Editorial

Economics has now been publishing for over 14 years. During that time, it has pursued its mission of producing open access general interest content for economists in e-journal format ranging from technical pieces to policy to replications to surveys and interdisciplinary pieces. The journal’s editorial staff has implemented an open assessment policy to improve transparency of review, and the policy of accessing a large community of co-editors has allowed for unusually speedy and high-quality review.

The journal has now transferred to new management by DeGruyter, and it is time to take stock of the achievements so far and chart a course for the years to come. This also includes thanking all those from the Editorial Advisory Board, co-editors, and authors who have taken part so far, and of course Dennis Snower without whose efforts the journal would not have come into existence or gone this far.

In future, the journal will continue to publish in a wide variety of areas, dividing its management into editorial sections, each with its own pair of Section Editors. In keeping with our intention to maintain the format of a general interest, open access, open assessment journal, these sections will cover the main areas of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and methods of economics. Quality and coverage in these areas will be core to the journal, and we intend to keep a large editorial staff so that papers can receive prompt specialist attention at review. Economics has been a popular venue for those publishing in sub-fields within these main areas such as complexity economics, international economics, and public economics, and these will continue to be welcome. High quality surveys and replication studies will equally continue to be acceptable.

Two additional sections will allow the journal to push the frontiers of economic applications.

The first will focus on global policy and the contribution to global solutions that economics can provide. We will emphasise accessibility in this policy-focussed section so that a wide readership can both contribute to and benefit from the work. Standard journal-length or more developed pieces would be acceptable.

The second will widen the focus to the influences on economic systems from their societal, institutional, and behavioural context as well as the evolution of economic systems and behaviour. We will emphasise work on economic systems but also the links from economics to a broader set of disciplines that consider social phenomena. Social foundations of economics, already a popular area for the journal, will be placed here. We intend for a wide set of contributors to participate and benefit from this section.

Section editors will be able to add features, symposia, and workshops, supplemented by suggestions sponsored by co-editors and authors. Work that allows the journal to extend its focus from existing researchers to the new generation of researchers entering the field will be key, including discussions of “must read” articles of the year and reviews of the literature that focus specifically on identifying new areas of work that could form the basis for future doctoral or established researcher agendas. Developing our presence in experimental and behavioural work will be one focus that we intend to explore in the shorter term. We are seeking partner universities to supplement our investigation of new directions for the journal.

Empirical, theoretical, or policy-oriented articles are welcome. Mathematical expositions will be considered if they are explained for a general readership, the mathematics is confined as much as possible to appendices, the assumptions have sufficient grounding in reality, and the paper enhances our understanding of processes in real-world economies.

To ensure the longevity of the journal, we will continue to accept papers to the discussion paper series and provide the service of open assessment free of charge; however, final publication in the journal will incur a fee of 1,000 Euros to cover gold open access. We understand that this is beyond the means of some, so we will operate a fee waiver policy so as not to disadvantage good publications from authors without funding or with limited financial support. Institutions also have the option to establish cooperation with Economics that cover open access publication charges directly through the institution’s administration. If you are interested in initiating such a relationship for your institution, please simply contact the editorial office for Economics at economics@degruyter.com.

We hope that you will participate with us in this new venture, offer feedback where improvements can be made, and suggest directions for us to pursue. The journal is a community of its contributors and readers, and we welcome your support to help us to provide a stimulating forum for the discipline.