Update on Energies Special Issue

We now have nine papers published in the special issue of Energies on energy transitions and economic change and there are more to come. The latest paper is by Robert Kaufmann on the end of cheap oil and the implications for the United States and the former Soviet Union. This was one of the invited papers. The other published so far was the paper by Steve Sorrell. Also recently published is a paper by James Kahn et al. on Brazil's plans for expanding hydropower and by Rodriguez-Molina et al. on the smart grid.

Upcoming Seminars

I am giving three seminars in Europe in October and November. First up is 28th October at 1pm at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics. I will talk about "Energy Transitions and the Industrial Revolution." Then on 12th November at 2:15pm I will talk at the Department of Economic History at Lund University. Topic: "Energy and Economic Growth: The Stylised Facts"  - a topic that blog readers should be pretty familiar with by now.

Finally, I will be presenting at the University of Kassel in Germany on 18th November. More details to come.

Fuel Choices in Rural Maharashtra Accepted for Publication

My paper with former masters student Jack Gregory was just accepted for publication in Biomass & Bioenergy. Jack is just starting his PhD at University of California, Davis.

This paper went through one of the more tortuous paths to publication, largely because we didn't have any sort of price data, which made the paper less interesting to economics journals. This is where we sent it: World Development (submitted 27 Jan 2012, desk reject, too narrow case study), Environment and Development Economics (referee review), Energy Policy (referee review), Energy (desk reject, too economics focused), Biomass and Bioenergy (revise and resubmit and accept). More than 2.5 years to get it published. But that's not very unusual...

Workshop on Research Metrics

I submitted one of the 152 responses to HEFCE's call for evidence on research metrics. BTW, my paper was just accepted by PLoS ONE :) Anyway, HEFCE and the University of Sussex are holding a one day workshop at SPRU on the potential for metrics in research assessment. Register here and see the program here. As I am in Australia, unfortunately I can't attend - I'm actually going to be in England in late October and early November - but maybe some of you can.

New Professorial and Research Positions at SPRU, University of Sussex

SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit) at the University of Sussex, UK is embarking on an ambitious new research strategy, focused on long-term transformative change and innovation. As part of this strategy, we are looking to recruit three dynamic, innovative and highly respected academic leaders to join the SPRU team as Professors. In addition, we are seeking to appoint two experienced research staff to join the Research Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand (CIED), led by the Sussex Energy Group at SPRU. The posts are as follows:

Professor of Energy Policy: This person will lead the Sussex Energy Group and will have an outstanding background in energy and climate policy, preferably with an emphasis on innovation and transitions.

Professor in Sustainability Transitions: This person will have an outstanding background in sustainability transitions, history of technology and/or science and technology studies.

Professor in Innovation and Evolutionary Economics: This person will have an outstanding background in evolutionary economics, economics of innovation, institutional economics, economic history and/or development economics.

Senior Fellow in Innovation and Energy Demand: This person will have a strong track record in innovation studies and/or energy and climate policy and will be expected to help shape the Centre’s research programme and design and lead research projects.

 Research Fellow in Innovation and Energy Demand: This person will have a background in innovation studies and/or energy and climate policy and will be expected to design and lead research projects and conduct empirical research.

 Full details of the jobs can be found here: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/newsandevents/apps/jobs

Citation Data for Citation Prediction Paper Now Available

The data underlying my recent working paper: "High-Ranked Social Science Journal Articles Can Be Identified from Early Citation Information" are now available from the ANU Data Repository. The data set includes most journal articles in economics and political science published in 2006 and included in the Web of Science and the number of citations that received each year through 2012. There is also a worksheet with all economics articles from 1999 too. That's not mentioned in the working paper but is mentioned in the revised version of the article I just resubmitted to the journal. The journal's (PLoS ONE) data policy requires all data to be made available with DOI's if possible. This is definitely the current trend and looks like becoming the norm. For example, Energy Economics requires both data and code to be submitted prior to publication. I have mixed feelings about this. Obviously I am in favor of replicability but putting together datasets costs time and/or money and so it seems a bit unfair to force authors to make their data freely available as the price of publication.

P.S. 9th September
My paper was accepted at PLoS ONE! :)