Editorial
We live and work in an international real estate market. The UK has probably one of the most sophisticated in the world and those in the Asia pacific region are probably among the most dynamic. Academics worldwide could learn a lot from research undertaken on these markets so you would expect international real estate issues to feature prominently in "international real estate"academic journals. Unfortunately this is not always the case. International often means that they are distributed internationally. This is particularly true of the US journals. Occasionally a few dedicated non-US authors will publish in these journals but it is unusual to find US academics publishing in real estate journals outside their own country.
One of the reasons that has been suggested to me why this is the case is that there is no worthwhile research outside the USA. This is a curious view and patently untrue. There have been a number of cases where US academics have presented papers at conferences on a topic that has been well researched and published in the UK. However, not a single reference was made to any of the UK work. The findings, although similar to the UK research, were often years out of date. In addition to this, non-US papers submitted to US journals are sometimes rejected on grounds that are not academic. A colleague recently had a paper rejected by a US journal on the grounds that Singapore was too small to be of any interest to their readers! I recently had a paper initially rejected by another journal on the grounds that no one in the USA would be interested in UK research. I am sure that readers of this journal will have other examples.
Surely one of the features of a good piece of research is that it should properly acknowledge the work of other authors, irrespective of where they publish. This policy seems, however, to be very much one-way at present. Pick up any US-published real estate textbook and you would have to look very hard to find a single reference to work outside the USA. This is generally not the case for non-USA textbooks where the references are more eclectic.
On a more positive note, I have to say that there is a handful of US academics who do take a broader view. They are generally well established with international reputations and are prepared to work and exchange ideas with non-US authors. These academics can truly be considered to be part of the international real estate community.
Given that real estate is such an important part of the economy I think that we should try to encourage and develop a pluralistic culture in which research has no boundaries. Hopefully this journal will continue to foster this view.
Professor Gerald R. BrownNational University of Singapore
