审稿周期与论文质量--来自SSCI经济学期刊的经验证据

Review Period and Paper Quality:Evidences from SSCI Journals in Economics

本文将论文质量区分为形式质量(细致性和稳健性)和实质质量(重要性),并使用SSCI经济学期刊的论文数据研究审稿周期对论文质量的影响。实证结果表明,审稿周期变长会显著提升论文的形式质量,但会显著降低论文的实质质量;内生性检验和稳健性检验均支持以上结论。本文还将审稿周期分成多个时间区间,发现当审稿周期为半年至一年时,能够在不显著降低论文实质质量的情况下最大限度地提升形式质量。本文的研究结论对提高学术期刊论文审稿效率有重要的参考价值,有助于理解学术期刊编辑和审稿人对专业知识生产的支持作用和贡献。

This paper divides the quality of papers into two parts,namely,formal quality that reflects generality and robustness,and substantive quality that reflects the importance and contribution of the main ideas.Based on the data of papers published in Elsevier's SSCI journal of Economics from 1997 to 2019,this paper analyzes the impact of the review period on paper quality.Longer review period improves the formal quality of papers,but reduces the substantive quality,which can be supported by endogeneity tests and robustness tests.The best review period is about six months to one year,which can maximize the formal quality without significantly reducing the substantive quality.This paper contributes to understanding the supporting role of academic journal editors and reviewers in knowledge production,and gives implication for improving the efficiency of academic review.