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The Competitive Position of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics

May 2004

Since its introduction in 1919 as the Journal of Farm Economics, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE) has a longstanding reputation as the world’s leading journal in agricultural and resource economics, as a premier journal in development, environmental and international economics.  Given its breadth and depth of coverage, the AJAE ranks on a par with many of the most respected general economics journals worldwide. 

This reputation is reflected in many different imperfect measures.  For example, the AJAE has more than seven times as many gross citations as any other agricultural and resource economics journal and more than half again as many as any other environmental and resource economics journal, and more citations than any other journal in development or international economics (Table 1). [1]   Moreover, it receives almost five times as many adjusted citations by agricultural and resource economics journals, as any other journal, dominating its subfield in a way unmatched by any other economics journal in any field. [2]   The AJAE also ranks highly using other citations-based measures, such as cited half-life in the field [3] , which indicates the durability of published findings, and impact factor [4] , which reflects recent citations per recent article.

Indeed, the AJAE is one of the elite journals in economics more broadly.  Whether by total or adjusted citations, the AJAE places comfortably within the top twenty or so journals in economics. [5]    Its citations statistics are demonstrably comparable to those of respected general economics journals such as the Canadian Journal of Economics, Economic Inquiry, Economica, European Economic Review, International Economic Review, Oxford Economic Papers and the Southern Economic Journal.

The AJAE is also one of the best values in economics.  Because it is owned by a non-profit professional association, the American Agricultural Economics Association, the AJAE is able to keep subscription costs low.  A recent study finds that only the three American Economic Association journals [6] and the Journal of Finance have lower cost per page than the AJAE and that the AJAE has the ninth lower price per recent citation of any journal in economics. [7]  

For 85 years, the AJAE has been at the forefront of scholarly advances in agricultural, development, environmental and resource economics.  Thanks to the dedication and professionalism of our contributing authors, anonymous reviewers and associate editors, we expect the journal to maintain or advance its standing further in the years to come.

Table 1: The AJAE In Comparison To Peer Journals

(2002 Data)

Based on all peer journals covered by Thomson ISI Journal Citations Reports.