Top Economics Journals Research Articles

Article placement and market signalling

Does article placement by journal editors influence the number of citations an article receives? Articles that appear in eight top economics journals in 1990 are examined. Holding constant author quality, article length, journal quality and subject area, the empirical results show that being a lead article or the article placement position number in a journal issue have a statistically insignificant effect on the number of citations an article receives. The impact of favourable article placement on citations is initially positive, but diminishes over time. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that journal editors use favourable article placement as non-monetary compensation to authors.

The Institutional Concentration of Authors in Top Journals of Economics During the Last Two Decades

This paper addresses the institutional concentration of authors in 15 top economics journals from 1977 to 1997. The concentration of authors' PhD affiliations is substantially higher than the concentration of authors' current affiliations. Relating input indicators, such as population, number of universities with economics departments, or manpower in economics, to publication output reduces the US dominance considerably, whereas Israel and the United Kingdom come out excellently. Exporters and importers of PhDs among universities are identified. Concentration ratios like the Herfindahl-Index lack a clear time trend. Nevertheless, the position of the United States has been weakening in recent years.

The Slowdown of the Economics Publishing Process

Over the last three decades there has been a dramatic slowdown of the publication process at top economics journals. A substantial part is due to journals' requiring more extensive revisions. Various explanations are considered: democratization of the review process, increases in the complexity of papers, growth of the profession, and cost and benefit arguments. Changes in the profession are examined using time‐series data. Connections between these changes and the slowdown are examined using paper‐level data. There is evidence for some explanations, but most of the slowdown remains unexplained. Changes may reflect evolving social norms.

The quantitative methods component in social sciences curricula in view of journal content

What level of quantitative methods (or applied statistical analysis) should graduate students in the social sciences be prepared to master, if they are to be competitive in the job market? In the age of information technology, more data, in survey or other form, about any imaginable topic exist than ever before. Empirical analysis on the basis of more advanced quantitative methods becomes more common. This study takes the perspective that graduate students in the social sciences must be prepared to read a literature that makes extensive use of quantitative methods. To quantify this dimension of the literature, top journals in economics, political science, public administration, and sociology are examined for their quantitative complexity.

Revealed preference for economics journals: Citations as dollar votes

There are several measures which can be used to evaluate professional regard for economics journals. In this paper, I have focused on citations as a proxy for quality of material published, as revealed preference for the journals. The availability of the Social Sciences Citation Index has permitted construction of a relative rating system for economics journals, based on citations, which was virtually impossible for previous researchers to achieve. While the potential objections to using citations as a proxy have been admitted, the proxy is still a useful one — one that reveals preferences for the top economics journals, much as dollars reveal preferences in product markets.

Institutional performance in the publishing of economic papers during 1975–79

This brief article shows a simple ranking of institutions based on the institutional affiliation of authors who together contributed at least 1 percent of the total pages of top economic journals. In addition, it summarizes an analysis of the relative concentration of authors which seems to indicate a weakening of the dominance long enjoyed by a small number of institutions in the publishing of economic papers in the four journals.