Review Process

economics aims to allow the research evaluation process to be market-driven. The traditional peer review process is substantially supplemented by a "public" peer review process in which the community of active researchers from all over the world has a hand in the evaluation process. This is realized within a two-stage publication process.

First Stage: Publication of the submitted version as economics discussion Paper

Access to public peer review (less than three weeks)

The author submits a paper, if possible with hyperlinks to the referenced literature. In addition to the paper, the author is encouraged to also provide mathematical derivations, underlying data sets and a list of researchers who may be interested in reviewing and rating the paper.

The managing editors check formal and professional standards and pass the paper to an associate editor in the relevant research field and to the German National Library of Economics for completing any missing hyperlinks.

The associate editor decides on whether to accept the paper for the further peer review process by answering two questions: (i) Whether the paper shows promise of making a significant contribution and (ii) whether it meets basic scientific standards. The associate editor is free to ask other experts in the field for a quick opinion.

If these questions are answered in the affirmative, the paper is published on the platform of the economics discussion Papers.

Open assessment of the submitted paper (eight weeks)

The Associate Editor appoints at least two referees for reviewing the paper and uploads their comments on the discussion platform within six weeks. The referees’ comments may be anonymous, but referees are encouraged to allow their reports to be attributed. Referees are asked to provide short reports that focus on two questions: (i) Is the contribution of the paper potentially significant? (ii) Is the analysis correct? Referees are asked NOT to rewrite the paper or to change its focus. With their assignment thus circumscribed, the reviewers can be expected to provide reports before the six week deadline elapses.

While the referees are reviewing the paper, the corresponding public discussion platform is open for eight weeks (the “discussion period”). On this platform, registered readers may review the paper by uploading comments (anonymously or with the name of the contributor published on the web). In addition, the referees´comments are posted on the Web site. Authors are asked to respond to these comments. All comments and responses are published and archived in the economics discussion paper section. This “public” peer review process lasts 8 weeks.

All registered readers can rate the comments by the criteria "extremly helpful, helpful, not helpful, unacceptable" (the results of these ratings are not made public). The editorial board of economics reserves the right to delete unacceptable comments and exclude their commentators from the community of registered readers.  At the longer term a list of the Top 10 commentators of economics will be published on the website.

During the discussion period, the editorial staff sends the paper to potentially interested researchers (invited readers) to encourage them to post a comment in the discussion platform. The list of these researchers is compiled partly by the managing staff with the help of the German National Library of Economics and partly by the author.

The author is free to respond to all comments.

Second Stage: Publication of the final version in economics

Peer review completion

Based on the referee reports, the author replies, and the comments made by registered readers, the associate editor decides whether the paper is accepted or rejected for publication in economics.

If the assoicate editors decision deviates from the views of the referees and the registered readers, the associate editor is free to justify it publicly through a statement in the paper’s discussion forum. In the case of acceptance, the associate editor prepares a short statement, e.g. containing suggestion for revisions.

If accepted, the discussion paper or its revised version is published in economics. The economics discussion Paper with all comments is permanently archived and remains accessible to the public for documenting the paper’s history.

Market-based evaluation of published articles

Readers are asked to rate articles in economics on a scale from one to five (anonymous to the general public but with the name of the contributor forwarded to the managing staff of the journal in order to exclude multiple voting).

Readers are free to upload comments.

Authors are free to respond to all comments.

Authors are free to upload revised versions at any time.

Statistics on ratings, downloads and citations are collected to compile rankings of papers in the various fields of economics. Based on the rankings, prizes for the most outstanding papers in special fields are awarded each year.