Sequential order as an extraneous factor in editorial decision

Sultan Orazbayev ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Academic journal editors reject a significant portion of first submissions without sending them out for peer review. This decision, desk rejection, is made to reduce the workload on associate editors and referees, to give the submitting author a head start on revision or pursuit of an alternative venue, as well as to achieve quicker turnaround time for the journal. Desk rejection is a judgement based on the manuscript's perceived quality, impact and fit with the journal's scope. Could extraneous factors, which are unrelated to the content of a manuscript, affect the editorial decision? This paper examines whether the sequential order in which manuscripts are submitted to a large academic journal affects the editorial decision. Becoming the first submission on the editor's list of manuscripts to review increases the probability of a desk rejection by up to 7% without any effect on the likelihood of a rejection after peer review.

Keywords: desk rejection; sequential order effect; decision fatigue; peer review. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A19 D03 D89 J01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03-20
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/77716/1/MPRA_paper_77716.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Sequential order as an extraneous factor in editorial decision (2017)
Working Paper: Sequential order as an extraneous factor in editorial decision (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:77716

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().