Welcome to another issue of CHEER. As you may have noticed there have been some changes since last time. A tenth anniversary meeting of the Editorial Board which took place recently reviewed our current arrangements and took some decisions about the future. Of course we have taken into account the views expressed by all those of you who took part in our Readers Survey (see Ros O’Leary’s article in this issue which provides some provisional feedback on the responses so far - if you have not yet responded please either contact her for a printed questionnaire or fill in the form on-line at the CTI Economics web site).
The change which will be most apparent is the separation of the news material from the the rest of CHEER. There will now be two issues of CHEER each year containing articles, short notes, conference reports and software and book reviews. In addition there will be four CHEER news sheets each year (two coming out simultaneously with CHEER). What we are trying to do here is to upgrade the journal part of CHEER without sacrificing the news service. From 1998 we will have an expanded Editorial Board, including overseas editors, and a formal refereeing process for papers. There will be more details about this, including a full description of the requirements for contributors in the next issue of CHEER.
The actual process of production for CHEER is also being changed. Beginning with this issue the layout, printing and distribution of CHEER has been outsourced. As Editor I will still preside over the content of CHEER, approving final drafts of papers, reports and reviews, but the text and graphics will then be passed on to a design and layout specialist who will use his professional skills to produce the final document. Printing and distribution of CHEER will also be dealt with externally, relieving us of another part of the burden of getting CHEER to you. However we will still maintain the database so please contact Dave Fysh if you have any problems in getting your copy of CHEER.
Another change which we are trying to implement will be an expansion of the on-line version of CHEER to add functions which can be delivered over the Web but cannot be produced on the printed page. For example we already make all URLs mentioned in CHEER hotlinks in the web version so that you can click on them and go straight to the Web site which is mentioned. We also plan to make our software reviews more interactive, providing direct dynamic demonstrations of software functions which can only be described on paper. The news section will be continuously updated although as I have said we will continue to supplement this on-line service via the new CHEER news sheet. We hope you approve of these changes. If you would like to comment on these or any other matters concering CHEER please contact me at the address on the CHEER cover or better yet send me an e-mail.
Meanwhile I hope you enjoy this issue of CHEER. We have a number of papers relating to the use of the Internet for economics teaching and research, plus another Excel Solver application, a full report of the computing sessions at the AEA/ASSA conference in New Orleans and a review of PcGive 9.0.
Don’t forget that CTI Economics is running a large number of workshops between now and May covering POWERSIM, WinEcon, GAUSS, PcGive, PcFiml, Ox, STELLA and an Introduction to the Internet. For more information contact Ros O’Leary in Bristol.
Cheers!