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| Meta Title | Publishing Economics: How Slow? Why Slow? Is Slow Productive? Fixing Slow? | NBER |
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| Boilerpipe Text | Working Paper
29147
DOI
10.3386/w29147
Issue Date
August 2021
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. |
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- Publishing Economics: How Slow? Why…
# Publishing Economics: How Slow? Why Slow? Is Slow Productive? Fixing Slow?
[Aboozar Hadavand](https://www.nber.org/people/aboozar_hadavand), [Daniel S. Hamermesh](https://www.nber.org/people/daniel_hamermesh) & [Wesley W. Wilson](https://www.nber.org/people/wesley_wilson)
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Working Paper 29147
DOI 10.3386/w29147
Issue Date
August 2021
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.
[Download a PDF](https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29147/w29147.pdf)
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- Acknowledgements and Disclosures
Wesley Wilson has not received any funding for this study. It is disclosed that at the time this paper was written, Wesley Wilson was the Editor of Economic Inquiry and did receive a salary for that position. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Aboozar Hadavand, Daniel S. Hamermesh, and Wesley W. Wilson, "Publishing Economics: How Slow? Why Slow? Is Slow Productive? Fixing Slow?," NBER Working Paper 29147 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3386/w29147.
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## Published Versions
Aboozar Hadavand & Daniel S. Hamermesh & Wesley W. Wilson, 2024. "[Publishing Economics: How Slow? Why Slow? Is Slow Productive? How to Fix Slow?,](http://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20221653)" Journal of Economic Literature, vol 62(1), pages 269-293.
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| Readable Markdown | Working Paper 29147
DOI 10.3386/w29147
Issue Date August 2021
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. |
| Shard | 185 (laksa) |
| Root Hash | 16229434317321816585 |
| Unparsed URL | org,nber!www,/papers/w29147 s443 |