Where Should We Submit Our Manuscript? An Analysis of Journal Submission Strategies

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the two sides of the publication problem: the problem faced by impatient researchers attempting to balance the considerations of journal quality, submission lags, and acceptance probabilities in choosing appropriate outlets for their work and that of journals facing a large number of submissions, limited space, and limited resources to review papers. On the author side, we first study the case in which probabilities of submission outcomes are exogenous parameters and show that authors can find the optimal submission path through the use of journal `scores' based only on the journals' characteristics and the author's degree of impatience. Then, we analyze a more realistic framework in which acceptance probability is determined by the quality of the manuscript, in which the reviewing process may be imperfect, and in which authors may not be certain of the manuscript's quality. Throughout, we illustrate our analysis with data on actual economics journals and we provide policy implications of our analysis. We then move on to consider the problem of the journals, and, in particular, examine the relative effectiveness of using submission fees and reviewing lags to ration article submissions.

Keywords: Economics journals, Submission strategies

JEL Classification: A11