Describing Trends in Journal Reviews - Essay Example

?Journal Review – Describing Trends and Reading Closely In the of writing of this paper, I have discovered some insights about my field in economics which I might have otherwise missed had I not tried to look towards understanding how it seems from a non-economist’s point of view. Economics as a whole is not solely concerned with just a single aspect of it, as it can be expected that changes within the society caused by cultural or biological reasons could dictate or change the observed trends in for example, the trends in the kinds of employees hired by large companies. Also, economic concepts can be explained in a much simpler way to others by creating similarities or analogies to things which may be expected to be well-known to most audiences. Thus, I have gained a wider perspective on the range of applicability, the importance of an accumulation of experiences for better understanding of theories and ideas found in books, and the possible uses of most theoretical concepts that I have learned so far and will still learn in my chosen field. Compared with other popular publications such as magazines, newspapers, books, and other kinds of printed media that are most often freely published without much scrutiny and are available to a wide variety of audiences, academic or scholarly journals are more often than not the product of numerous and rigorous screenings and editing of it wholly, from grammar to soundness and validity of the content (Olson 52). Due to a much more focused or narrow-ranged audiences that are mostly within specific lines of work, research, or subjects, academic or scholarly journals are the kinds of publications which are not readily available to common folk, and even among most academicians or learned folk the information contained in these publications are not necessary applicable for them in their everyday lives since most of these journals and their individual articles have more or less specificities in their intended audiences. In addition, there is a higher rejection rate among these kinds of articles, mainly due to the possible stance of the information that if disseminated, could change the course of different disciplines. The need to scrutinize is rather a daunting task since not all members of the discourse community are easily swayed by the content, and oftentimes have their own counterarguments based on their own knowledge, experiences, and if possible, theories. The discourse community that reviews or screens the content of such journals can be said to be rough and rather unforgiving, while at the same time dynamic since “over time, certain issues are put to rest and new issues are explored” (53). In a way, the information being assimilated and gathered in most academic or scholarly journals can either become pioneering or disposable, depending on the speed in updating or affirming certain ideas or concepts released in these kinds of publications. For explaining the contents and the scopes of scholarly or academic journals, the Journal of Economic Essays published by Wiley-Blackwell, a part of the John Wiley & Sons group is the journal chosen for this project. As an aspirant coming from the field of economics, I have chosen this journal since I am confident that with the knowledge that I have learned in my studies on my field of specialization, I may be able to translate the concepts embedded in some articles from the journal to inform others outside of my field not just about this journal’s visions and objectives, but of the idea of economics as a whole. Also, this publication is a rather inclusive one, as it is indicated in the author guidelines that most of the articles acceptable for publication were written in a way that more people can appreciate the content due to lesser economic jargons and more colloquial terms that many readers can understand (John Wiley & Sons). Also, in my opinion using a journal that has lesser technical jargon can be an inviting way to make people or readers from other fields to become relieved from being overwhelmed or intimidated in my field and help them in taking in more interest in the field of economics. The Journal of Economic Surveys was first published in 1987, and as of date has already reached 27 volumes, published quarterly both in print and online by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of Blackwell Publishing Limited (John Wiley & Sons). It mainly focuses on various aspects of economics such as banking, finance, commerce, econometrics, markets, economic institutions, international economic relations and exchanges, and corporate issues while at the same time incorporating the various theories and models often taught in academic courses in economics. This makes for a wider economic scope compared to other journals which have narrower scope of topics. The articles and topics in the journal are supplied by a variety of writers having their articles published. These people may range from those coming from the academe, to those belonging in the corporate world, and even some independent analysts that aim to have their findings be published and known amongst people that work in similar or related fields. In turn, the majority of the audiences that can appreciate the journal and its contents may also be people having a background or sufficient knowledge of economics. As John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. is a relatively known and trusted publication the journal, it has a multitude of sponsors coming from various parts of the globe which also benefit from the advertising opportunities available, much like how some companies or individuals advertise in popular publications such as magazines and periodicals. The journal shares similarities to popular print media with regards to advertising ventures, but differ when it comes to the credentials of the writers and the editors in the journal. It can be expected that writers and editors in popular print media come from people with or without academic background on the things that they write, or they may not have enough authority to write some topics. But in academic or scholarly journals, the editors and writers submitting articles come from reputed institutions and they themselves are experts in the field. In the case of the journal chosen for this report, two of the editors come from an academic background, being academicians from renowned universities in the UK and New Zealand, while the other editor works in a financial institution that is known to have a strong voice in the assessment of various economies in many countries. The writers of articles published in the journal also come from many respectable institutions, where they may be academicians, researchers, or analysts with credentials. Since the journal is peer-reviewed, it also enlists the assistance of other people with equally-respectable backgrounds, but these people are not made known to the public or to the writer whose paper was assigned for editing or content analysis, thus these peer-reviewers remain anonymous. Due to the efforts of different people in making sure that the contents to be published are worthy to be released, there is an additional assurance for the readers that the information are reliable and would not be made up of inaccurate or incorrect information. Most of the time, published articles in journals are written in third person, but not in entirety as some parts of the content also contain passages in first person. While acceptable, in order to keep the tone of the content as formal and as objective as possible, the use of first person in the journal is minimized and limited only to the methods or initial inferences that the researcher or researchers may personally have. This is exemplified in some parts of the abstract in Harmon, Oosterbeek and Walker’s work as follows: We outline the theoretical arguments underpinning the empirical developments and show that the evidence on private returns to the individual is compelling. Despite some of these issues surrounding the estimation of the return to schooling, our evidence, based on the estimates from a variety of datasets and specifications, is that there is an unambiguously positive effect on the earnings of an individual from participation in education. Moreover, the size of the effect seems large relative to the returns on other investments. (Harmon 115). Based on the style that the authors used for their paper, even while the rest of the article minimizes using first person pronouns, this usage assists readers in making them feel in a way that the authors are talking to them, and making their presence known. Aside from the style used, the authors invoke the readers’ mind by showing them some issues many people can relate to, and in the case of Harmon and his colleagues the issues of defining what being overqualified means and if additional units earned can also be translated as additional income for employees that return to schools. This is an issue for most college level graduates, especially those currently experiencing being overqualified or underemployed due to having work which does not require a college degree or being in a line of work very different from their educational background. Due to this issue being known to most people, in a way the journal and its content are able to scientifically explain the impact of such situations to people, and if available, some future trends that could benefit businesses or larger corporations. In essence, aside from students taking up business or economics courses, their instructors, or researchers in this field, other readers of the journal may also comprise of non-academicians such as owners of corporations, analysts, business owners, bank managers, and other people whose jobs are directly or indirectly affected by the changes observed in different aspects of the state and the world economy. The structure of the journal is designed to accommodate the needs in discussing some economic issues, as well as to allow the readers to follow the flow of the articles, the organizations, and structures. With regards to the visual aspects of the journal, since it mostly deals with economic trends the figures are often consisted of various kinds of charts and tables, and that the paragraphs may have up to third level headings. The titles, as well as headings contain fairly enough information to provide an adequate description of the contents. Ideas borrowed from others are cited by the authors either directly or indirectly, which is necessary to justify their own ideas in the published articles. However, rather than writing long or block quotations, most of these borrowed ideas are rephrased in a way that the information is still the same but the sentence structure is still coherent with the main ideas of the paragraphs. The citation style for the journal uses author-date, which is similar to what the American Psychological Association (APA) also uses. The structure of the content is mostly loose and associative, which is a better choice terms of explaining trends, models, and predictions as described by the author/s, although in some cases the content may be organized tight and linearly for topics with greater specificities. In line with the aims of the journal to reach to a greater number of audiences, there is a greater use of colloquial terms as opposed to complex terms, or if the need arises, explanations of the meanings of the jargon are also provided as necessary. The content would also depend on the specializations of the authors of articles, as some might come from an academic background and may put greater focus on theoretical issues, while others may have come from applied researches and discuss the practical applications of theories, as well as some shortcomings of currently accepted concepts. Since there is still a degree of adherence to ideas tied with economics, the content of the journal is expected to always have complex content. The authors maintain a professional tone by constructing the sentences using a formal, intimate, and sober tone, along with the use of an author-date citation style as follows: However, Card (1999) allows the optimal schooling to vary across individuals for a further reason: not only can different returns to schooling arise from variation in ability, so that those of higher ability ‘gain’ more from additional schooling, but individuals may also have differential marginal rates of substitution between current and future earnings. That is, there may be some variation in the discount rate across individuals. This variation in discount rates may come for example from variation in access to funds or taste for schooling (Lang, 1993). (Harmon 119). As this is a journal that aims to be as concise as possible but not needing to be too long to be read in order to not exceed the word limits set by the publishers. It can be noticed that instead of putting in as much figures and tables in the text, most of the information are processed, summarized, and placed within the texts, along with the ideas from the authors. Other information that may not improve the content or increase the value of the journal’s content is not usually added, to decrease the number of pages and not to confuse the readers with excessive but not necessarily relevant information. While these guidelines are accepted to be generally unspoken rules in most journal publications, the use of a much more colloquial vocabulary in the Journal of Economic Essays makes it a less intimidating read for most readers, especially those people who do not have a solid foundation on the ideas and concepts of economics. I find this to be a positive move by the publishers since most people are readily intimidated by things which they do not understand, and having a sense of familiarity would give these readers an anchor in studying areas which they initially have no full knowledge about. This is a win-win solution for both the publishers and the readers since the former could reach a greater number of audiences or consumers, and these readers gain additional information about other fields of study. As a student studying economics, after doing this project on the inquiry about a sample of a journal that is mostly about a subject that I am comfortable with, I have learned that while it is a bit challenging to translate some ideas and concepts to suit audiences that may have a different educational background from me, I also find it rewarding to realize that most disciplines are in a way connected to each other, and some phenomena or situations can be explained in much simpler terms wherein more people could relate to. By completing this assignment, not only was I given a chance to explain the relevance of economics in the lives of people, but also I was able to show representative samples of texts and information with regards to the style and journal that I have chosen, which also reflect my ideas and visions from an economist’s perspective and transformed these into a form which people belonging from other fields might also appreciate and comprehend. Works Cited Harmon, Colm, Hessel Oosterbeek and Ian Walker. "The returns to education: microeconomics." Journal of Economic Surveys 17.2 (2003): 115-156. Print. John Wiley & Sons, Limited. Journal of Economic Surveys - Overview. 2013. Web. 29 May 2013. Olson, Gary A. "Publishing Scholarship in Humanistic Disciplines: Joining the Conversation." Moxley, Joseph Michael and Todd V. Taylor. Writing and publishing for academic authors. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997. 51-70. Print. Read More