Regional Science in Europe

Gunther Maier,Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

Structure of the Presentation

Regional Science AssociationEuropean congresses and congress

participationCo-authorship in congress papersJournals in Regional Science

Regional Science Association

Founded 1954 by Walter IsardUS-basedfirst national / language sections

founded in Europe

Regional Science Association

Current Structure

RSAI

North American ERSA Pacific

Sections* ....* German Speaking* Slovak* ....

Regional Science Association

European Regional Science Association (ERSA) Association of sections Association registered in Belgium organizes European Congresses and

Summer Institutes ERSAC („parliament“) EOC („government“, president)

Regional Science Association

Sections organized according to the respective

national regulations each has a legal status some with professional administration

(Portuguese, Spanish) very different in size (30 - 2000

members)

European Congresses

European Congresses

Year Conference place ERSA congress Country1983 Poitiers France1984 Milan Italy1985 Budapest Hungary1986 Krakow Poland1987 Athens Greece1988 Stockholm Sweden1989 Cambridge UK1990 Lisbon Portugal1991 Istanbul Turkey1992 Louvain la Neuf Belgium1993 Moskou Russia1994 Groningen Netherlands1995 Odense Denmark1996 Zurich Switzerland1997 Rome Italy1998 Vienna Austria1999 Dublin Ireland2000 Barcelona Spain2001 Zagreb Croatia2002 Dortmund Germany2003 Jyvaskyla Finland2004 Porto Portugal2005 Amsterdam Netherlands

Participation in ERSA congresses

1998 - 2003published CD-ROMs„participation“ = (co-)author of a

paper on the CD-ROM.

Total participation

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

1998 /Vienna

1999 /Dublin

2000 /Barcelona

2001 /Zagreb

2002 /Dortmund

2003 /Jyväskylä

Top 10 countries by participation

Top 10 countries by participants

Participants vs. Participations (60+)

Chance for participation

Logit-model estimationIncreases over timedecreases with distance between

home and conference location BUT only for one-time participants

Co-authorship

Co-authorship of conference papers is an important form of cooperation in Regional Science in Europe.

Co-authorship - overview

Papers

Authors

Cities

Countries

one

one

one

more

more

more

1657

735 922

620 302

183 119

Co-authorship - overview

Co-authorship network

Co-authorship network

Dutch network

Barcelona network

Swiss network

Scandinavian network

Additional networks

Journals in Regional Science

Reputation, quality and impact of journals Increasing competition between

researchers, departments, schools, countries

Need to compare and evaluateEvaluating research is particularly

complicated (different disciplines, traditions, publication channels, journals)

Reputation, quality and impact

My study: reputation of regional science journals measured by questionnaire to (European) regional scientists.

Electronic survey (series of web-pages)Part 1: evaluation of journals

options adjusted dynamicallyPart 2: socioeconomic characteristics

The questionnaire

Part 1:

List of 200 journals

+

Most important

known

Ascending / descending

The questionnaire

Part 1: known journals are the options for further

questions ever used in your research? follow regularly? Usefulness for your own work (quintiles) Overall reputation (quintiles) Willingness to pay (allocate 50 value

points)

Sample and respondents

Basis: ERSA member directory + participant lists from ERSA congresses since 1998

3789 distinct email addresses3491 distinct usernumbers (duplicate

entries eliminated)2884 potential respondents

Respondents

740 valid responses (25.7% / 21.2%)

Results

Question 1, weighted (1st place = 5 points, 2nd place = 4 points, ...): index score1 REGIONAL STUDIES 11412 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE 8523 PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE 7014 REGIONAL SCIENCE AND URBAN ECONOMICS 6515 URBAN STUDIES 4566 ANNALS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE 4197 JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS 3818 ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING A 3429 INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW 206

10 EUROPEAN PLANNING STUDIES 20111 EUROPEAN URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES 16012 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY 15213 RESEARCH POLICY 14114 ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING B - PLANNING AND DESIGN 12515 AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW 11716 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 10017 TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART A: POLICY AND PRACTICE 9918 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH 9419 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY 9020 GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS 85

Results

„Regional Studies“ is the top journalInternational, Peer-reviewed, English

language journals in top positionsSpecialized (topic, language) journals

occupy nichesno significant differences between

countries or South and North of Europe.

Summary

Regional Science is successful and growing in Europe

Clear centers in Europe (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

agreed dominance of English-language, peer-reviewed journals

PREPARE opportunity

Proposal to Marie Curie passed evaluation, negotiations proceed

successfullytarget audience: PhD-students & joung

researchersstructure

focussed summer schools (teaching, presentation, career building)

special sessions at congresses

http://www.ersa.org