Economic Inquiry2014 Editor's Report

Abstract

Volume 52 of Economic Inquiry, published in four issues, includes 94 papers and a total of 1,549 pages. Both the number of papers and the total number of pages are fewer than that of Volume 51, where an extensive backlog of papers was published, but remains significantly larger than in previous years. A result from publishing the backlog is that the time from acceptance to publication is much faster than in recent years. Economic Inquiry continues to serve the academic community as a general interest journal and as such publishes papers in a diverse array of different areas. Table 1 refers to papers published in 2014 by the Journal of Economic Literature classification system. As shown, topics include a wide variety of papers in both microeconomics and macroeconomics. These include specific areas such as industrial organization, labor, public, and health. In addition, masked in the data is a large number of submitted papers in experimental (approximately 55 submissions) and sports economics (approximately 38), which over the years have been major fields for Economic Inquiry. Finally, Economic Inquiry has a worldwide presence. While about 47% of submissions are from authors in the United States (Table 2), more than one-half are received from authors located outside the United States (Table 2). EDITORIAL CHANGES Since the 2013 report, there have been a number of changes among the editors. Jeff Borland (University of Melbourne), Jim Ziliak (University of Kentucky), Robin McKnight (Wellesley College), and Sebastien Lahaie (Microsoft) have each resigned after years of faithful service. Their efforts are very much appreciated, and I wish them all the best. The journal continues to grow, and to accommodate the growth and attrition of coeditors, I have appointed Martin Gervais (University of Iowa) and David Malueg (University of California--Riverside) as general coeditors. Martin's primary area is in macroeconomics, while David's primary area is in microeconomic theory. I have also appointed Maggie Chen (George Washington University), Charles Mason (University of Wyoming), Rob Simmons (Lancaster University), and Ola Olsson (University of Gothenburg) as specialized coeditors. Maggie joins as a specialized coeditor for international economics and, in particular, multinational firms; Charles joins as a specialized coeditor for environmental economics; Rob joins as a specialized coeditor for sport economics; and Ola joins as a specialized coeditor for economic growth. The continued expansion of the journal mandates that I increase the size of the editorial team, and these specialized appointments represent areas of growth in the journal. Furthermore, these appointments underscore our commitment to focus on papers that have a strong sense of purpose, make substantial contributions to the literature, are of interest to specialists and nonspecialists, and that are well crafted, motivated by a clear objective for research and accessible to general readers. STATE OF THE JOURNAL In 2014, Economic Inquiry had 601 submissions, marking another record number of submissions (Table 3). Since 2000, the number of submissions has grown tremendously, with increases every year through 2014, with the exceptions of 2003 and 2012. The number of submissions in 2014 was 3.62 times that of 2000. So far in 2015, the journal is, again, ahead of the record pace of 2014. Of the 601 submissions in 2014, decisions have been reached on 515. There were 67 accepted and 448 rejected, with 69 pending decisions, pointing to an acceptance rate of 13.01%, which is about the same as last year. There were a total of 437 standard submissions of which 44 were accepted (10%), and a total of 71 no-revisions papers of which 18 were accepted (25%). There were also seven miscellany papers of which five were accepted. The overall acceptance rate has fallen steadily over the last 15 years, but submissions have grown. The net result is that the number of accepted papers since 2006 has ranged between 63 and 87 acceptances, with no discernible trend. …