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Scandinavian Journal of Economics (SJE) Journal rankings Editorial issues (refereeing, time lags…)

Editing Economics Journals Bertil Holmlund, Department of Economics, Uppsala University (meeting with Chinese journal editors, Uppsala 22 August 2005). Scandinavian Journal of Economics (SJE) Journal rankings Editorial issues (refereeing, time lags…) The journal industry.

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Scandinavian Journal of Economics (SJE) Journal rankings Editorial issues (refereeing, time lags…)

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  1. Editing Economics JournalsBertil Holmlund, Department of Economics, Uppsala University(meeting with Chinese journal editors, Uppsala 22 August 2005) Scandinavian Journal of Economics (SJE) Journal rankings Editorial issues (refereeing, time lags…) The journal industry

  2. Scandinavian Journal of Economics • Founded by David Davidson in 1899 • Ekonomisk Tidskrift (in Swedish) • Swedish Economic Journal (1965, in English) • Scandinavian Journal of Economics (1976) • Davidson retired as editor in 1939 at the age of 85 • SJE was run as a one man operation

  3. Early history: all articles in Swedish • First article in English in 1947 • A large part written by Davidson himself • Important works by Gustaf Cassel, Knut Wicksell, Eli Heckscher, Gunnar Myrdal, Erik Lindahl…

  4. SJE is owned by a non-profit association • The management is contracted to a commercial publisher (Blackwells) • Editors chosen by the association (typically two editors from different Nordic countries) • Editors typically stay for 3-4 years • Editorial board from the Nordic countries

  5. SJE publishes four issues per year • Number of submissions per year around 150-170 • Over 80 % of the submissions are rejected • Around 1/3 of the submissions from the Nordic countries • Total circulation (in 2002) of around 1700 • Mainly institutional subscriptions

  6. Special issues of SJE • Specific themes • One issue per year • Invited papers (no guarantee of being accepted) • Sometimes conferences • Examples: • Social security, population issues, industrial policy, the welfare state, behavioural economics, growth, the distribution of wealth

  7. Ranking of journals • JCR – Journal Citation Reports • Ranking of journals based on the number of citations received – a measure of impact • Adjusting for • Age of the journal • Number of pages • Self citations

  8. Editorial issues • SJE (and most journals) use two referees for each manuscript • If the referees suggest rejection, little chance of getting accepted • Positive referee reports don’t guarantee acceptance • Conflicting reports, use the editorial board • Authors are almost always asked to revise the paper even if it is accepted ”in principle”

  9. Substantial time lags between first submission and final publication • Referee lags (time to find a referee and time for the referee to deliver a report) • Revise and resubmit lags (authors are required to revise the paper, sometimes substantially) • New referee reports invited, new lags • Perhaps new revisions required, new lags • After a final acceptance, there is a production lag (accepted papers in queue)

  10. Submit to accept times have increased(Ellison 2000)

  11. Why has the publication process slowed down? (Glenn Ellison, 2000) • More demanding revisions before publication (costs and benefits of revisions may have fallen) • Democratization • Increased specialization • Growth of the profession • Changes in social norms

  12. Single-blind versus double- blind refereeing • Some journals (including SJE) have single-blind refereeing: • The author is not informed about who the referee is but the referee knows who the author is • Double-blind refereeing: • The referee is supposed not to know who the author is (the names of the authors are removed from the paper)

  13. Arguments for double-blind refereeing • More fair treatment of less well known authors, or authors from lesser-ranked universities • More fair treatment of women (if there is discrimination against women)

  14. Arguments for single-blind refereeing • Double blind refereeing does not work in practice – the referee can identify the author • Knowing who author is provides valuable and relevant information • Less costly

  15. Evidence from experiment (American Economic Review, Blank 1991) • Allocate one half the papers to single blind refereeing, the other half to double blind refereeing • Examine • Referee ratings • Acceptance rates • Differences by gender, rank of university • Does the referee identify the author in any case? (truly blind versus pseudo blind)

  16. Results of the experiment • Referee reports are more critical with a double blind system; acceptance rates are lower • No strong evidence that a double blind system helps authors from lower ranked universities • Little evidence that women would do better under a double blind system • Referee ratings highly correlated with accept decisions • Around one half the ”blind” papers are not truly blind: authors are identified by the referees

  17. The journal industry(Ted Bergstrom) • Some journals are owned by non-profit societies (American Economic Association, Econometric Society, European Economic Assocation) • Some are owned by commercial publishers (Elsevier, Kluwer, Springer…) • The commercial publishers charge much higher subscription prices • The higher prices do not reflect higher quality

  18. Over the past 5 years, real prices have increased by 50 % for non-profit journals and by 170 % for commercial publishers

  19. What could be done? • Expanding non-profit journals • Example: European Economic Review (owned by Elsevier) has recently lost its status as official journal of the European Economic Association A new journal has been formed: Journal of the European Economic Association) • Supporting new electronic journals • Boycotting overpriced journals

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