INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRODUCING INTERVIEWS FOR MACROECONOMIC DYNAMICS


General Procedural Suggestions for Interviewers

1. Interviewer decides on an initial collection of possibly interesting questions in general terms and discusses them with subject to make sure that the subject has no objections to any of the questions, and to make sure that the questions will cover the topics that would permit the subject to bring out whatever points she might most wish to make about how her views evolved over the years, etc. This usually is done entirely verbally.

2. Interviewer revises her questions, puts them in writing, acquires a tape recorder, and schedules the date and time for the interview.

3. The interview is conducted and tape recorded. Usually the interviewer just reads off the questions that she previously had produced in writing, but the subject answers without anything written in advance, and presumably has not seen the list of questions in writing in advance. But because of step 1 above, the subject knows generally what to expect, so has some time to think about what she might wish to say about the topics that she had reason to expect to be raised.

4. The tape of the interview is given to a secretary, who creates a typed hard copy transcript of the interview, and gives a copy of the transcript to the interviewer and subject. This usually is done by the subject's own secretary.

5. The interviewer and subject mark onto the transcript any changes they want to make, and the secretary retypes it to the satisfaction of the interviewer and subject.

6. Include at the end of the interview a list of the subject's publications, sorted by year, for publication at the end of the interview.  There also should be photographs of the subject. Usually these photos should include one formal "head and shoulders" portrait photograph to appear at the front of the interview and one or more informal photographs, perhaps with other economists, perhaps at a conference or other interesting location, for publication inside the interview. The list of publications should include each publication only once. Reprints and translations into other languages should not be listed. Also "op ed pieces" should not be listed, only professional publications. The list of publications should comply with the journal's style standards, and should not exceed 15 double spaced typed manuscript pages (preferably less), and if necessary can be titled as Selected Publications, if the actual list would be longer. The journal's style standards do not apply to the interview transcript itself, although it must be double spaced. An introductory abstract, written by the interviewer and providing an overview of the person interviewed, should precede the interview text.

7. There are two pages of "front matter" that are needed by Cambridge University Press, and must precede the introductory abstract, which then should be Page 3. Page 1 should provide the article title, author(s') names (in the form preferred for publication), complete affiliations, phone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. That information should be provided both for interviewer and interviewee. At the bottom of Page 1 place any footnotes to the title or authors, indicated by superscripts *,**, etc. Page 2 should contain a proposed running head (abbreviated form of the title) of up to 40 characters, and complete contact information for the author to whom proofs should be sent. The corresponding author usually would be the interviewer. A list of four or five keywords or terms should be included on that page. Both pages of front matter should be completely double spaced.

8. In accordance with paragraphs 6 and 7 above, the material provided by the interviewer to the journal consists of:  the interview, including the two pages of front matter, the interviewer's introduction, the body of the interview, the bibliography, and the photographs with identification of the persons in each photograph, where the photograph was taken, and on what date. The diskette contains everything printed out, with identification of the word processing program used.  Assuming that the photographs are available in digital form, or have been scanned into digital form, the complete interview should be converted into a pdf and uploaded to the journal's server. At the bottom of the first page of that site, you will find a link to a tutorial that you might find helpful to explain the uploading process.  The photos should be inserted into the pdf and uploaded with the interview.

9.  If you do not have the photos in digital form and do not have access to a scanner, you can send only your hard copy photos.  But then you should not upload the interview to the server.  Instead you should send the hard copy photos to the Editor along with two copies of the hard copy interview and a diskette containing the interview in digital source form.  If you upload the interview to the server and send the photos separately, there is the nontrivial risk that the interview and photos could be separated at Cambridge University Press, with the result that the photos will not be published with the interview.  Hence all material should be delivered to Cambridge University Press simultaneously, either all digitally by uploading to the server or all in one package sent by regular mail.

10. If you have the photos in digital form and upload the completed interview with photos to the server, you will be provided electronically with instructions regarding the Transfer of Copyright Agreement.  But if you do not have digital photos and hence must mail all material by regular mail, you should include in that package of material to the Editor,  the signed Transfer of Copyright Agreement. You can print it directly from the web. You'll find a link to the location of the online form on the Bulletin Board for Members of the Journal's Editorial Board. It's best if the agreement is signed by both the interviewer and the interviewee, so that CUP will know that everyone is happy with the interview. But it is sufficient for only the interviewer to sign. In that case (or if there are multiple interviewers and only one of the interviewers signs), please check the box on the form saying "one author authorized to execute this transfer of copyright on behalf of all the authors of the above article."

WHY SO MANY STEPS?

In reading the above usual procedure, you may wonder why to bother with the verbal tape recorded interview at all, since the interviewer and subject are allowed (and in fact encouraged) to revise the transcript afterwards. Looking at this, some people think: why not just let the interviewer give the questions in writing to the subject and let her produce her answers in writing? That would seem to circumvent an "unnecessary" step. But that's not recommended. There is something conspicuously different about spoken versus written English, and readers of interviews recognize it immediately. An edited transcript still retains the sound and appearance of a verbal interview, while assuring that everyone is happy with the final published interview. But an "interview" that was done entirely in writing from the start tends to have a tone that is easily recognized as not being that of an "interview."

THE CURRENT BACKLOG

The current backlog of MD interviews and dialogues is online.

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