Abstract
Although the peer review system of academic journals is seen as fundamental to scientific achievement, a major threat to the validity of the system is a potential evaluation bias resulting from constraints at the journal level. In this study, we examine how the time pressure to maintain a fixed periodical quota for journal publication can influence a journal editor's decision to accept or reject a paper at any given point in time. We find that an increase in publication backlog, proxied as the average delay between paper acceptance and print publication, is correlated with an increase in the subsequent rejection rates of new submissions. Our findings suggest that time pressures inherent in the peer review system may be a source of potential evaluator bias, calling for a need to reconsider the current quota system.
Highlights
Modern scientific research blossoms in the form of publications
Prior to the main analysis, we plotted the relationship between rejection rate and publication delay (Fig 2)
The least-square fitted line in this figure shows that rejection rate is positively associated with publication delay, though a caveat is needed, as this estimation fails to consider the control variables and the fixed effects
Summary
Modern scientific research blossoms in the form of publications. Today’s peer review process serves as the backbone of modern science, resting on the postulate that publication validates the quality of scientific research [1,2,3]. That the academic journal review process persistently reflects errors in its acceptance of mediocre papers [6, 7] and its rejection of seminal research for publication [8, 9]. These systematic errors may be attributed at least partially to administrative constraints that affect the selection process [10,11,12]. Editors, who have been called the “gatekeepers of science” [1, 13], wish to obtain high-quality papers and evaluate submitted manuscripts based purely on quality Their manuscript evaluation is subject to the pressure to find a sufficient number of papers in time for the regular
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