Research and Publications

Among its other activities, the INCU provides and publishes empirical research that informs decision making in the field of customs and related areas.

One of the INCU’s objectives is to support research in Customs matters. Based on cooperative effort between the INCU and the academic community and WCO and its members, simultaneous work continues on Customs research development including identifying research needs and future research capabilities related to Customs, particularly in priority areas highlighted by Customs administrations to assist them to achieve strategic objectives, and promoting academic research in these areas. In this regard, research outputs and publications produced by the INCU and its members, help customs practitioners and decision‑makers to identify sound policy and practical operational solutions based on scientific enquiry and empirical evidence.

The INCU’s flagship publication is the World Customs Journal (WCJ), which is published twice a year and includes contributions from both academics and customs practitioners. The purpose of producing WCJ is to provide customs professionals, academics, industry researchers and research students with an opportunity to share and draw upon research, academic commentary and practical insights to enhance its readers’ knowledge and understanding of all aspects of the roles and responsibilities of Customs.

Since its launch in 2007, WCJ has adhered closely to its original purpose, and has lived up to all expectations as it continues to raise the academic standing of the customs profession.

Some of the research papers and outputs published in the Journal provide a clear vision for the future development of certain customs and international trade concepts and initiatives, which are already being further explored by a number of key players in both government and the international trading community, and they represent excellent examples of academic papers and dissertation that have helped to inform policy decision making.

The INCU also seeks to provide further ways and opportunities for academics, students and less experienced researchers to publish their research. To that end, the INCU publishes Conference Proceedings of our conferences and events as well as individual research papers presented at INCU conferences.

In addition to producing its own publications, the INCU promotes other academic journals in the field of customs and international trade published by INCU members and partners. It does it through representation on the Editorial Boards of such journals, providing strategic advice to the publishers of the journals and by distributing these publications to the broader international community. In particular, the two academic journals which are supported by the INCU are the Customs Scientific Journal (CSJ) published by an INCU Member, the University of Customs and Finance, Ukraine and the Journal of Customs and Economics Review (JCER) published by an INCU Member, the Academy of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The INCU recognises that we need to ensure that our research remains demand-driven rather than supply-driven, otherwise it will not be valued or, worse still, it will not even be read by those who could potentially benefit from it. In this regard, there is a need to monitor the effectiveness of what we do and to what extent theory and research findings are being translated into practice and being applied in a practical sense.

We trust that INCU publications and opportunities we provide for publishing and disseminating research will continue to benefit both our readers and contributors, as we collectively progress our endeavours in customs academic research and development.

Most of these publications are available to general public on our website, while a few publications are available only to INCU members in the “Members-only Resources” area of the website.