Editorial ruminations: publishing Kyklos

Globalization has resulted in a marked increase in the number of academic economists who have entered the international job market. Previously, the national markets were much more self-contained. Young economists could be confident of finding a tenured professorship in their own country. During the recent decades, virtually all member countries of the European Union and many Asian countries have joined the international market for economists today dominated by the United States. While private connections and ‘old boys’ networks’ remain an important instrument for obtaining academic positions, being published in internationally recognized journals has become a conditio sine qua non. Many universities assign professorships based on the number of publications in top academic journals and citations. At the same time, the revolution of the Internet has opened new ways to ‘publish’. Everybody can put his or her writings on their homepage, in working paper series (such as SSRN, CESifo, or CREMA), in editorially run electronic journals (such as Economists’ Voice or Vox), and in organized or spontaneous blogs. These publication channels have the great advantage over traditional journals of being quick (often even immediate) and of approximating the idea of an intellectual discourse. There are few, if any, restrictions, i.e. there is generally no peer reviewing. Many scholars today keep themselves informed by screening and selectively downloading the summaries of these Internet publications. However, when the manifold existing versions are finally revised and printed in a journal, the paper is often only cited and is rarely read. As a result, journal publications no longer impart new knowledge and ideas but serve as a certification that a paper has been deemed worthy of a narrowly defined