read-access to the journal’s articles by sending article links, which the recipients can use to view the article in a browser environment without having to be a subscriber. The links can be shared via email, on social media sites, and within scholarly collaboration networks, encouraging greater discoverability of the content and enhancing its impact through legitimate sharing options. Additional details about the share access feature can be found at
While JDS is not one of Sage’s largest journals, it is successful, and it has an international readership that is spread around the globe. The journal continues to publish important articles, reviews, and special issues with international authors in every issue. We seek to attract more Asian and African authors; publish more literature review articles; and involve members of the JDS editorial board in contributing more articles, reviews, editorials, and special issues. We continue to publish the full range of theoretical and ideological viewpoints on societal development that exist in the international community. We invite you to help us expand JDS’s readership, and we also encourage scholars who are starting their careers to submit articles to JDS.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the other members of the JDS editorial team, my colleagues: Himani Raghav, Production Editor, Ronn Pineo, Associate Editor, and Ajit Abraham, Assistant Editor. I greatly appreciate your invaluable contributions to the production of JDS. Thank you for making this 40.4 issue possible.