Colleagues.

  can i address your attention to the matter  below and urgently so

regards 

Alex Millmow
President of HETSA




A call from ‘down-under’: Saving the History of Economics Review from a downgrade!!!!


Dear Contributors and Friends to the History of Economics Review, 

		 the Australian Government’s Research Council (ARC) is reviewing its Excellence in Research for Australia  journal rankings first assigned in 2010 and now open to an initial consultation period running to 4 April, 2011. The History of Economic Thought Society of Australia (HETSA) urgently needs your help on this matter by making an online representation to the ARC before this deadline. We need to do this, firstly because other Australian economic journals are mobilizing their support base for their publication and, even more importantly, we, like them, should be putting the case for a higher ranking.  If we do nothing then there is a clear danger that the History of Economics Review one of only six HET journals in the world today will be downgraded to a C ranking or, at the very least, remain as a B ranked journal. We at HETSA are annoyed already that the Australian historians of accounting thought have their Journal classed as an A rank journal and that Australian economic historians also have their journal Australian Economic History Review ranked as an A journal. This might be due to the fact that both journals are commercially published while we at HETSA publish our own journal. I have often said that HET scholars are far too modest, too scholarly to engage in lobbying behaviour but this we must do otherwise we will be left behind in what has become a grubby race. We need to think strategically and shamelessly and adopt the gall of marketers here.     
		Submissions from contributors carry specific weight beyond that of the Editor and Editorial Board and HETSA itself. So I am putting this letter out to you as an internaioanl subscriber or reader to spare us a few moment for your colleagues ‘down-under’ Please fell free to circulate this letter to those that would be supportive to HET. 
		My request, then, is to ask you is to go to the website https://roci.arc.gov.au/ to make an appeal for the History of Economics Review to give it an unreserved A ranking. Of course you could just plump for a B rating but it will show our bureaucratic overseers in Canberra that the History of Economics Review has friends worldwide. 
(i)	Go to http://roci.arc.gov.au.   Register yourself.  If you are already registered as a member, click LOG ON.  If you are not registered, at the top of the page click ‘Hello Guest+log in /Register’ and register.

(ii)	Log on, then you will see a “Welcome” page with your name on it.  In the yellow box, click on  “Follow this link to search for an outlet”


(iii)	In the “Title” box, type “History of Economics Review”   Click “Search”.  History of Economics Review will appear at the bottom of the page.  Click on it.

(iv)	The subsequent page permits 2 steps:
1. (OPTIONAL) Peak body, we suggest HETSA.
2. ESSENTIAL: click on “Comment on this outlet” (grey button inside large greeny-yellow box).  This takes you to step 1 of the 5-step process and its here you can give the Panel of experts the wisdom of your views re the HER.
 
(v)	Please note, it will be easiest if you complete all 5 steps in one sitting. It will take up to 20 minutes. Please persist. At the end of each step, you need to click ‘Forward’ before you can progress to the next step.

 Below is information designed to help you complete the 5 steps.


STEP 1: Self explanatory.

STEP 2: 
TITLE: History of Economics Review
START YEAR: 1980 END YEAR: N/a             ISSN:  1037 0196
STEP 3:   RANKING:  A

Lodging your case. 
 
 I suggest you compose a quick paragraph and then cut and paste from a Word document lest the submission is rejected at Step 5 because it is too long.
Please make comments in your own words – but you may wish to draw on information in this letter.
The two main questions you will be asked to comment on are:  Why you are qualified to comment? and What evidence you have to support an improved ranking? 
		As background you should know that the History of Economics Review is currently ranked a B level journal and certainly aspire to an A ranking journal status. If we are to secure its future, and that of the history of economic thought in Australian universities we need to pump for A.  In Australia It is only journals that rank A or A* that contribute to university rankings and this dynamic is increasingly driving research funding in most universities here, Consequently young academics here take a strategic choice in where they will aim to get their research  published.  Currently there is a bias against doing the history of economic thought in this country and young scholars are told to concentrate on getting published in at least A or A* ranked journals. Moreover, Australian academics are being persuaded by their departmental heads not to publish in C ranked journals and the rising tide of academic expectations from our managers and department heads means that even B ranked journals will also be looked down upon. Greg Moore and Michael McClure, the editors of the History of Economics Review, tell me the journal has a 60% rejection rate, that it is double-blind refereed and scrupulously so.  

In 2005-2010, 80% of the HER’s contributors were leading /established researchers, almost 60% at professor/associate professor level and 25% at senior lecturer or equivalent. You can see all this on the journal’s website by Googling HETSA and clicking on the electronic archive. There is also details on the editorial board.  
Publication in the History of Economics Review enhances author’s standing, showing real engagement with the HET global community 
*	We are also a broad church. Contributors publish alongside leading figures in mainstream and heterodox economics.
*	Since 2005, contributions from, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Canada and the USA. 
*	Glenn Stevens, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, is the patron of HETSA, the scholarly society that exclusively publishes the History of Economics Review. 
*	The Editorial Board has an overwhelming fraction of well-known researchers from top Australian and overseas universities.
*	18 of the 29 Editorial Committee members are from Australian highest-ranking universities (one also from Cambridge University, two from Duke University, one from University of Toronto and two from leading Japanese universities). 

The unique role of the History of Economics Review (HER) 

*	No other Australasian journal covers this area of HET: HER has published contributions from Austrian, Schumpeterian, Neo Keynesian and Institutionalist scholars.
*	The HER has featured articles from world class academics like Peter Groenewegen, Craufurd Goodwin, Geoff Harcourt, John Pullen, Mike White, John King and Tony Aspromourgos.
*	An electronic archive of HER lists issues from No.2 through No. 47.
 
When you have finished step 5, click on the ‘submit’ button.  If there are no problems, you will be returned to the "My Profile" screen which lists all your submissions. At any time, you may revisit any of your previous submissions listed in the "My Profile" screen. If you have not completed all required fields, the system will take you back to step 1 to allow you to review your submission. 

 You can also go back in later to alter your submission. You might want to master the process and then help other HET journals or journals you think have been given a relatively poor rating.
Regards and thanks for you support.

Alex Millmow
President of HETSA
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