In 2009, Demographic Research will be publishing short reports on mathematical relationships in formal demography in a new Special Collection called "Formal Relationships". This first publication outlines the goals and procedures for publications in the collection. The guest editors of the collection are Joshua R. Goldstein and James W. Vaupel.

James W. Vaupel

Joshua Goldstein

English

Research Papers in Economics

Demographic Research a free, expedited, online journal
of peer-reviewed research and commentary
in the population sciences published by the
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Konrad-Zuse Str. 1, D-18057 Rostock ¢ GERMANY
www.demographic-research.org
DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
VOLUME 20, ARTICLE 1, PAGES 1-2
PUBLISHED 20 JANUARY 2009
http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol20/1/
DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2009.20.1
Formal Relationships 0
Formal Relationships:
Introduction and Orientation
Joshua R. Goldstein
James W. Vaupel
This is the ﬁrst article in the newly-established Special Collection
“Formal Relationships”. Guest Editors are Joshua R. Goldstein and
James W. Vaupel.
c ° 2009 Joshua R. Goldstein & James W. Vaupel.
This open-access work is published under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 2.0 Germany, which permits
use, reproduction & distribution in any medium for non-commercial
purposes, provided the original author(s) and source are given credit.
See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/de/Demographic Research: Volume 20, Article 1
Formal Relationships 0
Formal Relationships: Introduction and Orientation
Joshua R. Goldstein 1
James W. Vaupel 2
InadditiontoResearchArticles, Reﬂexions, DescriptiveFindings, ResearchMaterial, and
Reviews, Demographic Research will publish short reports on mathematical relationships
in formal demography. These reports will be published as part of a new, ongoing Special
Collection, called Formal Relationships, that will be edited by the two of us, the current
and founding Publishers of the journal. Note that these reports should pertain to mathe-
matical formulas that can be proven and that concern relationships among demographic
measures. The reports should not focus on statistical ﬁndings about empirical regularities
and the results should not depend on behavioral assumptions.
Submissions to Formal Relationships should be sent to Demographic Research ac-
cording to the usual procedures. These submissions will be forwarded to the two of us
and we will review them. They will also be posted so that members of the journal’s Sci-
entiﬁc Review Board can review them. If we need additional help, we will ask others to
assist us as referees. If, given the reviews, the two of us agree that it is appropriate to
publish a submission in the Formal Relationships department of the journal, we will then
send the item to the Editor of the journal, currently Nico Keilman, who will make the ﬁnal
decision.
If and when enough Formal Relationships have been published in Demographic Re-
search, we will compile them into a book to be published by Springer Verlag as part of
the series of Demographic Research Monographs.
Authors submitting to Formal Relationships do not have to be the discoverers of the
mathematical formulas in their submission. Indeed, most of the Formal Relationships
we publish will be especially beautiful equations that are known to many demographers
or striking expressions that deserve more attention. Our goal is to compile demographic
relationships that are, as Michel Guillot put it, “sheer poetry”. We aspire to collect the
pearls of formal demography, the champagne, the quintessence.
Submissions to Formal Relationships should be original manuscripts that have not
been previously published and they should be written in a cogent, lucid manner that con-
veys the elegance of a mathematical equation and its proof as well as indicating why
1 Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research. E-mail: goldstein@demogr.mpg.de
2 Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research. E-mail: jwv@demogr.mpg.de
http://www.demographic-research.org 1Goldstein & Vaupel: Formal Relationships: Introduction and Orientation
the relationship is interesting and important for formal demography.
Articles published in Formal Relationships will generally be concise, sometimes only
one page long, rarely more than three. Articles will not cover a topic, such as “life ex-
pectancy”or“decomposition”, butwillfocusonaspeciﬁcrelationshipthatmightﬁtunder
such a rubric when the collection is compiled and published as a book.
Articles will typically consist of the following sections:
1. The key relationship.
2. Proof of the relationship.
3. Optionally, some other relationships that are closely linked to and can be readily
derived from the key relationship.
4. History of the discovery of the relationship and related relationships, with appro-
priate citations.
5. A brief sketch of a possible application or perhaps two or three.
To improve readability and to enhance communication, we will try to edit Formal
Relationships so that notation is as consistent as feasible and follows general practice in
formal demography. We will strive for compact, elegant notation that is clear and unam-
biguous. Proofs and exposition should be lucid, readable and not excessively technical.
We aspire to publish a series of Formal Relationships that are concise and clear — and
that make a reader smile with joy about the beauty of pure demography.
We encourage readers of Formal Relationships to make corrections and suggestions,
especially regarding the history of the discovery of a relationship. Particularly useful or
interesting remarks will be appended to the text of Formal Relationships, with credit given
to the person making the contribution.
2 http://www.demographic-research.org

Formal Relationships: Introduction and Orientation

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Formal Relationships: Introduction and Orientation

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