Desk Rejection Policy

Effective July 1 2008

Historically, JME has sent all submitted manuscripts directly to referees, reflecting founding editor Karl Brunner’s view that part of the journal’s role was to help develop the network of economists around the world. In Brunner’s view, a referee report was a positive outcome, even if the referee was quite critical or if the editor decided against publication at a later stage based on the subject material of the article.

At this time, though, the rise of the internet and improved general communication across economists has reduced the networking value of journals.  Moreover, submissions continue to rise at JME in quantity and quality.  Finally, referee reports are precious items, with an increasing number of journals competing for scarce referee resources.

Consequently, I have decided to begin to selectively use a system that Elsevier calls “desk rejection” on a fraction of manuscripts submitted to the journal.  At present, JME can publish less than 20% of submitted manuscripts, so that this is a simple system of making a first winnowing of manuscripts. With this system, I am seeking to focus our editorial resources on manuscripts that seem most appropriate in topic and nature of contribution.

If your submitted manuscript is placed in this decision category, you will receive a brief letter from me within a month of its submission (and most likely within a week).

A $50 handling fee will be charged, with the balance of the submission fee returned by check or PayPal. (Journal of Financial Economics presently rebates $400 of its $500 submission fee in a similar policy). Check will be the standard method of fee return, unless an author used PayPal to make the initial submission fee payment.

We encourage authors to submit manuscripts in a form that maximizes their likelihood of ultimate publication. Please review our recommendations at Before You Submit. Please also be aware that short manuscripts with detailed appendices are the journal's preferred mode. To see how JME will be treating appendices for published papers, please see our information on supplemental material.

I solicit author feedback on this policy.  Comments can be sent to rgk4jme@gmail.com .

Robert G. King
Editor