Journal of Financial Economics
Information for Anxious/Impatient Authors
Ever since Mike Jensen began the JFE in
1973, one of the fundamental principles the editors have pursued is to provide
thoughtful feedback to authors in a timely way. Sometimes this does not happen.
We have policies to deal with disputes between authors
and referees. We also have mechanisms designed to give referees a strong incentive
to return their reports within a relatively quick time-frame [we pay the referee
$200 and give him/her a coupon for 1/3 off a submission fee to the JFE
for a timely review].
Nevertheless, we are not paying the referee anything close to the value of
his/her time, so in the end we are asking for a big favor of these busy and
talented individuals to forego work on their own research and teaching to instead
spend time reading, thinking about, and giving advice to authors and the editor
about the papers submitted to the JFE.
In recent years, the JFE has begun a policy
of making quick decisions (at a reduced submission fee) on some of the papers
that are submitted. This has cut down on the workload of referees, but there
is still far greater demand for refereeing services than was true even ten years
ago.
In an effort to provide as much transparency as possible, the JFE
has for many years published on its web page the average turnaround statistics
for its editors and ad hoc referees.
Moreover, authors can track the progress of their papers by manuscript number
here.
One obvious "downside" of this transparency is that authors can
easily see when their paper is among the oldest in our work-in-process inventory.
This usually triggers e-mails and/or phone calls to the editorial office (and
sometimes to the editor) wanting to talk about the situation. Let me assure
you that Kathleen Madsen is diligent in politely pestering referees to try to
get referee's reports produced when they are late. Also, in situations where
a referee is unresponsive (or repeatedly assures imminent delivery of report
which never arrives), we often assign new referees to the task in an effort
to expedite matters. In some cases we are reluctant to change referees for a
variety of reasons (e.g., if the paper is a resubmission).
While it is annoying to wait for a tardy referee's report and decision, I
can tell you that in my long experience with the JFE
the papers that referees procrastinate about are often "difficult"
papers. Sometimes they are overly technical, long, or tedious. In some cases,
I am forced to return a paper (with the submission fee) because repeated attempts
to find a referee willing to do the work involved in writing a report are unsuccessful.
Thus, it is not always solely the fault of a referee that the turnaround time
on the report is slow.
If you are impatient and want to "check" on the status of your paper,
you can send Kathleen an email at the JFE
e-mail
address, but in all likelihood all that will happen is that she will tell you
that she has been pestering (and will continue to pester) the referee to elicit
a report as soon as possible. Thus, your best bet is to be patient, track
the progress of your paper, and provide quick service yourself when you are
asked to serve as a referee.
Bill Schwert
Managing Editor
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© Copyright 1996-2008, Journal of Financial
Economics
Last Updated on 3/5/2008