Environmental Economics

From the inbox:

Dear AERE members and friends of AERE:

The
AERE Board met on June 7, 2013 during the AERE Summer Conference in
Banff where it voted unanimously to commence final contract negotiations
with the University of Chicago Press (UCP) to begin a new journal in
the field of environmental and resource economics. This new journal will
become an official journal of the Association of Environmental and
Resource Economists and will join our outstanding policy journal, the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy,
as the second of two flagship journals owned by our Association! We are
finalizing contract negotiations with the University of Chicago Press
and have today informed Elsevier, the publisher of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM),
that we will not be continuing our relationship with them after the May
2014 issue. The company representative was very gracious in responding
to this news and we look forward to a smooth transition.

JEEM
(whose title is currently owned by Elsevier) has been an excellent
journal, providing our profession with a consistently high quality venue
for intellectual exchange and discourse.  However, after years of
consideration and a careful evaluation process including the publication
of two AERE Newsletter articles describing pros and cons of
launching a new journal, a well-attended public discussion at the AERE
Summer Conference in 2012 followed by an online bulletin board
discussion, the hiring of a professional consultant, and the elicitation
and evaluation of bids from alternative publishers, the AERE Board
believes the time is right for the launch of a new journal by our
Association.  

In so doing, AERE
will own the journal and will retain maximum control of all current and
future decisions regarding academic content, journal management, and
dissemination of the journal content.  While the specific details
of bids received from publishers are confidential, the AERE Board
unanimously concluded that the bid received from the University of
Chicago Press best allows our Association to meet the goals set forth on
our Bulletin Board in summer 2012. 

The Board can report the following very exciting aspects of our new agreement:  

• Free online access to the journal for all Association members;
• Inclusion in JSTOR, the nonprofit permanent repository of academic research;
• An
  excellent portfolio fit, with immediate inclusion in a UCP package
  including journals of 27 academic societies and many top journals in
  economics, including the Journal of Political Economy, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Labor Economics, and The Journal of Law and Economics;
• Very reasonable institutional pricing, which means worldwide access for scholars is maximized;
• Assured immediate library acceptance through JSTOR and complete Chicago Package connection; and  
• A guaranteed minimum payment to the Association beginning in a few years, with a percentage of the revenues, if greater.  

The
Board has created an ad hoc committee to handle the transition to a new
journal.  This committee is chaired by AERE Past President Cathy Kling
and includes AERE Vice President Don Fullerton, AERE Board Member Nick
Flores, and former JEEM editor Joe Herriges.  They will be
communicating periodically with the AERE membership to provide
information on the establishment of our new journal, on submission
deadlines, on editorial leadership, and other essential information for
rapidly making it the premier research journal in environmental and
natural resources economics.  To kick things off, the committee has set
up a bulletin board to begin discussion about the possible names of our
new publication. Please take a look and give us your ideas! 

http://www.quicktopic.com/50/H/hZy3zstj5AFp. 

The AERE Board is excited about this important new endeavor and hopes you will give it all the support it deserves.

Best,

Alan

Alan J. Krupnick
AERE President

Seriously, could JEEM's font size be any smaller (or, do I need a new bifocal prescription)?