A Half Century of Distinguished Scholarly Publishing

In the fifty years of its existence, ISER undertook various regional research projects, often funded by external sources, which generated a large number of publications – reports, monographs, working papers and journal articles - in an effort to disseminate the research findings to the public. These projects include Science and Technology Studies, Women in the Caribbean, the Regional Programme of Monetary Studies, Health Care Financing in the Caribbean, and the Future of the Caribbean.

The publishing arm of ISER was largely responsible for the development of locally produced materials for students at UWI. In making available books, working papers and articles written by local scholars as well as research on the Caribbean by eminent scholars elsewhere, ISER Publications was able to make the region less dependent on foreign teaching material. It provided the foundation for the university’s main publishing unit: the University of the West Indies Press.

In addition ISER was known as the publisher of Social and Economic Studies (SES), the premier refereed social science journal in the region. SALISES Publications continues to bring out SES as well as a number of other publications:

Social and Economic Studies (SES), is a quarterly, inter-disciplinary journal with a worldwide readership and an international reputation for scholarly and informed discussion on issues crucial to the Caribbean.

The Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies (JECS), originally titled the Bulletin of Eastern Caribbean Affairs, is published quarterly. JECS, also a refereed journal, is concerned with analytical commentaries on political, social, economic, business and environmental developments in the Caribbean with special emphasis on the Eastern Caribbean states.

Caribbean Dialogue:  a Policy Bulletin of Caribbean Affairs is devoted to commentary, analysis and information on contemporary Caribbean policy issues.  It welcomes contributions from scholars and the policy-making community in the Caribbean, the Caribbean diaspora and Latin America. Caribbean Dialogue is also published as a quarterly.

Titles in our Monograph Series cover the same subject areas as SES but are confined to Caribbean subject matter rather than that of the wider developing world. These monographs have generally dealt with the broad areas of research specified by the Institute as part of its remit Caribbean economy, labour, demography and sociology, government and: the politics, law and society, science and technology, management, and lately, women’s studies.

Working Papers are intended to provide a medium through which those engaged in research may indicate to an academic and wider reading public, the development of theoretical schema and policy orientations which they consider to be of relevance to the advancement of the region. These reflect two lines: the reporting of ongoing field work, and the implications that might be drawn from these results; and theoretical and philosophical analyses of issues, policy and ideological trends within, or of relevance to, the region. Working papers from the Cave Hill campus are available from its Website: http://www.uwichill.edu.bb/salises

The Institute has over the years also published a number of books, the most recent being Winner Takes All: the Westminster Experience in the Caribbean (1999) and The Jhandi and the Cross: the Clash of Cultures in Post-Creole Trinidad and Tobago (1999), both by Selwyn Ryan.