President's Column

November 2024
“So you wrote a paper, now what?”

The AAEA currently has five publications. The American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE), Applied Economics Policy and Perspectives (AEPP), Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (JAAEA), Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), and Choices. AAEA leadership, Board and Journal Editors, have not always done a great job in communicating the different goals and purposes of each journal and how these interact. With the help of a notes prepared by Amy Ando as Chair of a task force put together by Past-President Rudy Nayga, I thought I’d take a crack at explaining our journal portfolio. At the behest of the AAEA legal team[1], I’ll make clear that these represent my own views and should not be viewed as AAEA policy.

AJAE (American Journal of Agricultural Economics):

• Focus: Original scholarly research in agricultural economics, food, natural resources, environment, and rural development
• High academic standards requiring innovation in question and/or method
• Primarily serves researchers and policy makers
• Length: 30-35 pages
• Accepts only direct, unsolicited submissions

AEPP (Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy):

• Focus: Contemporary and emerging policy-relevant and stakeholder-centric issues related to agriculture, food, health, environment, and rural development.
• Emphasizes research that creates new understanding of current and emerging issues.
• Main target audiences are policy / decision makers and academics. 
• Length: 30-35 pages

Accepts both unsolicited and solicited submissions. Solicited submissions must follow special issues proposals guidelines.

JAAEA (Journal of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association):

• Focus: Wide range of topics including agribusiness, agricultural policy, behavioral economics, food, and environmental economics
• Takes a sound science approach to reviewing, albeit with some attention to contribution
• Written to inform researchers and policy makers
• Length: 6000 words (15-17 pages)
• Accepts unsolicited submissions and transfers from other Wiley journals, including the AJAE and AEPP.

AETR (Applied Economics Teaching Resources):

• Focus: Teaching and extension education in agricultural and applied economics
• Includes research articles, case studies, classroom games, and pedagogy
• Targets teaching faculty, instructors, and extension educators
• Length: 5-30 pages
• Accepts both solicited and unsolicited submissions

Choices:

• Focus: Extension and outreach on food, farm, resource, and rural community issues
• Non-technical in nature, featuring summaries and policy discussions
• Written for a lay audience, industry, and government
• Length: Maximum 10 pages or 1-page infographic
• Accepts both solicited and unsolicited submissions

To synthesize slightly, the AJAE publishes fewer than 100 papers a year. These are the papers that are supposed to move the discipline forward with new questions or methods. AEPP provides a forum research relevant for policy and management, packaged in such a way that it can be read and understood more broadly. JAAEA is the AAEA’s Open Access shorter paper journal. It is also meant to be a home for papers that make important contributions but are perhaps not the first paper in an area. Papers can cascade directly from AJAE and AEPP to JAAEA with their reviews. This process will be streamlined as all three journals transition to Wiley’s Research Exchange Platform. AETR is rapidly becoming the leading journal in economics education and is focused on scholarly work related to classroom and extension teaching. Finally, Choices is the AAEA’s non-technical journal, providing the general public and policy makers who are not experts in the field with accessible and actionable research findings.

The key takeaway is that if you are an AAEA member and you’ve written a paper, we have a journal that will meet your needs.

Tim Beatty
AAEA President