I had an inkling that VAW would become highly cited when, within just two years of publishing the journal, Sage made the decision to increase the volume size from four to six issues. That was in 1997. By the fifth year, it was decided that the demand was strong enough to publish monthly. Submissions were high, but the acceptance rate has hovered at about 12% for the past seven or eight years. It was really the subscriptions and the interest in the journal that prompted increasing publication. So while I am somewhat surprised—and pleasantly so—that VAW has become so highly cited relatively quickly, the signs of its success were there early on.

“VAW provides an outlet for high-quality social science research on a persistent and very troubling social problem.”

The increase is likely due to two factors: the characteristics of the journal and the characteristics of the field. First, VAW is the only journal published that focuses entirely on the problem of violence against women. Other journals in the social sciences and health include articles—some more than others—on issues related to violence against women, but VAW is the only professional journal exclusively devoted to the topic. Moreover, VAW is international and interdisciplinary in scope. So researchers throughout the world and in diverse disciplines—e.g., sociology, criminology, social work, psychology, anthropology, political science, public health, nursing—publish in and use VAW as a resource.

At the same time, the field itself has grown exponentially in a relatively short period of time. More research is being done on the problem of violence against women than ever before, and funding for that research is available from a variety of sources, such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For example, funding from NIJ under the auspices of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has produced many landmark studies that are now being written up and submitted to journals, including VAW. I think you’ll also find in the last 10-15 years a tremendous increase in the number of doctoral dissertations in various disciplines that are addressing some dimension of the problems of violence against women.

The only editorial change that I think may have significantly affected the citation rate was one I mentioned previously: the change to monthly publication in 1999. This has allowed us to get more cutting-edge research into print more quickly than when we were publishing only four or six issues a year. It also allows us to publish two or three special issues per volume that highlight particularly important or controversial topics, such as violence against women in the military, women’s use of violence in intimate relationships, and violence against marginalized groups of women, such as immigrant and refugee women.

The research is becoming more nuanced. For instance, research is showing that race and ethnicity as well as social class are related to differences in perpetration and victimization experiences, which, in turn, tells us that we need to address these differences in our prevention and intervention efforts. One size does not fit all. I think we will see further nuance or refinement in our research questions on all aspects of violence against women as the field continues to grow and mature.

Essentially, Violence Against Women is a forum for international and interdisciplinary research that can be applied in professional, clinical, and advocacy settings. VAW publishes highly useable knowledge that has the potential to enhance safety and quality of life, especially for women.

Violence Against Women
Claire Renzetti, Editor
Sage Publications, publishers