Economics Peer-Review: Problems, Recent Developments, and Reform Proposals

The American Economist, forthcoming

23 Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2023 Last revised: 25 Apr 2023

See all articles by Christoph Siemroth

Christoph Siemroth

University of Essex - Department of Economics

Date Written: March 28, 2023

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate on reforming the peer-review process in the economics profession. It examines the current state of peer-review in economics, surveys the relevant literature, and identifies several problems and solutions. Problems to be discussed are referee overreach and excessive revisions, strategic refereeing and conflicts of interest, prestige bias and other discrimination, and the noisy outcome of peer-review. It recommends several solutions for reform. First, enforce referee guidelines that referee reports must explicitly separate their suggestions into essential and optional, with 3 essential maximum. Second, let authors award the best referee report. Third, adopt conflict of interest policies for referees and punish non-disclosure. Fourth, use double-blind refereeing. Fifth, make better use of prior reports from other journals. Sixth, pay referees for prompt reports. A discussion of the role of editors highlights additional issues that deserve a debate in the profession.

Keywords: Academic Journals, Conflicts of Interest, Excessive Revisions, Peer-Review Reform, Prestige Bias, Referee Overreach, Review

JEL Classification: A11, A12, A14

Suggested Citation

Siemroth, Christoph, Economics Peer-Review: Problems, Recent Developments, and Reform Proposals (March 28, 2023). The American Economist, forthcoming
, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4402906 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4402906

Christoph Siemroth (Contact Author)

University of Essex - Department of Economics ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/csiemroth/

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
312
Abstract Views
1,145
Rank
199,924
PlumX Metrics