The Academic Review Process: How Can We Make it More Efficient?

American Economist, Forthcoming

32 Pages Posted: 21 Feb 2005

See all articles by Ofer H. Azar

Ofer H. Azar

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management

Abstract

Recently many editors try to reduce the turnaround times of academic journals. Shorter turnaround times, however, will induce many additional submissions of low-quality papers, increasing significantly the workload of editors and referees, and the number of rejections prior to publication. I suggest several ideas how editors can shorten turnaround times and four ideas how they can still avoid frivolous submissions, thus improving the review process efficiency: higher submission fees; requiring authors to review papers in proportion to their submissions; using differential editorial delay - letting low-quality papers wait more; and banning papers from being submitted after a certain number of rejections.

Keywords: Academic publishing, first response times, editorial process, review process, refereeing

JEL Classification: A1, A2, I2, J44, Z0

Suggested Citation

Azar, Ofer H., The Academic Review Process: How Can We Make it More Efficient?. American Economist, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=670001

Ofer H. Azar (Contact Author)

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management ( email )

P.O. Box 653
Beer-Sheva, 84105
Israel
+972 8 6472675 (Phone)
+972 8 6477691 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.oferazar.com

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
461
Abstract Views
4,209
Rank
114,610
PlumX Metrics