Vol. 21 No. 3 (2026): General Issue

We are pleased to release Volume 21, Issue 3, just in time for the new semester! This issue is quite diverse with topics and authors from Europe (Estonia, Ireland, and Austria), the United States, Canada and Central (Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica) and South (Brazil, Colombia) America. The topics are equally diverse, including social innovation, farming and agriculture, fish farming, community resilience, rural values, and volunteerism.

This is also the last issue with me as Editor-in-Chief. The new Editor-in-Chief will be announced with the next issue. I will continue to be on the editorial board, including taking on the new role for the JRCD of regular article editor. Dr. Rachel Herron continues her role as Case Study editor. We are also in the process of finalizing the editorship for the Policy and Program Evaluation Section.

The volume of submissions and total readership has increased substantially in recent years. As of the end of August 2026, there were 2,554,562 downloads (abstract, file views or PDF) for the 637 articles published prior to this issue (October 2005-August 2026). This represents an average of 4,010 downloads per article. In July 2026, we had the highest number of monthly downloads in our 21-year history with 15,675! These results make us proud because since the first idea of a new journal was discussed in 2002, our goal was to bring the development literature to anyone with access to the Internet at no cost.

The success of the JRCD has been made possible by the Rural Development Institute (RDI), the founding and current JRCD publisher. The past (Dr. Robert Annis and Dr. William Ashton) and current (Dr. Wayne Kelly) directors played pivotal roles in the JRCD’s development and operations. Through five successful applications I made (2011, 2014, 2018, 2021, 2025), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has funded the JRCD since 2011. The JRCD would not exist without RDI or SSHRC. This ongoing support is gratefully acknowledged.

We also want to thank authors for having confidence in us and reviewers and editorial board members for supporting this important process. The JRCD employs three people who ensure that the journal functions and provides a high-quality product. Thank you, Christiane Ramsey, Cathy Greenwood, and Laurence Lemoine. There is also no journal without them.

I want to thank all of you for your support of the JRCD.

Doug Ramsey, PhD
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Rural and Community Development