In case you have missed it, AERE has jumped into the deep end of the struggle with Elsevier. From the RESECON listserv:
The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) is in the process of evaluating its portfolio of journals and its association with Elsevier, the publisher of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM), which is currently identified on its cover as “the official journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists”. This email is being sent to apprise you of the process the AERE Board is pursuing and to invite your input. To that end, we have created a discussion board at http://www.quicktopic.com/47/H/g8LWC84FeZX.
The discussion board page contains links to relevant and important background documents. This website will be updated with additional documents as they are prepared (e.g., draft and final statements that the AERE Board is preparing concerning goals for AERE’s flagship research journal). All environmental and resource economists are welcome and encouraged to submit comments and questions about this issue. You can sign in with a nondescript user name to maintain anonymity if you prefer not to identify yourself.
The Board has created a subcommittee, chaired by incoming president Alan Krupnick, to develop a draft statement of goals for AERE’s flagship research journal. Once this has been vetted by the full board, it will be posted on the discussion board for additional discussion (June 22 is the target date for posting). As part of the charge to the subcommittee, Alan will communicate AERE’s concerns to Elsevier.
On July 20th we plan to close the discussion board and the AERE Board will meet via conference call sometime during the last week of July or the first week of August. At that meeting the Board will decide upon a course of action which will depend on the input we received from the discussion board and any additional information from Elsevier. The possible options include, but may not be limited to: 1) making no fundamental changes in our journal portfolio and continuing our longstanding association with JEEM and Elsevier, 2) issuing an RFP for an editorial team for a new journal, 3) issuing an RFP from publishers to publish a new journal, and/or 4) formally ending AERE’s affiliation with JEEM effective no earlier than the last day of the current editor’s term (February 2014).
Please contribute to this important discussion.
Best,
Cathy Kling, AERE President and Alan Krupnick, AERE President-Elect
