Some JIPLP news

Following yesterday's JIPLP management meeting in Oxford, I can report on various developments concerning the journal that may be of interest to readers and contributors.

1. Readership: amazingly, if we consider the current economic climate, JIPLP's subscriber numbers rose in the course of 2010 by a very healthy 11.1 per cent.  Considering (i) how many businesses crashed during the year, (ii) how many public sector bodies had to cut their budgets and (iii) how many JIPLP subscribers would have been merged with or taken over by others, this performance is most impressive.

2. Since the journal is progressing so well, Oxford University Press has confirmed that the page extent of each issue can rise to 84 pages per issue. This means that there will be some larger-than-usual issues being published in the course of this year.

3. JIPLP has just become a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics -- COPE -- a forum for editors and publishers of peer-reviewed journals to discuss all aspects of publication ethics. In its short life JIPLP has already encountered ethical issues that touch intellectual property: attribution of authorship and sources, suspected plagiarism and the simultaneous grant by one author of an exclusive licence to one journal and a non-exclusive licence to another.  This blog will keep readers fully informed of the journal's participation in COPE.

4. Oxford University Press will again be exhibiting its titles at the International Trademark Association Meeting (this year's is in San Francisco, mid-May).  Watch this space for details of when someone from the JIPLP editorial and commissioning team will be available to discuss editorial content, future articles and other pleasurable topics.