Expedited Reviews: Act Now, Offer Expires Soon!

7 January 2007 at 9:55 pm Peter G. Klein Leave a comment

| Peter Klein |

The Atlantic Economic Journal is trying a new tactic to attract high-quality submissions: expedited reviews for all papers received within a designated window. Received this by email (emphasis in original):

Just a reminder that the deadline to submit papers to the Atlantic Economic Journal’s “ER” program is January 31, 2007. The “ER” program grants your manuscript special attention and guarantees a quick response. You will no longer spend months waiting around to hear a decision on your submission. Notice of the first level of review is made within 30 days of submission. The paper is then rushed to the second level of review, with a final decision made within the next 60 days.

This program is only being offered for a limited time and will expire on January 31, 2007.

For further information or to submit online, please go to: http://www.iaes.org/publications/aej/er_program.htm

Not the usual sales pitch from a scholarly publication, but in an increasingly competitive academic labor market, the promise of a quick turnaround may be attractive, especially to junior faculty. (The typical turnaround for an economics journal is around six months.)

As the academic journal space becomes increasingly crowded, with online publications like the BE Press journals competing with the established (and new) print journals, such aggressive tactics may become increasingly common. (A more effective tactic might be differential submission fees — one fee for regular turnarounds, a higher fee for expedited reviews, and so on. After all, shouldn’t an economics journal be using the price mechanism to allocate a scarce resource?)