Evolving Standards for Academic Publishing: A q-r Theory / Glenn Ellison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ellison, Glenn.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w7805.

NBER working paper series no. w7805

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Evolving Standards for Academic Publishing

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2000.

Summary:

This paper develops a model of evolving standards for academic publishing. It is motivated by the increasing tendency of academic journals to require multiple revisions of articles and by changes in the content of articles. Papers are modeled as varying along two quality dimensions: q and r. The former represents the clarity and importance of a paper's main ideas and the latter its craftsmanship and polish. Observed trends are regarded as increases in r-quality. A static equilibrium model in which an arbitrary social norm determines how q and r are weighted is developed and used to discuss comparative statics explanations for increases in r. The paper then analyzes a learning model in which referees (who have a biased view of the importance of their own work) try to learn the social norm from observing how their own papers are treated and the decisions editors make on papers they referee. The model predicts that social norms will gradually but steadily evolve to increasingly emphasize r-quality.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2000.