Working Paper: NBER ID: w29147
Authors: Abooza Hadavand; Daniel S. Hamermesh; Wesley W. Wilson
Abstract: Publishing in economics proceeds much more slowly on average than in the natural sciences, and more slowly than in other social sciences and finance. It is even relatively slower at the extremes. We demonstrate that much of the lag, especially at the extremes, arises from authors’ dilatory behavior in revising their work. The marginal product of an additional round of re-submission at the top economics journals is productive of additional subsequent citations; but conditional on re-submission, journals taking more time is not productive, and authors spending more time is associated with reduced scholarly impact. We offer several proposals to speed up the publication process. These include no-revisions policies; limits on authors’ time revising articles, and limits on editors waiting for dilatory referees.
Keywords: publishing; economics; citations; scholarly impact; publication process
JEL Codes: A11; B31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| longer publication duration (C41) | increased citations (A14) |
| longer publication duration (C41) | reduced scholarly impact (A14) |
| time spent revising (C41) | reduced citations (A14) |
| additional rounds of resubmission (C73) | increased citations (A14) |
| excessive delays in resubmission (C41) | reduced scholarly impact (A14) |
| dilatory behaviors of authors, editors, and referees (A19) | slowness in economics publishing (A14) |