THE ACADEMIC PUBLICATION COUNCIL

BYLAWS

Revised and approved on September 30, 2006

I. Purpose

The Academic Publication Council (APC), created in 1991, is a permanent committee of the Chinese Economists Society (CES). The APC initiates and executes policies governing academic publications of the CES.  The current academic publication of the CES is the China Economic Review (CER). The Council appoints the (executive/managing) editor and co-editors for the CER with a tenure of five calendar years. In the event that the CES should initiate additional academic publications, the APC would initiate governing policies for any such publications and submit them to the general membership for approval, according to the conditions specified below.

II. APC Chair and Members

The APC consists of seven members: a chair and six members selected from the membership of the CES. The President of the CES and the (executive/managing) editor of the CER are ex-officio members of the APC. The Chair is the CES liaison between CES academic publications and their publishers.

The Chair of the APC is elected from the APC membership by a majority vote of the APC subject to the approval of the Board of Directors of the CES.  The President of the CES and the (executive/managing) editor of the CER cannot serve as APC Chair.  The tenure of the Chair is four calendar years. In the event that the number of years remaining in the Chair’s term as a member of the APC is less than four years, the Chair’s term as an APC member shall be extended to the end of his or her term as Chair, but the Chair’s term as an APC member shall not exceed two consecutive terms. The Chair's tenure can be terminated by his/her resignation or by a majority vote of the APC in response to such a request from the Board of Directors.  In the event that the Chair of the APC resigns or otherwise is no longer able to perform the function of Chair, the President of the CES shall appoint an interim Chair from the APC who shall serve as Chair for the unexpired portion of the term of the former Chair if less than a year remains in the unexpired term.  If more than a year remains in the unexpired term, then the APC shall conduct an election to select a new Chair.

The appointment of an APC member is for a term of four calendar years. Upon the recommendation of the APC Chair and subject to the approval of the Board of Directors of the CES, the appointment of an APC member may be renewed for an additional term of four calendar years.  APC members shall not serve for more than two consecutive terms. A member’s tenure can be terminated by his/her resignation or by a majority vote of the APC and approval by a majority vote of the Board of Directors of the CES. The termination of the tenure of an APC member may be initiated by the Chair of the APC or by the President of the CES.

The ex-officio tenure of APC membership held by the President of the CES and by the (executive/managing) editor of the CER ceases upon their departures from their respective positions unless otherwise re-nominated by the APC Chair and approved by the Board of Directors of the CES.

III. The Selection APC Members and Journal Editors

Step 1 - APC members shall nominate and rank candidates for new APC members and journal editors confidentially and without direct or indirect contact with any nominees regarding what is discussed before, during, and after the nomination and deliberation process.

Step 2 - The APC Chair shall contact the nominee(s) according to the ranked list until finding the first available nominee for each vacancy, and reports the result to the APC.

Step 3 - The APC shall forward the list of available nominee(s) to the Board of Directors for confirmation.

Step 4 - Upon the approval/disapproval of the Board of Directors, the APC Chair shall formally inform the candidate(s) of the relevant decision(s).

The (above) four steps shall be repeated until all positions are filled in the event that the candidate/some candidates nominated by the Council is (are) disapproved by the Board of Directors.

IV. Contracts

Any contract or agreement regarding academic publications, with any party including publishers and journal editors, and not excluding those with any other party, must be approved by the APC by majority vote.  Such a contract or agreement must also be approved by the CES Board of Directors, and it must be co-signed by the CES President and APC Chair. Any contract or agreement as described above in this paragraph that does not satisfy these conditions shall be deemed invalid.

V.  New Journals

Any initiation of new CES journals much be approved by a vote of at least two thirds of the APC members and by at least two thirds of the Board of Directors.  An initiative for a new CES journal that has been approved by both the APC and the Board of Directors must be submitted to the entire CES membership for a period of three months for comments.  At the conclusion of this comment period, the Board of Directors shall call for a popular vote on the initiative of the new journal by the CES membership.  To become effective, the new journal must be approved by at least two thirds of the votes.

VI. Amendments

Any amendment to these bylaws must be approved by the APC and Board of Directors by majority vote. 

Haizheng Li

President of the CES

On behalf of Board of Directors