Journal of Public Economic Theory

Published on behalf of the Association for Public Economic Theory

Edited by:
John P. Conley and Myrna Wooders

Print ISSN: 1097-3923
Online ISSN: 1467-9779
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Current Volume: 12 / 2010

TopAuthor Guidelines

1. The Journal of Public Economic Theory (JPET) publishes theoretical papers in all areas of public economics. JPET will consider survey articles notes, comments, exposita, and retrospectives as well as original research papers. To submit a manuscript, please go to www.jpet.net. Our contact information otherwise is as follows:

The Editors
Journal of Public Economic Theory
Department of Economics
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235
USA
JPET@vanderbilt.edu
Phone: (615) 322-2920
Fax: (615) 343-8495

Editorial Assistant: Cathy Zebron cathy.m.zebron@vanderbilt.edu

2. The Journal of Public Economic Theory will consider only original papers for publication. Submission of a manuscript is taken to imply that to the best of the author's knowledge, the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that the same work has not already been published, and that all of the authors as well as the institutions at which the work was carried out approve of its submission.

3. Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if it is accepted for publication copyright in the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms andmedia shall be assigned exclusively to the Publisher. The Publisher will not refuse any reasonable request by the author for permission to reproduce any of his or her contributions to the journal.

4. First Submissions

Manuscripts must be in English and the main text should be double-spaced and printed on only one side. Footnotes and references may be single-spaced. For a first submission, any reasonable typed or computer-printed format meeting these requirements is acceptable.

5. General formatting conventions

Style: In general, authors should be guided by A Manual for Authors published in 1962 (and revised in 1980) by the American Mathematical Society, P. O. Box 6248, Providence, RI 02904.

Equations: All equations should be typewritten and the numbers for displayed equations should be placed in parentheses at the right margin. References to equations should use the form (3)'.

Footnotes: Footnotes should be used sparingly and should be identified by superscripted Arabic numerals in order of their appearance.

Figures: Figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Type sizes below 4 points should not be used. While there are exceptions, generally titles will be incorporated into the caption and will appear outside and below the illustration. Currently, JPET provides an image area of 5 1/8 inches horizontally by 7 3/4 inches vertically. All of an illustration, including the caption, must fit within that area. However, space is at a premium and in many cases half-page size may be appropriate.

Tables: Number tables consecutively with Roman numerals in order of appearance in the text. Each table should be typed double-spaced on a separate page. A short descriptive caption should be typed directly above each table.

References: Cite references in the text by author's surname and date of publication. The text citations can be given in the form 'Tiebout (1956) claims that... ' or 'This casts doubt on the existence of equlibrium (see also Aivazian et al. 1987, and Harrison and McKee 1980). 'References should be listed in alphabetical order and in descending order of date. Type the references double-spaced throughout. Style and punctuate references accoring to the following examples.

Arrow, K. (1970) 'The Organization of Economic Activity: Issues Pertinent to the Choice of Market Versus Non-market Allocations' in Public Expenditure and Policy Analysis by R. H. Javenman, and J. Margolis, Eds. , Chicago: Markham.

Berglas, E. (1976) Distribution of tastes and skills and the provision of local public goods, Journal of Public Economics, Vol.6 pp. 409-423.

Berglas, E. (1984) Quantities, qualities and multiple public services in the Tiebout Model, Journal of Public Economics, Vol.25 pp. 299-321.

Edgeworth, F. Y. (1881) Mathematical Psychics, Kegan Paul: London.

For unpublished lectures or symposia, include the title of the paper, name of the sponsoring society in full, and date.

6. Accepted Manuscripts

On acceptance, a final copy of the manuscript should be submitted that follows the following guidlines. The manuscript should be double-spaced and printed on only one side of 8.5 x 11-inch white paper. Pages should be numbered consecutively. Page 1 should contain the article, title, author(s) name(s) and complete affiliation(s), (name of institution, city, state, country and postal code, and email address if available). At the bottom of page 1 place any footnotes to the title (indicated by subscript *, or other non-alphanumeric character). Page 2 should contain a proposed running head (abbreviated form of the title) of less than 40 characters including letters and spaces, the name and mailing address of the author to whom proofs should be sent, and an abstract of no more that 100 words. The abstract will appear at the beginning of the article in the journal; use the abstract format, which is required by the Journal of Economic Literature, including the appropriate classification number(s).

7. Digital Submissions

If desired, authors whose manuscripts have been accepted for publication may submit a digital copy of the final, edited version to the Publishers to accompany the hard copy. While both IBM and Macintosh software formats can be accommodated, authors should be advised to utilize well-known software for text and graphics. Word processing software will permit the creation of a generic; text-format version of the manuscript, saving files in this text-only format will avoid any problems that can occur with some software. ASCII is a typical text-only format. If the file is saved as text-only, this must be indicated. Authors must submit disks in high-density format. Floppy disks should be clearly labeled with the author's name, the type of operating system (IBM or Mac), and the names of the included files. For example: TEXT: Smith. DOC (1 of 2) Word 6.0, IBM format ART: Smith. DOC (2 of 2) Figure 1. Distribution of... Figure 2. Bond Yield Spread Figure 3. Income Distribution CorelDraw 6, IBM The manuscript files should be identified with the author's last name, i.e. Smith. DOC or Smith. TXT for a text file. Illustration files should be identified with a figure number followed by a suffix indicating the graphic format: Figure 1. EPS or Figure 2. PICT.

Graphs and photographs may be sent in either camera-ready black and white copy, film negatives, or in digital format. Better printing quality can be achieved for figures that incorporate screen tints by submitting them in a digital format. Illustrations, which utilize fine screens (i.e. those with a pattern that is not really noticable under normal viewing and appear more like an even tone), may not photograph well and should be sent in digital form. Xeroxed copy will not reproduce well at all. Providing EPS of TIFF files for artwork along with hard copy will ensure a quality reproduction of any questionable art originals.

Anyone submitting artwork in a digital format must have a hardcopy produced locally before submitting the material. Often what is seen on a computer screen is not what is rendered by an image setter. For example, because a monitor has a coarse resolution, the finest line will be visable. But when the illustration is printed on an image setter the line will disapear due to the much higher resolution of that device. These copies should be labled with the article title and figure number and submitted with the digital copy.

Material may be submitted in graphical formats common to major graphics packages such as CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, or in more generic formats such as EPS, PICT or TIFF.

8. NEW: Online production tracking is now available for your article through Blackwell's Author Services.
Author Services enables authors to track their article - once it has been accepted - through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production so they don't need to contact the production editor to check on progress. Visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

9. Copyright Transfer Agreement - Authors will be required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) for all papers accepted for publication. Signature of the CTA is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received. (US Federal Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections, although copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned). After submission authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various media/circumstances (please see the form for further details). To assist authors an appropriate form will be supplied by the editorial office. Alternatively, authors may like to download a copy of the form here.