Maximizing the Probability of Journal Article Acceptance

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Maximizing the Probability of Journal Article
Acceptance

• By
• Ron C. Mittelhammer

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Minimize Probability of Rejection

• Easy, definitive and unique solution to

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Maximize Probability of Acceptance

• Much more difficult problem to solve.
• No unique global solution it is conditional on
  a number of factors.
• Some factors you can control
• Some factors you cannot control

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The Factors

• Controllable Factors X
• Which journal?
• Research topic
• Quality/Rigor of the analysis, in terms of
• Economic Theory
• Econometric/Statistical/Methodological technique
• Relevance of the research
• Advances the literature?
• Organization and clarity of exposition

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The Factors

• Uncontrollable Factors ?
• The Editor/Associate Editor overseeing the review
• The Reviewers of your work
• The time spent by reviewers reading and
  evaluating your work
• Overall timing and length of review
• Whether you are allowed to revise and resubmit

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Production of Acceptance Probability

• The Production function
• The Optimization problem

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Some Properties of

Fit of article to journal
Popularity and novelty of research topic
Quality/Rigor of the analysis
Relevance of research to real world or peers
Advances the literature
Clarity of exposition and organization
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Some ? Characteristics
Editor actively and carefully examines reviews and paper
Reviewers are properly matched to paper topic
Time spent by reviewers when reviewing your work
Long review time
Length of review comments
No revise or resubmit
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Recommendations

• "It is easier to do a job right than to explain
  why you didn't."
• - Martin Van Buren (1782-1862, 8th U.S.
  President).

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Recommendations

• Identify appropriate scope of topic areas for
  each journal, and submit your articles
  accordingly.

Supply Chain Management in the PNW Fruit Industry
Empirical Likelihood Combinations of Estimators
of Structural Models
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Recommendations

• Choose a novel or hot topic area for your
  paper. Avoid shop-worn topics.

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Recommendations

• Develop a rigorous, logically defensible, and
  relevant conceptual context, followed by a
  tightly linked empirical analysis.

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Recommendations

• Choose a research focus that
• many professional peers care about
• has real world relevance and significance

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Recommendations

• Where does the article fit into the literature?
• Thorough literature review that identifies where
  your contribution fits historically
• Be explicit in pointing out in what ways your
  paper advances the literature.

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Recommendations

• The 3-Rs Rewrite, Rewrite, and Rewrite until
• presentation of ideas and results are clearly
  organized
• spelling and use of language are impeccable
• theoretical and empirical stories are
  understandable to others, besides you and your
  co-authors
• theoretical, methodological, and institutional
  logic is interconnected and internally
  consistent.
• there are many more words than equations
• conclusions actually follow from YOUR research

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Structural Shifts and Breaks in the Process

• Dont flood the journals with submissions that
  arent your best workyour reputation matters.
• Be respectful and polite in all communications
  with Journal Editors.
• Challenge unfavorable reviews when there is a
  question of fact, and you are sure you are right.

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Concluding Comments

• The acceptance rate in Economics and Econometrics
  journals is very low.
• Dont be dejected if you are rejected all
  professionals are rejected some of the time.
• No matter what you initially think of an
  unfavorable review, there is generally always
  something useful in any review, so learn from it.
• Many articles are published in journals other
  than where they were first submitted.