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19 WMU J. Maritime Aff. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/wnujlmti19 and id is 1 raw text is: WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs (2020) 19:1-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13437-020-00196-x EDQI.TO.R.I.A.L Looking back for the future Dong-Wook Song1 Published online: 20 March 2020 © World Maritime University 2020 The very first editorial of WMU Journal ofMaritime Affairs (JOMA) in 2002 states that: The basic objective of the Journal is to present fresh ideas and current thinking on pertinent issues in these subject areas [these being maritime safety, maritime environment, and shipping operations with special attention to the human element and impact of technology]*, which are of interest to a wide range of professionals from maritime administration, industry and education world-wide. With due regard to intellectual rigor and academic standards, we shall therefore strive to present ideas and arguments in the Journal which are not unduly esoteric or theoretical. (Laubstein 2002, p. 1) When reading this statement for the first time as an editor-in-chief a duty assigned to me in the early last year, I did immediately think of a few ways to examine what impact has been made by the Journal on the field (practically as well as theoretically). A chosen way was to conduct a bibliometric analysis of all those articles appeared at JOMA since its first issue published in 2002. While acknowledging that the chosen one might not be the best option, I would sense that its findings were able to show us an aspect of the impacts that the Journal was expected to make as indicated in the first editorial. Thanks to the two colleagues of mine, Dr Satya Sahoo and Dr Alessandro Sch6nborn, we are now able to see the impacts as presented at the first paper of the current issue. Their study (Sahoo and Sch6nborn 2020) provides a reflection on the Journal's aim from the perspective of its original mission and offers some insights into its holistic picture to represent the maritime field in a broad term. Their findings are that such research areas as Maritime Safety, Maritime Education and Training, Maritime Law Policy and Governance, and Environmental Impact of Maritime Activities have traditionally accounted for a large share of JOMA's articles. The Journal has, however, managed to keep a tradition of not letting one area of research dominate over the others from a holistic perspective. Furthermore, they make a concluding remark that, while the E Dong-Wook Song joma@wmu.se Shipping and Port Management, World Maritime University, Malm6, Sweden _Springer