We are pleased to announce the launch of a new and really exciting initiative for Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies (JCEFTS). We want JCEFTS to play its part in having greater impact on policy-making, report on economic and social issues having a real-life societal impact on business and international trade, and economic competitiveness. We are introducing a new 'practitioner focused’ research article of 3000 words. These short 3000-word articles clearly explain a contemporary economic issue, problem or challenge directly relevant to business studies and emerging economies in China and South Asia and South-East Asia. This would be an issue encountered by business leaders and/or policymakers. We want author(s) to tell our JCEFTS community new things that they are finding out now through their research with industry and organizations rather than telling us about what has happened in the past.

We are looking for 3,000-word research articles or case studies and 2,000 word viewpoints that:

• report on real-life issues as they impact on economic practice in the field of international economics and emerging economics in South Asia and China
• create a point of contact with organisations;
• provide an opportunity for co-authorship with industry and government.

Author(s) who are successful in publishing their research work in JECFTS on practitioner topics will significantly enhance their reputation and expertise. Given the healthy Scopus Cite Score JCEFTS achieves year on year we believe that successful author(s) will attract citations. Finally, through publishing this new practitioner based research article authors will be quickly recognised by the development economics and international economics community as experts in particular sub-fields of development economics and emerging economies in China and South Asia.

We plan that the time from when the piece is written and first submitted to acceptance will be approximately 8 weeks. Submissions will first go through the editorial team to assess the article prior to putting it through Double Blind review.

Rania Miniesy

Editor, JCEFTS