Mission Statement

COPE is an interdisciplinary journal, devoted to the critique of political economy. It is not just another journal of economics.  COPE seeks to challenge and break down the separation between political economy and social knowledge as a whole, which we regard as a product of academic over-specialization and lack of confidence that critical thought can address social life as a whole. Thus we actively encourage relevant contributions from, and the participation of, scholars from outside of the economics profession and, indeed, from outside of academia.  We particularly encourage contributions from scholars in the global South, whose voices are seriously underrepresented in the academic journals of the North.

The critique of political economy, as we use the term, is the interrogation of the presuppositions of economics and the practices of economics, presuppositions and practices that lead to particular ways of discriminating between knowledge and error, sound and unsound methodology, fact and fiction. The pioneering work in the critique of political economy is that of Karl Marx.  We intend to carry on in that tradition.

Nevertheless COPE is not a “Marxist” journal.  It is a journal of pluralistic debate.  The ideas of no current or thinker will be excluded a priori. We welcome contributions from, and the participation of, post-Keynesian, Evolutionary, Schumpeterian, Institutionalist and other heterodox economists.

We actively solicit work that interrogates the production of economic “knowledge,” including the production of “know- ledge” in Marxian and heterodox economics.  Sociological work that interrogates the practices of economics communities, and philosophical work that interrogates the conceptual bases and presuppositions of economics, are both vitally important.

One reason why we emphasize exploration and critique of the production of economic “knowledge” is that, following a rebirth and flowering of new ideas and perspectives in the 1970s and early 1980s, Marxian and radical economics have gone into a serious decline and near-collapse during the last two decades.  In part, this decline is due to a host of external factors.

We wish to explore especially the internal factors (over which we have more control) — the practices and presuppositions that have prevented Marxian and radical economics both from sustaining themselves in the face of the resurgence of neo- liberalism and the exigencies of academic life, and from reacting positively to new critical developments in political and social life such as the rise of movements for social justice. By identifying and understanding the errors of the past, we can do things differently and thereby, we hope, help to reverse the process of decline.

We will actively encourage all work aimed at liberating political economy from the received “Whig History” of economic thought. One of the principal obstructive practices of hetero- dox economics is the reinterpretation of past theory in such a way that it becomes impossible objectively to assess its validity in its own terms.  In contrast to virtually all existing economics publications, COPE will implement interpretive norms that are generally accepted in other disciplines as indispensable to true scholarship.

We encourage proponents of the temporal single-system interpretation (TSSI) of Marx’s value theory to become members of the editorial board and to contribute to COPE.  TSSI research of the last quarter-century has decisively refuted widespread claims that Marx’s own value theory has been proven internally inconsistent or in error.  It thus establishes a basis for a new research program that, in contrast to mainstream Marxian and radical political economy, proceeds from Marx’s contributions rather than from the “corrections” of his alleged errors.

An indispensible aim of COPE is to create an institutional basis for continued research in the TSSI, and TSSI-informed theoretical and empirical work which, because of limited access to resources, does not currently exist.  We hope that, by working collaboratively on and contributing to COPE, proponents of the TSSI will be able to turn it into an ongoing, self-sustaining, research program.  We recognize that such a research program must include theoretical and empirical investigations informed by the TSSI, as well as interpretative work proper.  It is also necessary that value-theoretic research be complemented by other work in economics, and in disciplines such as sociology, political science, and philosophy, that contributes to the critique of political economy as defined above.  We welcome and encourage the submission of all such work.

Academic journals frequently promote the interests and ideas of a small group by excluding the interests and ideas of others.  This is one error we are determined not to repeat. COPE is steadfastly committed to pluralism.  We intend to demonstrate by example that critical pluralist practices are not only ethically sound, but that they promote quality research and genuine development of ideas.  In this way, we hope to challenge other journals’ exclusionary practices and the acceptance of such practices.

Our editorial board will work with authors to improve and clarify their work, not act as “gatekeepers.”  We instruct our referees to use primarily objective, not subjective, evaluative criteria when reviewing submissions.  As a further safeguard of pluralistic practice, we will honor authors’ requests to publish the reviews they received, and other relevant communications, on our website.

We uphold the rights of authors to reply to critiques of their work and to appeal editorial decisions before a panel of disinterested persons.  We recognize that the right of appeal has in fact been abrogated if parties to the original decision are allowed to decide whether to grant such an appeal.  We uphold the right of reply, which is well-defined within the journalistic community in relation to reportage, as another inalienable requirement of pluralistic theoretical practice.

In keeping with our commitment to pluralism, we ask that submissions conform to the IWGVT Scholarship Guidelines, available on our website and at the back of The New Value Controversy and the Foundations of Economics (Alan Freeman, Andrew Kliman, and Julian Wells, (eds.), Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2004). Although only submissions “accepted for publication” become part of COPE, we will also post other submissions in a “working papers” section of our website, at the author’s request, provided that they conform to these Guide- lines.

We welcome articles, essays, and review essays up to 10,000 words long, and we accept book reviews.  Books sent to us by publishers will be listed on our website and sent to persons interested  in  reviewing  them.  Before  submitting  to  COPE,  please consult our “Instructions to Authors” webpage for addi- tional information.

For enquiries, information, and with offers of papers, contact the editors at mail@copejournal.org.