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Considerations for those proposing topics and papers for JEP
Articles appearing in the journal are normally solicited by the editors
and associate editors. A handful of unsolicited papers are also accepted
each year.
Philosophy and style
The Journal of Economic Perspectives attempts to fill part of
the gap between refereed economics research journals and the popular press,
while falling considerably closer to the former than the latter. The
focus of JEP articles should be on understanding the central
economic ideas of a dispute, what is fundamentally at issue, why a particular
question is important, what the latest advances are, and what questions
remain to be examined. In every case, articles should argue for
the author's point of view, explain how recent theoretical or empirical
work has affected that view, and lay out the points of departure for other
views.
Articles in many other economics journals are addressed to the
author's peers in a subspecialty; thus, they use tools and terminology
of that specialty and presume that readers know the context and general
direction of the inquiry. By contrast, this journal is aimed at
all economists, including those not conversant with recent work in the
subspecialty of the author, including those who apply their economics
in teaching undergraduates or work outside academia, and including those
with rusty technical tools. The goal is to have articles that can be read
by 90 percent or more of the AEA membership, as opposed to articles that
can be figured out given enough time and energy. Articles should be as
complex as they need to be, but not more so. Moreover, the necessary complexity
should be explained in terms appropriate to an audience that can be presumed
to have a specialized knowledge of economics generally, but not of the
author's methods or previous work.
The Journal of Economic Perspectives is intended to be scholarly
without relying too heavily on mathematical notation or mathematical insights.
In some cases, it will be appropriate for an author to offer a mathematical
derivation of an economic relationship, but if so, that author must explain
why that formula makes sense, and tie it to economic intuition.
We hope that most articles will offer a kind of intellectual arbitrage
that will be useful for every economist. For many, the articles will present
insights and issues from a specialty outside the readers’ usual
field of work. For specialists, the articles will lead to thoughts about
the questions underlying their research, which directions have been most
productive, and what the key questions are.
If you are not familiar with our journal, please review the table
of contents of previous issues before submitting a proposal. Highly
mathematical papers, papers exploring issues specific to one foreign (non-U.S.)
country (i.e. the state of agriculture in Ukraine), and papers that address
an economic subspecialty in a manner inaccessible to the general AEA membership
are not appropriate for the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Proposals do not have to be completed papers. Since most JEP
articles are solicited you may want to simply propose a topic and suggest
authors that might be able to write on that topic.
Correspondence regarding possible future articles for JEP may
be sent (electronically please) to the assistant editor, Ann Norman, at
<anorman "at" jepjournal.org>.
Copyright © 2006 JEP
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