Tarea educativa

The story of the Swedish scholarly journal in this field also reflects this process of internationalization. What has happened within Swedish economics is that its main journal has shifted language – from Swedish to English – and thus enlarged its circle of writers and its readership.

A national scientific journal has turned into a prestigious international one.⁵ From the perspective of a linguist, it is interesting to follow the ver-bal and textual signs of this development and also to consider its wider social dimensions, i.e. its effects on the national scientific community.

6.2.1 Ekonomisk Tidskrift

I will begin with Ekonomisk Tidskrift. It appeared four times a year from 1899 to 1964. Focusing on the twenty last years of this journal, on the numbers published from 1945 to 1964, I found that eight of the twenty volumes did not include any English articles, eight volumes included one article in English and two volumes carried two such articles. There were thus very few articles in English in the volumes from 1945 to 1963. In the very last volume from 1964, however, all sixteen articles were published in English. The Anglicization of the journal thus began the year before it became The Swedish Journal of Economics. We can also note that one of the English articles in the penultimate volume (1963) was written by a Swede, further reflecting its gradual shift into an English-language jour-nal. From the point of view of language choice, it should also be noted that six of the articles in the 1948 volume and one in the 1952 volume were published in other Scandinavian languages than Swedish, and that one article in the 1959 volume was written in German.

In Ekonomisk Tidskrift the authors are not presented in any way.

Their names are given with no mention of their affiliation or title. We can assume that all the authors were well-known to the Swedish read-ers of the day. The great majority of them were in fact Swedes: in the 1955 volume, 11 out of 13, in the 1960 volume 17 out of 18, and in the 1964 volume 19 out of 20. It thus seems that this was a truly Swedish journal in every respect.

The change to an English journal in 1965, however, was not as sudden as it might at first appear. The first proposal to launch a Scandinavian journal of economics in English came as early as 1926, in other words almost forty years before the language shift actually occurred. Though most of the articles were written in Swedish, the journal could, as men-tioned above, include one or two articles in English from 1947 onwards.

Another harbinger of the language shift in 1965 is the presentation of the contents on the title page. During the period 1955–1959, the list of articles, comments and book reviews is given first in Swedish and then in English. From 1960, and until the last volume in 1964, the English titles are placed in brackets directly after the Swedish title, i.e. they are integrated with the Swedish ones.

6.2.2 The Swedish Journal of Economics

I will now turn to The Swedish Journal of Economics, the story of which covers only 11 volumes, from 1965 to 1975. In the early vol-umes, the authors were mainly Swedish, but gradually the number of authors from Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, from the rest of Europe, from the United States and Canada, and from other countries around the world increased. Table 6.1 shows the origin of the authors of articles and comments in The Swedish Journal of Economics.

Abbreviations: Swe (Sweden), Den (Denmark), Nor (Norway), Fin (Finland), Ice (Iceland), Eur (Europe), US (USA), Can (Canada), Other (other countries).

Table 6.1 Authors of articles and comments in The Swedish Journal of Economics (Table 2 in Gunnarsson, 2006a: 30, that is in a book)

Year Swe Den Nor Fin Ice Eur US Can Other

1965 14 1

1970 11 2 3 3 2 2 1

1975 15^a 4 11 1 2 6 1

a Two articles where written by one Swedish and one American scholar

Note: Swe – Sweden, Den – Denmark, Nor – Norway, Fin – Finland, Ice – Iceland, Eur – Europe, US – United States of America, Can – Canada, Other – Other countries

In contrast to the practice in Ekonomisk Tidskrift, in The Swedish Journal of Economics all the authors are presented. The way in which this is done, however, is not consistent but varies over time. In the first two volumes the name of the author is preceded by the preposition

‘By’ and the author is presented in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

In the third volume, from 1967, a new practice is established. Here we find the name of the author on one line with a presentation on the line below. In some cases the author’s title, e.g. ‘Professor’, is mentioned, in other cases only the university, town and country. The fact that such presentations of authors were a novel feature in this English-language journal is a plausible explanation for the varied practice. It took some years for the editors to decide on a consistent practice.

Another reflection of the gradual establishment of a new journal is the way its title is presented on the front cover. On the cover of the first two volumes, from 1965 and 1966, we find the name of the jour-nal, followed by that of its Swedish predecessor and the journal’s foun-der. The text on cover was thus: ‘The Swedish Journal of Economics, Ekonomisk Tidskrift, Founded by David Davidson in 1899’. This infor-mation was omitted from the 1967 volume onwards.

The gradual emergence of a prestigious journal is undoubtedly linked to the Nobel Prize in Economics, which was established in 1969. The journal also highlights this on the front cover of the December 1969 issue, which includes the text ‘The First Nobel Prize in Economics’.

The following year (1970), the Nobel prizewinner is given even greater prominence on the front cover, with the words: ‘The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 1970. Assar Lindbeck on Paul A. Samuelsson.’

The Nobel Prize is announced in the December issue of each vol-ume. In the same December issues, we also find a list of ‘Dissertations in Economics’ in Sweden. I mention this as it can be interpreted as another sign that a growing scientific community wished to make an impact on the international economics community.

The change from a Swedish to a Scandinavian journal is further reflected in a gradually more complex description of the editors. In the first two volumes, those of 1965 and 1966, we find four categories on the inside front cover: (1) ‘Editorial Board’, (2) ‘Editors’, (3) ‘Book reviews’ and (4) ‘Ansvarig utgivare’ [⫽ person legally responsible for the journal]. From 1967 to 1975, there are three additional categories: (5) ‘Corresponding Editorial Committee’ with the subcategories: ‘Denmark’, ‘Finland’ and

‘Norway’, (6) ‘Administrative Office’ and (7) ‘Distribution’. The par-ticipation of professors from the other Scandinavian countries is thus highlighted, e.g. as members of the ‘Editorial Committee’. As Table 6.1 above showed, many of the authors in the final volumes of the Swedish Journal of Economics came from the other Scandinavian countries: in

the 1970 volume we find two authors from Denmark, three from Finland and three from Norway, and in the 1975 volume, there are four Danish authors, eleven Finnish and one Norwegian. The shift towards a Scandinavian journal is thus a gradual one.

6.2.3 The Scandinavian Journal of Economics

In this part I will focus on The Scandinavian Journal of Economics. In 1976, the journal changed its title and editorship to cover the whole of Scandinavia. From the presentation of the editors and the editorial board on the inside front cover, we can see that the ‘Board of Editors’

included members from all the Nordic countries, including Iceland.

However, distribution is taken care of by a Swedish publisher, and the person legally responsible for the journal is a Swedish professor. In the 1980 and 1981 volumes there are no national subcategories for the category of ‘Board of Editors’, although the professors listed under this heading do represent the various Nordic countries. In these volumes a new category also appears, namely ‘Associate Editors’. Here we find the names of 11 professors and their universities, which belong to the various Scandinavian countries. Gradually, the administration of the journal seems to have changed. The various Scandinavian countries are not explicitly mentioned, although each country is represented on the ‘Board of Editors’ and also among the ‘Associate Editors’.

A major change can be seen as regards the range of authors writing in the journal. Table 6.2 shows the countries stated in the presenta-tions of authors of articles and comments.

As Table 6.2 shows, the authors are no longer mainly Swedes or Scandinavians. The United States of America, Canada and also Europe are well represented among the authors. The journal has also placed itself among those at the top of the international citation rankings, as mentioned in endnote 5.

Table 6.2 Authors of articles and comments in The Scandinavian Journal of Economics (Table 3 in Gunnarsson 2006a: 33)

Year Swe Den Nor Fin Ice Eur US Can Other

1976 11 5 4 3 10 16 3 2

1980 7 3 5 3 2 10 1

1985 14^a 1 2 5^b 2 16 10 1 1

a One article was written by a Swedish and an American scholar

b One article was written by a Finnish and an American scholar

Note: Swe – Sweden, Den – Denmark, Nor – Norway, Fin – Finland, Ice – Iceland, Eur – Europe, US – United States of America, Can – Canada, Other – Other countries