Economic and Social Review has been accepted by Thomson Reuters for re-inclusion in the Social Science Citation Index (hence Web of Science).
We should be indebted to the work of Niamh Brennan, Programme Manager, Research Information Systems & Services, Trinity College Library Dublin, for her work that showed the citation and publication record of the Journal, during its time in exile, to be of the international standards required by Thomson Reuters.
I personally enjoy writing, teaching and publishing on Ireland. Work on Ireland published in the ESR was beginning to be seen as not internationally recognized. Hence we saw promotion boards in Irish Universities not counting the publication, yet it was counted in the research assessment exercise in the UK. This creates poor incentives for scholars to work on Ireland, when in reality it provides extremely fertile ground for economic and social research.
As shown by Lucy and Barrett (2003), the ESR since 1970 has mainly published papers by those that were also publishing in the best Journals in their field, Neary, Honohan, Lane and Whelan, to name a few. Lane and Whelan also edited the journal when it out of the Web of Science. The ESR is an important outlet for Economic and Social research on Ireland. Hopefully, the economics community will now promote it and build up its citation record to become a leading economic journal. The researchers in Ireland are as good as those in Australia, Canada and the UK but we are seriously disadvantaged by not having top “home” journals promoted on good digital platforms such as the Web of Science.
Well done Niamh, Editors and Contributors
Alan Barrett and Brian Lucey (2003). “An Analysis of the Journal Article Output of Irish-based Economists, 1970 to 2001,” The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 34(2), pages 109-143