SPARC Partners with Journal of the European Economic Association

[Philip Cadigan <pcadigan@mit.edu>]

For more information, contact:
Alison Buckholtz, alison@arl.org
http://www.arl.org/sparc

SPARC PARTNERS WITH JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION

New MIT Press journal replaces commercial competitor as society's official
publication

Washington, DC - SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition) today announced a partnership with the Journal of the European
Economic Association (JEEA).  The new journal, to be launched by the MIT
Press in March 2003, replaces a commercial title, the European Economic
Review, as the official journal of the European Economic Association
(EEA).

Unlike its predecessor, the Journal of the European Economic Association
(http://mitpress.mit.edu/jeea) is fully owned and directly governed by the
EEA. A significant portion of the commercial journal's board, expressing
concerns about that journal's pricing policies, will join the JEEA
editorial board when their contracts with the publisher expire, according
to information provided by the European Economic Association. The
commercial journal is priced at US $950 for the print edition; the JEEA is
priced at $325 for print and electronic subscriptions in North America,
and $355 for print and electronic subscriptions outside of North America.  
Electronic-only subscriptions are priced at $295.

The Journal of the European Economic Association will be edited by a team
with expertise that spans the main fields of economics. Editors include
Patrick Bolton (Princeton, from January 2003); Jordi Gali (CREI, from
January 2004); Alan Krueger (Princeton, from January 2003); Roberto
Perotti (EUI, from January 2003); and Xavier Vives (INSEAD, from July
2003).

"The former journal's successes could not compensate for the anomalous
situation whereby a large and increasingly successful professional
association did not own its own journal," said Torsten Persson, President
of the EEA and Director of the Institute for International Economic
Studies at Stockholm University. "Dissatisfaction at the commercial
publisher's pricing policies also persisted, and was highlighted by the
adverse publicity arising from Ted Bergstrom's study [published in the
Journal of Economic Perspectives in Fall 2001], which placed the
commercial title in a 'Rogue's Gallery' of the most expensive journals.
The new Journal of the European Economic Association will attract the
highest level of research at a competitive price.  The editorial board's
primary goal is to disseminate top-quality economics data to the widest
audience."

"MIT Press has pledged itself to publishing journals from distinguished
societies with a commitment to self-ownership and competitive pricing,"  
said Rick Johnson, SPARC Enterprise Director. "The Journal of the European
Economic Association is a promising example of what happens when
researchers realize that their commercial title does not serve their
community, and they decide to act to change the status quo.  It has found
a worthy home at the MIT Press."

JEEA will publish four issues annually.  In addition, each yearly volume
will also include a double issue with the Proceedings from the previous
year's EEA Congress.


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SPARC and SPARC Europe are coalitions of research universities and
libraries supporting alternatives in scholarly communication that expand
dissemination of research and reduce the financial pressures that are
crippling libraries. Membership currently numbers approximately 240
institutions and library consortia in North America, the U.K. and Europe,
Australia, New Zealand and Asia.  SPARC is also affiliated with major
library organizations in Canada, the U.K. and Ireland, Denmark, Australia
and the USA. SPARC is located on the web at http://www.arl.org/sparc;
SPARC Europe is located on the web at http://www.sparceurope.org.

The MIT Press is a publisher of books and journals based at MIT. One of
the largest American university presses, The MIT Press publishes about 240
new books each year and is a major publishing presence in fields as
diverse as computational science, architecture, contemporary art, social
theory, economics and finance, cognitive science, environmental science,
neuroscience, and linguistics.  In addition to trade, professional, text,
and reference books, The Press publishes 35 journals including October,
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Washington Quarterly,
International Security, Leonardo, and Linguistic Inquiry.  Its current
catalog can be browsed on the web at http://mitpress.mit.edu.

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