Economica

• 1. Introduction

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  Economica has been putting economics research into print since 1921. It is a journal for generalists, which means it does not confine itself to one corner of the discipline. A reader might find a paper on almost any economic question between its covers. This documentary asks who stands behind the journal today and who is trusted to decide what appears in it. It also asks what its pages have produced that reached far beyond the journal itself, and how its standing is measured among the hundreds of other titles in the field.

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• 2. Editors and Publisher

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  Every article in Economica passes through peer review, the process in which independent experts judge a paper before it is accepted. The journal is published on behalf of the London School of Economics by Wiley-Blackwell. That arrangement pairs an academic institution with a commercial publisher that handles the production side.

  The editorial chair is shared among eight people. They are Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera, Tim Besley, Francesco Caselli, Maitreesh Ghatak, Stephen Machin, Ian Martin, and Gianmarco Ottaviano. A board of that size suits a generalist journal, since no single editor could be expert across every branch of economics. The influence of their decisions shows most clearly in what the journal has already printed.

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• 3. Influence and Standing

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  Two papers published in Economica became so influential in economics that they inspired a lecture series at the London School of Economics. The series is held every year, so the journal's pages continue to shape events on the school's campus. The source does not name the two papers, but their reach is clear from what they set in motion.

  Influence can also be counted. According to the Journal Citation Reports, Economica had an impact factor of 1.500 in 2018. That figure tracks how often a journal's articles are cited by other researchers. It placed the journal 149th out of 363 titles in the Economics category, a field with hundreds of competing journals.

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