Correlations between submission and acceptance of papers in peer review journals

2019
This paper provides a comparative study about seasonal influence on editorial decisions for papers submitted to two peer review journals. We distinguish a specialized one, the Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society (JSCS) and an interdisciplinary one, Entropy. Dates of electronic submission for about 600 papers to JSCS and 2500 to Entropy have been recorded over 3 recent years. Time series of either accepted or rejected papers are subsequently analyzed. We take either editors or authors view points into account, thereby considering magnitudes and probabilities. In this sample, it is found that there are distinguishable peaks and dips in the time series, demonstrating preferred months for the submission of papers. It is also found that papers are more likely accepted if they are submitted during a few specific monthsthese depending on the journal. The probability of having a rejected paper also appears to be seasonally biased. In view of clarifying reports with contradictory findings, we discuss previously proposed conjectures for such effects, like holiday effects and the desk rejection by editors. We conclude that, in this sample, the type of journal, specialized or multidisciplinary, seems to be the drastic criterion for distinguishing the outcomes rates.
SCIENTOMETRICS
页码:279-302|卷号:119|期号:1
ISSN:0138-9130
收录类型
SSCI
发表日期
2019
学科领域
循证社会科学-综合
国家
英国
语种
英语
DOI
10.1007/s11192-019-03026-x
其他关键词
SEASONAL BIAS; CONSENSUS; SUBMIT; WRITE
EISSN
1588-2861
被引频次(WOS)
3
被引更新日期
2022-01
来源机构
University of Leicester University of Belgrade University of Belgrade
关键词
Peer review Seasonal effects Paper submission Paper acceptance Constraints of editors Rejection-submission ratios Peer review management in scientific publishing Editor work load