THE WAEA -- WHICH NICHE IN THE PROFESSION?

JVAEA: Professional Niche 145

of twelve of the articles by non-West respon-
dents, were by authors whose first choice was
the WJAE.

Respondents identified the WJAE as a close
substitute for the A/TF with respect to quality,
though several mentioned that regional jour-
nals generally were perceived as less important
in merit and promotion evaluations at their
institutions. Respondents were very impressed
with the quality and speed of the review pro-
cess. The editors earned kudos for their speedy
and professional attention to and the handling
of their manuscripts. Respondent comments
in addition to those about the western or re-
gional focus of their work, included:

“Best of the regional journals.”

“ WJAE has become a strong alternative to
JteAJAE.^,,

“. .. least regionally oriented of the regional
journals.”

“Regional title hurts acceptance of journal
in merit and promotion cycle. Next in line to
AJAE, but more consideration is given in Uni-
versity-level review to Canadian, Australian,
and European journals, and to second tier na-
tional economic journals.”

“Publication in a regional journal has lesser
personnel action impact relative to national
and international journals. WJAE is discount-
ed somewhat. We have to work harder to sell
the journal, but can do so on acceptance rate
and quality criterion. It takes effort.”

“ IFZ4E^, is quite highly thought of, just a bit
less that AJAE.^,,

Though the WJAE is well regarded profes-
sionally, it was clear that many authors wished
that their personnel decision makers would
share the high general esteem for the 1774E.
Several suggested that an alternative title be
considered for the journal. Some were aware
of previous association consideration of a pos-
sible name change. Others were not.

Fifteen of the twenty-one authors attempted
to evaluate the next best publication alterna-
tive for their article had it received WJAE re-
jection. The general question posed was:
“Identify the next two ranking journals or pub-
lication outlets for your article, had it not been
published in the WJAE. ” The Southern Jour-
nal of Agricultural Economics was the next
mentioned regional journal (five authors) and
the North Central Journal OfAgricultural Eco-
nomics was mentioned by two. Several authors
thought their next choice might include another
regional journal but could not specify which

Table 2. Geographic Distribution of 1986
WJAE Authors and Response to First-Choice
Question

would be preferred. Water Resources Re-
search, Water Resources Bulletin, or “an irri-
gation journal” were named by three authors.
Other alternatives, each receiving single men-
tion, included: the Canadian Journal of Ag-
ricultural Economics, Journal of Human Re-
sources, Applied Economics, Journal of
Agribusiness, Journal of Farm Management
and Rural Appraisal, Journal of Food Distri-
bution, Journal of Consumer Research, and
nonspecified real estate (or tax) and economics
journals. One author said that the article prob-
ably would not have been published elsewhere.

So, whether we like it or not, it appears that
we have a journal which enjoys a very strong
national drawing. It remains to be seen wheth-
er the strong non-West origin of articles evi-
dent in the 1986 volume persists (see fig. I).¹
Although the recent predominance of non-
westem authorship may be taken as proof of
the emergence of a reputable national journal,
traditional members who would like a stronger
emphasis on applied and methodological ar-
ticles of more specific western interest or focus
may lament this development. The removal
of the western preference statement, unen-
forceable as it was for the editorship, appar-
ently convinced many nonwestemers to con-
sider the WJAE as a publication outlet.
However, many members still feel the need for
some mechanism that will give emphasis to
western problems or issues. For example,
Emery Castle recommended that the journal’s
focus be returned to the West by renaming it
the Western Journal of Applied Economics and
by emphasizing problems west of the IOOth

ɪ Thirty-eight percent of the articles in the 1986 volume from
the U.S. and Canadian West coπφares to a 75% average for all
preceding volumes (1977-85). However, the relative percentages
are influenced by the existence of invited and nonrefereed papers
in initial years of the Journal.

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