Dear HES-List Colleagues: Over the past period of time since the HES   
meetings in Tacoma, the Executive Committee of HES has been grappling   
with an issue that is likely of concern to a number of list members.   
The background is that in April a European list member wrote to the   
editors of HOPE pointing out that HOPE, the only HE journal listed in   
the Social Science Citations Index (SSCI), had been dropped. This was   
a concern since that person's university governing authorites used   
the SSCI as one measure of the seriousness of that scholar's work,   
and funded research accordingly. Since HE scholars are generally   
unable to find publication in journals scored by the SSCI, HE as a   
subdiscipline is -- on the SSCI metric -- unimportant.     
  
The editors of HOPE had sent a request for re-listing to Thompson   
ISI, publishers of the SSCI, and received initial word that de-   
listing was likely a result of "inadequate citations to HOPE". HOPE   
then pointed out that there are dozens of citations to HOPE in each   
volume of JHET and EJHET, and these core journals cross-cite each   
others articles regularly. Thompson's methodology as a result gave a   
misleading picture. HOPE then received word from Thompson that the   
"request for reactivation of coverage" of HOPE will be taken up in   
their usual review processes.    
  
The larger issue is that HOPE, JHET, and EJHET have active cross-   
citations, and various national journals like the History of   
Economics Review, the History of Economic Ideas, and Rivista Di   
Storia Economica cite the core journals too.    
  
Consequently HES President Wade Hands and the Executive Committee of  
HES have sent the following letter on behalf of HES:  
-----------------------------------  
  
Mr. Ryan Joyce <[log in to unmask]>  
Editor, Social Sciences/Arts & Humanities   
Editorial Development   
Thomson ISI  
3501 Market Street   
Philadelphia, PA  19104   
  
Dear Mr. Joyce,  
  
In April of this year, the editors of History of Political Economy  
(HOPE) were informed by a concerned colleague that the journal had  
been dropped from the SSCI. A May 4 e-mail message from you to the  
editors confirmed that that was indeed the case. Naturally, the  
editors are eager to be restored to the SSCI and are confident they  
have a strong case.       
  
We are the officers of the History of Economics Society, outside of   
Japan the oldest organization in this scholarly discipline. There is   
a danger to all historians of economics in the SSCI's practice of   
using citations to HOPE alone as an index of "activity". The field of   
the history of economics is defined in the American Economic   
Association's Journal of Economic Literature Classification system as   
"Bxxx" and is thus one of the main subfields of the profession. Very   
few general interest journals in economics these days publish history   
of economics papers, regarding that field as one in which the "field"   
journals are the normal outlet for scholarly work. The field journals   
are in fact many, with the core international ones like HOPE, JHET   
(Journal of the History of Economic Thought), and EJHET (European   
Journal of the History of Economic Thought), and then the national   
ones like those published in Italy, Japan, Australia, and England.   
This field is well organized, and scholars in it publish frequently   
and cite one another's work. If though only one journal had been in   
SSCI (HOPE), it was unlikely that its citation count would be high.   
If the top three were in SSCI, the results would be quite different.    
   
For our subdiscipline, the matter is a serious one. Various   
government agencies, like those responsible for determining research   
funding in a number of countries, look at citation studies as one   
measure of productivity. We scholars in the history of economics are   
now defined on that measure as absolutely non-productive! As officers   
in the History of Economics Society, with 300 members in total (180   
in the US and Canada, and 120 in other countries), linked by a web-   
list of over 800 members in 40 countries, we want you to be aware of   
our concerns, and ask that you re-list HOPE and newly list our   
society's journal JHET as well as the third core journal in our   
field, EJHET.      
  
Yours truly,    
  
D. Wade Hands , University of Puget Sound, President  
  
Bradley Bateman, Grinnell College, President Elect  
Jerry Evensky, Syracuse University, Vice President  
Thomas Leonard, Princeton University, Secretary  
Neil Niman, University of New Hampshire, Treasurer  
Mary S. Morgan, London School of Economics and University of   
Amsterdam  
E. Roy Weintraub, Duke University  
Robert Leonard, University of Quebec at Montreal   
Sandra Peart, Baldwin-Wallace College  
Evelyn Forget, University of Manitoba   
David Levy, George Mason University  
Steven G. Medema, University of Colorado at Denver  
Humberto Barreto, Wabash College  
  
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The HES Executive committee wishes to make its concern and its action   
known to the membership of this HES-List, and invites individuals to   
make their own individual views known to Thompson ISI, since such   
information may add new substantive material to the present request   
to list all the core HE journals in the SSCI.    
  
HES Executive Committee