At present, university teaching is faced with numerous challenges arising from the implantation of the new Spanish legislation for the construction of the European Higher Education Area, new conceptions of the teaching-learning processes, the demands and possibilities of information and communications technologies and new skills required by the labour market.
This framework means that university teachers should be ever more demanding, both in the acquisition of the knowledge specific to our discipline and in our training for the most adequate transmission of this knowledge, in other words, in advancing towards the achievement of excellence in research and in teaching.
The mechanisms for carrying out research of quality are reasonably efficient and cover all the areas of training, dissemination and evaluation. However, university teaching continues to rely on the good will and talent of each professor, given that there are no adequate mechanisms either for the training of the teaching staff (or those that do exist are still at an embryonic stage) or for the transmission and evaluation of their teaching activities.
The modest aim of e–pública is to help to overcome these shortcomings in the field of Public Economics offering the university community an exclusively electronic publication aimed at disseminating –after the necessary peer evaluation process articles which allow us to know and to share the best educational methods and experiences so that we can all incorporate them into our work in the classroom. Our points of reference are prestigious long-established journals such as the Journal of Economic Education.
e–pública will publish, biannually and in open access, articles related to the teaching side of the economic analysis of public sector intervention in economic activities: public revenues and expenditure, public sector management, public choice, fiscal federalism, fiscal policy, regulation, etc.
e–pública will accommodate any article dealing with aspects related to the teaching of Public Economics, whether at degree, masters or doctoral level, including, for example:
- Design of subject programmes.
- Methodology for the explanation of particular topics of a syllabus or of certain concepts, in the classroom.
- Doing experiments in class.
- Resolving practical cases, exercises, debate questions.
- Teaching of specific seminars.
- Design of monitored work.
- Methodology for the evaluation of subjects: continuous evaluation and exams.
- Evaluation of manuals, news and book reviews.
- Evaluation of teaching experiences.
- Use of cinema, literature and the press in teaching.
- Use of ICT: websites, commenting on TV programmes, simulators, spreadsheets, distance education,etc.
- Evaluation of educational policies and comparative studies of educational policies.
The non-commercial use and distribution of this content is permitted provided the authorship and source are cited.
As well as its ordinary sections, e–pública will have a restricted access “file” in which to store collections of exercises, debate questions, exams, etc, that are sent in to be made available to the university community. All news related to teaching that reaches Editorial Office will also be published.
The Journal is directed by the Editorial Board, composed of the executive editors and associate editors. The functions of executive management of the Journal are assumed by the executive editors, who are in turn responsible for the maintenance of the editorial line of the Journal, as well as the proper functioning of the selection system of the originals, which will always be
subject to an anonymous and specialized evaluation process. Associate editors are responsible for supporting and advising executive editors on academic matters. The Editorial Board ensures compliance with the generally accepted ethical standards of publication. The Journal also has an Academic Secretary. The Editorial Board periodically renews all its posts with the aim of stimulating and guaranteeing the participation of the teaching staff of Public Economics.