TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ellison,Glenn
TI  - Evolving Standards for Academic Publishing: A q-r Theory
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7805
PY  - 2000
Y2  - July 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7805
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7805.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Glenn Ellison
Department of Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
50 Memorial Drive, E52-380A
Cambridge, MA 02142-1347
Tel: 617/253-8702
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: gellison@mit.edu
AB  - 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.
ER  -