JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ISSUES

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

Beginning with Volume XLI, March 2008

Click here for a PDF version of these guidelines.

This guide will help you avoid most common problems and reduce editing, revising, and proofreading time.

Throughout the editing and production process, it is of utmost importance for you to ensure that the copy/production editor has current contact information for you including both your email and surface mail addresses and a telephone number where you can be reached.

When submitting an article, book review or note for the JEI, the preferred method of submission is as an email attachment. If email delivery is not possible, the manuscript may be provided on a CD and must be Windows compatible.  Microsoft Word (preferred), WordPerfect, ASCII, and Rich Text Format files are acceptable.

WORD PROCESSING (please turn off all language features (other than English) prior to submitting your document)

In general, plain text is best. The production editor will format the article.

• Tables and figures—Save each in a separate file, not in the text. Type a place marker immediately following the paragraph in which you introduce it. For tables, use the table feature or tabs rather than spaces between columns. Excel tables are acceptable. To ensure the highest quality for your figures, those in electronic form are much more desirable. If there are problems with the quality/clarity of   tables, graphs or figures you may be asked to provide hard copies of them, in case we need to scan them. 

• Endnotes—Insert note numbers (preferably at the end of a sentence) as superscripts and type the notes in their own section between the text and references. DO NOT place note numbers in headings. DO NOT place two note numbers in the same place; include each note as a separate paragraph under one number. To insure proper numbering and inclusion of all endnotes, please DO NOT use the footnote or automatic endnote function of your word processing program, as they cannot be imported into the design software.

• Brief, author’s paragraph at bottom of first page—If you would like to include this in your article, please include it with the initial submission of your accepted article. 

QUOTATIONS and OTHER PUNCTUATION

• Single or double—Use single quotation marks only for quotes within quotes; use double for everything else. If you change the capitalization of a letter at the beginning of your quotation, from what it is in the original, enclose that letter in brackets. Periods and commas are located inside the ending quotation mark (“like this,” “not like this”,).  Colons and semicolons are located on the outside of the ending quotation mark.  The location of other punctuation (?, !, etc.,) will vary depending on the situation.
• Block quotations—Indent quotations ten lines or longer.  Except to emphasize a point, shorter quotations need not be indented.
• Ellipses—Use periods and spaces ( . . . ) instead of the ellipse symbol (…) in your text. Don’t start a quotation with an ellipse.  If you’re starting in the middle of a sentence, use a lower case letter.

WRITING

• Names—When referring to an author’s, editor’s or translator’s work, only their last (given) name is needed in the text, unless two or more authors have the same last name (then at least include initials). If the work has two or three authors, provide the last names of each author.  If there are more than three, use the last name of the first author followed by “et al.” or “and others.” When mentioning an individual for the first time in the text or notes, provide their first name or two initials.  For example: “Clinton calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation” would be wrong, whereas “Hillary Clinton calls for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation” would be correct.
• Tenses—Attribution to a person, past tense: “Veblen said . . . ” Attribution to a work such as an article or book, present tense: “Veblen 1899 says . . . ” Established knowledge, present tense: “Institutionalists believe . . . ” Methods and results, past tense: “We analyzed . . . ” Presentation, present tense: “Table 1 shows . . . ”
• Italics—Use for book and journal names, emphasis, and words being discussed. Do not use for key words.
• i.e. and e.g.—Use sparingly if at all.  Follow each with a comma whenever used.
• Acronyms/Abbreviations—Always spell out the entire entry prior to using any acronym or abbreviation (please err on the side of too much information).  United States is a special case.  When referring to the United States (using it as a noun) always spell it out.  When referring to money, use US$.  When using as an adjective, e.g., U.S. Department of Too Many Rules, insert periods after the letters. 

ABSTRACTS

BEGINNING WITH THE MARCH 2008 ISSUE, you will need to furnish a 150-word or less abstract; two to five JEL classification codes directly pertaining to your paper; and, three to five keywords to be included in the Journal with your article.  The abstract and JEL codes will also be sent to the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL).  The complete list of the JEL classifications/codes can be found at http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/jel_class_system.html . 

REFERENCES

Include all works cited in the text in the reference list; DO NOT include works not specifically cited in the text. If there are three or less authors, list all names (in text and references).  For 4-10 authors you can use the last name of the first author followed by “et al.” or the first author’s last name “and others” in the text; however, in the references please list all authors. If you cite specific page numbers, make sure they are covered in the references.  If an author has more than one entry, list in chronological order starting with the oldest and working toward the present.

Here are samples of some commonly cited types of works and how they should appear in the reference list. Entries in parentheses are examples of how the reference should be cited in the text (they are not to be used as part of the reference at the end of your article):

Books

Hodgson, Geoffrey M. Economics and Institutions: A Manifesto for a Modern Institutional Economics. Cambridge: Polity Press; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988. (Hodgson 1988)

Smith, John, and Mary Jones. The Ultimate Economics Textbook. New York: Megapublishing, 2003. (Smith and Jones 2003)

Articles

La Porta, Rafael, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Anrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny. “The Quality of Government.” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 15, 1 (1999): 222-79. (La Porta et al. 1999)

Sánchez-Andrés, Antonio, and José March-Poquet.  “The Construction of Market Institutions in Russia: A View From the Institutionalism of Polanyi.” Journal of Economic Issues 36, 3 (2002): 707-22. (Sánchez-Andrés and March-Poquet 2002)

Edited Works

Johnson, Steve. “A New Dawn.” In Economic Philosophies, edited by Judy Gomez and Mary Jones, page #’s where appropriate. New York: Megapublishing, 2003. (Johnson 2003)

Online Works

Concerned Women for America. Commission Calls for a Halt to Gambling Expansion. http://www.cwfa.org/printerfriendly.asp?id=1052&department=cwa&categoryid=family (accessed July 4, 2006).

Smith, John. Writing College Textbooks. Academic Publishing. http://www.acpub.org/smithj.htm . [Cite the last name only for an undated item.] (Smith)

Martin, Jane. My Predictions. CNN, April 7, 2003. http://www.cnn.com/martincolumn.htm . [For a dated item, include the last name and year.] (Martin 2003)

            Reprints

Keynes, John Maynard. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. New York: Harvest, [1936] 1964. (Keynes [1936] 1964).

Theses and dissertations

Munasib, Abdul.  Lifecycle of Social Networks: A Dynamic Analysis of Social Capital Formation, The Relationship Between Human Capital and Social Capital, and The Importance of City Size. Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 2005. (Munasib 2005)

Newspapers—It is preferable to include information about newspaper sources in running text, not parenthetical notes or in the references:  For example:

As Tellit All noted in a New York Times article on June 20, 2006, . . .

If the article is cited in the reference list, use the following format:

All, Tellit. High ranking official leaks CIA operatives identity.  New York Times, June 20, 2006. Midwest edition.

• Instead of enclosing in parentheses—If the flow of your writing allows, you may incorporate the citation into the text (e.g., “Jones 2001 contains a good analysis of the problem (45-6), and Jane Martin wrote in 2003 that . . . ”).
• Citing a source repeatedly—Cite the author and date the first time in each paragraph and just the page numbers throughout the rest of the paragraph.
• “p.” or “pp.”—Do not use in citations in articles; do use in book reviews.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviews are to be from 500 to 1000 words. The following information is needed to identify the book:

Title in italics, by authors name.  Publisher location: Publisher.  Year.  Paper, cloth, hardcover:  ISBN # with spaces no hyphens, cost.  # of pages.

For example:

Policymaking for a Good Society:  The Social Fabric Matrix Approach to Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation, by  F. Gregory Hayden.  New York: Springer-Verlag. 2006. Hardcover: ISBN 0 387 29369 8, $84.95. 251 pages.

COPYRIGHT RELEASE FORMS

Copyright release forms MUST be signed and returned to the production editor prior to your article appearing in print. Whenever possible, an electronic version of the form will be sent.  The form will need to be filled out, printed, signed, and returned by mail to Vicki Taggart at the physical address provided below. If you don’t have access to a computer, two hard copies of the form will be sent to you.  One for you to sign and return, the other for your records.

All questions cannot be answered in a brief guide, so please do not hesitate to contact the production editor, (Vicki Taggart vtaggart@nmsu.edu (575) 646-4661) if you have any questions about style or manuscript preparation.

Thank you for your assistance.

Journal of Economic Issues

Richard V. (Rick) Adkisson, Editor

radkisso@nmsu.edu

Department of Economics and International Business

Box 30001, MSC 3CQ

New Mexico State University

   Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001

   (575)646-4988

   (575)646-1915 FAX

Vicki Taggart, Copy/Production Editor

vtaggart@nmsu.edu

Department of Economics and International Business

Box 30001, MSC 3CQ

New Mexico State University

   Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001

   (575)646-4661

   (575)646-1915 FAX

 The Journal of Economic Issues is sponsored by the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE)

9/2007