ISSN 2280-6180 (print) © Firenze University Press 
ISSN 2280-6172 (online) www.fupress.com/bae

DOI: 10.13128/BAE-20085
Bio-based and Applied Economics 5(2): 99, 2016

After almost five years from its foundation and four and a half years of active 
publishing, the Bio-based and Applied Economics (BAE) journal has seen a change in its 
editorial team. I have stepped down as Editor-in-Chief and have been replaced by Daniele 
Moro. Alessandro Corsi and Gianluca Stefani have also decided to leave the team. Pavel 
Ciaian, Roberto Esposti and Simone Severini have, for their part, joined Ornella Wanda 
Maietta and Francesco Mantino as associate editors.

BAE has, from the beginning, been one of the cornerstones of the newly founded 
Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics. Launching a journal from 
scratch as a new association has been, as expected, a huge challenge. However, vision and 
good work have yielded more than satisfactory achievements.

In slightly more than four years, BAE has regularly published ten issues (three issues 
per year) with a total of 66 papers. Over the past years, BAE has been indexed in a 
number of major catalogues; in the autumn 2015 it was included in both the Emerging 
Sources Citation Index (ESCI) of Web of Science and in the Directory of Open Access 
Journals (DOAJ). In June 2016 it was accepted for inclusion in Scopus.

On behalf of the other past editors I wish to thank the AIEAA, the members of the 
international editorial board, and the authors, reviewers and readers. This would not 
have been possible without their assiduous suggestions, support and contributions. We 
also wish to thank Firenze University Press for their guidance in the difficult waters of 
scientific publishing and indexing.

Over these years the interest in the scope of the journal has grown steadily. The 
bioeconomy is becoming a reality and is much better known than it was in 2012. The 
literature is also gradually taking shape. Yet, the use of the term is still accompanied by 
a good deal of question marks in terms of scope, definitions and avenues for research 
(see editorial in this issue). Agriculture, food and resource issues are attracting growing 
attention as well. In parallel, the logic of research evaluation is putting a lot of pressure 
on researchers, who are increasingly selective in choosing their target journals and 
publication strategies.

In short, there are a number of challenges ahead, above all that of matching 
intellectual ambitions in shaping a new research area with the need for recognition and 
short-term impact. BAE is, I believe, in an excellent position to face these challenges and, 
even more so, to use them as opportunities to boost the contribution of our scientific 
community to the welfare and development of society.

Finally, and again together with past editors, I would like to wish the new editorial 
team the same exciting and enriching professional and personal growth that we 
experienced over the past four years.

Davide Viaggi