Measuring the Contribution of Dissident Scholarship

Dr Linus

MEASURING THE CONTRIBUTION OF DISSIDENT SCHOLARSHIP

The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

Call for Papers
Measuring the Contribution of Dissident Scholarship
A Special Issue of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology

Peer review provides the foundation for academic research, and yet peer review and esteem can potentially be a self-reinforcing process.  Common training in a dominant paradigm can make academics prone to group-think.  The self-referential tendency is exacerbated in the social sciences and humanities where theories are evaluated based on interpretations of events and experiments cannot be used to explode shared fallacies. Non-mainstream economics alleges that this self-referential potential has been realized, and further that conventional metrics of quality scholarship based on citations and reputation essentially assume and fail to demonstrate the superior quality of the mainstream.

The failure of conventional measures to demonstrate the superiority of mainstream economics does not prove the comparable worth of non-mainstream economics. Documentation of mainstream economics’ flaws protected by self-referential peer review and demonstration of the value of non-mainstream economics has proved elusive, perhaps due to the extent of circularity.  This special issue solicits innovative attempts to assess the contribution of non-mainstream economics and economists.  Subjective evaluation by non-mainstream economists of the value of their research seems hopelessly self-serving, indicating the need for new metrics to measure the contribution of dissidents relative to the mainstream. Papers employing a wide range of methods are encouraged, including historical and contemporary case studies, quantitative approaches, and comparison of economics literature and other literatures.

Authors interested in submitting a paper are encouraged to contact the Guest Editor. Papers should be submitted to the AJES website, by February 15, 2012.

Guest Editor: Daniel Sutter, University of Texas – Pan American: dssutter@utpa.edu or dan@danielsutter.com

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