Kwan Choi, Editor, RIE
Updated,
In response to popular demand, this brief note is provided for the benefit of
all academic authors. The original intent was to produce a book of advice, but
time is a scarce commodity and you may have to wait indefinitely for a
book-length summary.
This brief manual provides some useful
suggestions for today’s authors. The goal is to "foster
the greatest good to the greatest number of people."1 If
this note is useful to you, please tell your friends about it. If you follow
most of these rules, the probability of obtaining tenure or promotion may
increase significantly. If most authors acquired the basic skills mentioned
here, they would then be competing in terms of the truth, goodness, and beauty
of their ideas, not in terms of cosmetic skills.
Disclaimer
Please note that the advice contained here may not necessarily improve the
chances that your research papers will be published. By downloading or
acquiring a copy of this guide, you agree that:
In no event shall the author be liable for any indirect, incidental, collateral, exemplary, consequential, or special damages or losses arising out of your use of rules suggested in this guide.
General Publication Strategies |
PDF HTML | This section covers 28 long-term, general suggestions. |
Writing Strategies |
PDF HTML | This section explains 39 helpful recommendations about
writing papers. |
Preparation and Submission |
PDF HTML | It covers 18 dos and don'ts when submitting a paper to
a journal. |
Rejection and Revision |
PDF HTML | This section includes 12 ways to deal with rejection and
how to revise manuscripts when you receive an invitation to revise. |
Being a Good Referee |
PDF HTML | Of course, you have to be a good referee to become a successful
writer. 11 rules to guide good reviewing are offered here. |
Qustions and Answers |
PDF HTML | Here are some questions raised by readers. |
Note
1. The Urantia Book (1955, p. 1488)
Introduction
Publishing technology has changed drastically in recent years. The advent of
the personal computers and laser printers has lowered the technical barriers of
publication. Economists are now producing more papers than they were a couple
of decades ago. Consequently, top journals are being inundated with
manuscripts.
Journal editors
have become extremely risk averse; they are more concerned
with the risk of accepting low-quality articles than with the possibility of
rejecting good articles.
Purpose
of this Manual
Ideally, the decision to publish should be based solely on the ideas contained
in the papers. In practice, the decision is affected by other nonsubstantive and cosmetic factors. If all authors were
equally skillful in presenting their ideas, they would be competing essentially
in terms of the merit of ideas, rather than the art of presentation.
This manual will
advise authors on how to prepare papers to improve their chances for acceptance
in top journals.
Why
is the journal acceptance rate so low?
- Among the
papers submitted to ranking journals, 1/3 or less receive mildly favorable
reports. (This generally depends on the quality of the journal and the
referees.) The rest do not receive favorable recommendations.
- If two
referees are employed, the chance that a typical paper of average quality
will get a favorable recommendation from both referees is about 11% (=
1/9).
- There is no
such thing as good luck in publication. Painstaking work, coupled with
careful risk taking, is required for success.
All referees are not equal. Comments of a well-known referee weigh more heavily
than those of a lesser-known referee. You should be aware of which referee is
more important.
When a paper is
rejected, the editors paid more attention to the negative than the positive
aspects of your paper.
If you eliminate
or reduce the negative elements, the good ideas in the paper will far
overshadow the shortcomings and your paper is more likely to be accepted.
Why
is your acceptance rate lower than others?
- You may lack
experience. However, this can be remedied.
- You may need
to submit more papers. Volume also increases the acceptance rate because
of learning by doing.
- Identify the
cause and act accordingly. There might be biases against you based on
race, sex, nationality, or schooling. For instance, if a university
journal has a reported acceptance rate of 10% but pre-allocates half the
space to its faculty and immediate students, your acceptance rate is 20%
if you are in the preferred class, and 5% or
lower if you are not.
- You may not
be able to eliminate existing biases, but you can avoid them.
References
The
Holub, Hans Werner, Gottfried Tappeiner, and Veronika Eberharter, "The
Iron Law of Important Articles," Southern Economic Journal 58
(1991), 317-28.
Horowitz, Ira, "How to Publish Well and
Often When You are Unlikely to Contend for a Nobel Prize," Research
Bulletin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Issue 3, November 1995.
Hudson, John,
“Trends in Multi-Authored Papers in Economics,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 10
(1996), 153-9.
Laband, David N. and
Liebowitz, S.
J. and J. P. Palmer, "Assessing the Relative Impacts of Economic Journals,"
Journal of Economic Literature 22 (1984), 77-88.
McCloskey, Donald, The
Writing of Economics, Macmillan Publishing Company,
Nyaw, M. K. and
Eden Yu, "Professor Douglas North's Research Experience and Advice,"
Research Bulletin,
Urantia Foundation,
The Urantia Book, 1955, Chicago.
Copyright
©1998-2002 by E. Kwan Choi. This guide may be freely
redistributed in whole or part for any purpose. It may not be sold, or reproduced
elsewhere for sale without permission of the author. This guide is provided as
is without any express or implied warranty.