Editors’ Report 2018

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12327
• Published date: 01 June 2019
• Date: 01 June 2019

The Australian Economic Review, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 272–273 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.12327

Editors’Report 2018

1. New Developments

The page limits for each issue were elimi-

nated. Consequently, the total number of

pages in the four issues increased to 602

compared with 502 in 2017.

Articles are now published as ‘early views’

on the webpage of the journal as soon as

proofs are corrected. This means that articles

are publicly available around 6 months before

they appear in a quarterly issue.

The new assistant editor is Kayte Jenkins,

having taken over from Rosemary Duffy who

occupied the position earlier in the year.

2. Articles and Submissions

The Review's established format of invited

articles, contributed articles, a policy forum, a

data survey and a section ‘For the Student’

was continued in 2018. Readership continues

to grow, especially in Asia. Annual full‐text

downloads rose to 90,000 with 47 per cent

from overseas.

A summary of the composition of the

articles published in the Review over the

past 3 years is given in Table 1. Table 2

provides information on the number of articles

received and their disposition. Submissions to

the Contributed Articles section have nearly

doubled in 3 years. One‐quarter of submis-

sions are from each of Australia and China

with the other 50 per cent coming from

authors in 30 countries. The increase was not

matched by acceptance rates, as many of the

submissions from overseas authors were often

too narrow in focus for the Review. While we

welcome submissions from international

authors, it is our intention that the Review

remain a policy‐oriented journal with parti-

cular relevance to Australia and the

Asia–Pacific region.

Submissions outside the aims of the journal

or that clearly do not meet the required

standard are rejected by the editors without

going to referees. Around 50 per cent of

articles are rejected in this way. This enables a

quick response to authors of unsuitable

articles, and referees are spared unneces-

sary work.

As befits a policy‐oriented journal, we aim

to keep the time between acceptance of

articles and final publication in an issue of

the journal to around 6 months, but ‘early

views’means that the articles are publicly

available on the webpage much sooner.

3. Referees

At least two referees are used for submissions

of contributed articles that proceed to the

refereeing process. We also use referees for

the other sections of the journal. The integrity

of the system of peer review is crucially

dependent on the work of our referees. Editors

of Australian journals continue to press for

greater recognition of refereeing and editorial

work by universities and the Australian

Research Council in its Excellence in

Research for Australia exercise. In another,

unrelated initiative, the international website

< www.publons.com > has been established

to give recognition to the work of referees.

Table 1 Published Articles, 2016–2018

Type of article 2016 2017 2018

Invited Article 3 3 5

Contributed Article 14 13 13

Policy Forum 18 21 18

Data Survey 4 3 4

For the Student 4 4 4

Number of pages 524 500 602

© 2019 The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research,

Faculty of Business and Economics

Published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd