The Association is now searching for a lead Editor for the provisionally named AER: Communications. Suggestions for the new Editor are solicited. Please send suggestions (or self-nominations) to Jose Scheinkman, the chair of the search committee, at aercsearch@aeapubs.org, by June 2, 2017. The other members of the search committee are Esther Duflo, Lars Hansen, Anil Kashyap, Alexandre Mas and Peter Rousseau.


Background of the journal:

The AEA Executive Committee voted to establish a new publication outlet for short and compact papers in economics. The journal is provisionally named AER: Communications. The style of papers in the journal would differ from those currently published by the Association and look more like those found in Science or Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The hallmarks include more compact presentations of results that quickly get to the main point (or points) and are displayed in ways intended to be easily accessible. As is the norm in comparable journals in the physical sciences, submitted papers will have to satisfy length constraints. The journal will consider papers in all fields of economics and carries the AER label (rather than an AEJ label) because it is intended to publish papers of comparable quality and importance to those found in the AER.

An important feature of the journal will be prompt turnaround times. This will be achieved through a combination of methods. Editors will be expected to pre-screen a large share of submitted papers to reduce the number that go to referees. The instructions to referees will emphasize that they should focus on the correctness and impact of the results and that papers needing major revisions would be rejected. Referees will be given a four-week deadline for submitting reports, and Editors will minimize the number of rounds for review with the goal of moving toward "up down" decisions.

The journal will launch with a lead Editor and two co-Editors. The editorial team will also assemble a large collection of Associate Editors representing all fields in economics.