Note from the publisher

This journal is disseminated worldwide via the Emerald full text database. This database is now available in over 1,000 universities worldwide. This means excellent readership for articles appearing in IJRDM. During the period September 2002-September 2003 IJRDM experienced 101,945 article downloads(a download is defined as a user accessing full text of an article and downloading it onto his/her PC). Users from 115 countries worldwide accessed the journal content. During 2003 IJRDM has averaged twentieth most popular title on the Emerald database (which comprises around 130 journals). The average monthly download figure during 2003 has been 8,127 and the ten most popular IJRDMarticles have all experienced over 1,000 downloads during this period. If you are an author of an article appearing in IJRDM you can be confident of wide dissemination of your work.

Forthcoming

Forthcoming shortly we have a special issue entitled "Extending the food desert debate". This follows on from our earlier contributions to the body of knowledge in the area - Volume 31 issues 8 and 9, 2003 - which dealt with"Retailing for communities: issues of inclusion and exclusion". Pieces appearing in "Extending the food desert debate" will be as follows:

• 1.

  "Extending the food desert debate": an introduction by David Bennsion and Graham Clarke.

• 2.

  "Food retail change and the growth of food deserts", by Cliff Guy,Graham Clarke and Heather Eyre.

• 3.

  "Retail competition and consumer choice: contextualising the food desert debate", by Ian Clarke, Alan Hallsworth, Peter Jackson, Ronan De Kervenoael,Rossana Perez-del-Aguila and Malcolm Kirkup.

• 4.

  "Measuring convenience: Scot's perceptions of local food and retail provision", by David Fitch.

• 5.

  "Food access and dietary variety among older people", by Lisa Wilson, Andrew Alexander and Margaret Lumbers.

• 6.

  "The Leeds food desert intervention study: what the focus groups reveal",by Neil Wrigley, Daniel Warm, Barrie Margetts and Michelle Lowe.

Our Guest Editors Grete Birtwistle and Christopher Moore of Glasgow Caledonian University are now moving into the final stages of completing their special issue on "Fashion retailing". The response to this issue has been such that we may ultimately publish a double issue on the topic and are hoping to have this finalised to appear during the 2004 volume.

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Richard WhitfieldManaging Editor, Emerald Group Publishing Limitedrwhitfield@emeraldinsight.com