Originally published as On The Horizon Volume 16 Number 4 2008

ISSN: 1074-8121

Guest edited by: Wolfram Elsner , Frederic S. Lee

In issue 54 of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter (December 2007), the case of Dr Rune Skarstein was delineated – he was denied promotion to full professor because he did not publish in international peer-reviewed journals of high (that is mainstream) quality.

In a comment on the case, Wolfram Elsner suggested that a research project be established on clustering and ranking heterodox journals. This discussion aroused the interest of Tom Abeles, the editor of On the Horizon, who informed the guest editors of this special issue that he and his editorial board have been concerned about the general area of forms of academic publishing for a while. In particular, the conflict between heterodox and mainstream journals is seen as part of a larger issue that includes open access publishing on the internet.

Contents:

Publishing, ranking, and the future of heterodox economics
Frederic S. Lee, Wolfram Elsner
The paper also discusses potential reasons and methods for alternative approaches to measure citation interrelations, networks, cooperation, and rankings among heterodoxies (journals and departments), and for alternatives of publishing and the future of heterodoxies in general. Finally, it draws the picture of the present situation and the foreseeable future of heterodoxies as it emerges from the 11 contributions of the special issue.

Barriers to entry: heterodox publishing in mainstream journals
Jack Reardon
The evidence overwhelmingly supports the existence of an ideological entry barrier. This barrier goes beyond the normal competitive nature of journal publishing, that is limited journal pages constricting the number of “good papers” that can be published, suggesting that there is an insidious ideological entry barrier preventing heterodox ideas from being published.

Heterodox economics and dissemination of research through the internet: the experience of RePEc and NEP
Marco Novarese, Christian Zimmermann
This paper seeks to study how the democratization of the diffusion of research through the internet could have helped non-traditional fields of research.

Heterodox economics and the future of academic publishing
Peter E. Earl
This paper aims to examine the role that academic publishers have historically played and how this is being undermined by the revolution in information and communications technology. A central issue here is that of copyright. Although authors need to be protected against plagiarists, the main role of publishers' control over copyright is to generate profits for the publisher by limiting access.

Journals as constituents of scientific discourse: economic heterodoxy
Wilfred Dolfsma, Loet Leydesdorff
This paper aims to provide a view and analysis of the immediate field of journals that surround a number of key heterodox economics journals.

Journal citation among heterodox economists 1995-2007: dynamics of community emergence
Bruce Cronin
This study aims to investigate the pattern among 17 heterodox economic journals over a prolonged period to provide evidence about the social dynamics among the group of researchers who publish in them and the extent to which they hold or develop a collective identity as heterodox economists.

A case for ranking heterodox journals and departments
Frederic S. Lee
The purpose of this paper is to present, for the first time, a case for ranking heterodox journals and departments.

Moral rights and wrongs of research funding
Therese Jefferson
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of being vigilant in the implications of all indicators of research output, quality and impact that are used in research assessment exercises.

Can the principles of heterodox political economy explain its own re-emergence and development?
Phillip Anthony O'Hara
This paper seeks to evaluate how some of the core general principles of heterodox political economy (HPE) can be applied to the issue of how HPE has managed to undergo resurgence and development over recent decades.

Submission from the Association for Heterodox Economics to the international benchmarking review on research assessment
Alan Freeman
This paper aims to make a submission to the UK's Economic and Social Research Council as part of its international benchmarking review of economics.

The assessment of economics journals in Italy
Arturo Hermann
The purpose of this paper is to outline the system of assessment of economics journals in Italy, with particular attention to its implications for the development of a heterodox approach in economics.

News from down under
J.E. King, Peter Kriesler
This brief paper seeks to identify three potential threats to the future of heterodox economics in Australia.

Ranking and the prospects of heterodox economics in Greece
Andriana Vlachou
The purpose of this paper is to present the past experience of ranking of journals and Economics departments in Greece

About On The Horizon

On the Horizon is the strategic planning resource for education professionals in the international post secondary and life-long learning arena. An environmental scanning journal, On the Horizon covers corporate universities, e-learning, private for-profit degree granting institutions as well as the traditional university. Areas include the business of education delivery, content and certification, as well as rules and regulations in areas such as institutions and intellectual property.

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