Editor's report.

Jansen, Dennis W.

The 2004 volume of Economic, Inquiry consisted of 54 papers in a wide variety of fields. These papers included theoretical, empirical, and experimental studies, and were in fields that ranged from labor and industrial organization to macroeconomics, growth, public choice, and health economics.

We report data on editorial activities in two ways. Table I is organized by the year in which an event (submission, acceptance, rejection) occurred, and Table II is organized by the year in which a paper was originally submitted. These tables start with data from 1997, the year that Texas A&M University became the editorial home of Economic Inquiry, and continue through the time of this writing, which is late May 2005.

Table I shows that our submissions in 2004 numbered 196, down somewhat from our high of 213 in 2002 but still above every other year since 1997. We accepted 56 papers in 2004, the same as in 2003. Our acceptance rate in 2004, counting papers accepted in 2004 no matter when submitted, was 24 percent, down from 30 percent in 2003 but in line with our experience since 1997. We also rejected 181 papers in 2004.

Table II provides a better perspective on acceptance and rejection rates. This table is organized by year in which a paper was submitted. Table II also takes into account the outstanding revisions in progress. In many years prior to 2004 there were papers submitted but on which there has not yet been a final decision. For example, there were 7 papers submitted in 2002 that are still in the revise and resubmit category in 2004. Data in Table II can be used to determine the ratio of reject decisions to non-reject decisions by year of submission. For example, in 1997 we rejected 2.5 papers for every paper we either accepted or gave an invitation to revise and resubmit. In 2002 we rejected 146 papers, accepted 59, and there are still 7 papers in the revise and resubmit process, so the ratio of reject decisions to non-reject decisions (defined as accepted or revise and resubmit) currently stands at 2.2. In 2003 this ratio was 2.3, and 2.4 in 2004.

Another important measure of editorial performance relevant to authors is the speed with which decisions are made. This is commonly reported as the average time to the first decision. Table III reports this statistic for Economic Inquiry over 1997--present. We have restored this number to near five months in 2004.

Table III also reports the average time from submission to acceptance, a statistic recommended by Glenn Ellison of MIT. This statistic is reported in Table III for Economic Inquiry for the years 1997--present. In 2004 Economic Inquiry's time between submission and acceptance had increased to 15.6 months. (In comparison, Ellison reported that in 1999 the average number of months between initial submission and acceptance was 19.8 for eight general interest journals (other than Economic Inquiry), including 20.3 months for the Journal of Political Economy, 18.2 months for the Economic Journal, and 13.0 months for Quarterly Journal of Economics. In 1999 Economic Inquiry achieved a time of 11.6 months from original submission to final acceptance, among the fastest of the general interest journals for which Ellison obtained data.)

The editorial team for calendar year 2004 consisted of by Michael McKee of the University of Tennessee, Ron Oaxaca of the University of Arizona, Thomas Saving of Texas A&M University, and myself. I thank my co-editors for their dedication and hard work. I also thank Jennifer Broaddus, our editorial assistant and office manager, the staff at Oxford University Press, and Joyce Rosendahl, who helps coordinate with the WEAI and also assisted with many tasks. Of course, our performance both in terms of the quality of the papers accepted and the speed with which we operate depends on the efforts of the members of our Editorial Board and of our referees, who are listed in Table IV. We are extremely grateful for their work, and they have done an excellent job of both screening papers and making suggestions for improvement. TABLE I Activities During the Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 Papers published 65 52 46 45 Manuscripts received 204 166 188 166 Manuscripts accepted (A) 24 62 43 61 Manuscripts rejected (R) 146 112 114 132 Acceptance rate [A/(A + R)] 15.0% 36.0% 28.0% 32.0% 2001 2002 2003 2004 Papers published 52 51 49 54 Manuscripts received 183 213 193 196 Manuscripts accepted (A) 44 34 56 56 Manuscripts rejected (R) 121 133 134 181 Acceptance rate [A/(A + R)] 27.0% 21.0% 30.0% 24.0% 2005 (thru 4/15/05) Papers published 31 Manuscripts received 61 Manuscripts accepted (A) 10 Manuscripts rejected (R) 33 Acceptance rate [A/(A + R)] 24.0% TABLE II Disposition of Manuscripts by Year of Submission 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Manuscripts received 204 166 188 166 183 213 Accepted 58 54 50 39 47 59 Rejected 145 111 136 126 135 146 Withdrawn 1 1 2 1 1 1 Revise and resubmit 0 0 0 0 0 7 Waiting for first decision 0 0 0 0 0 0 2005 2003 2004 (thru 4115/05) Manuscripts received 193 196 61 Accepted 43 12 0 Rejected 131 114 6 Withdrawn 2 1 0 Revise and resubmit 13 36 1 Waiting for first decision 4 33 54 TABLE III Months from Original Submission to: (Average by Year of Decision) 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 First decision 5.4 4.7 5 5.1 5.2 4.8 6.1 Final acceptance 12.4 12.7 11.6 14.9 12.0 14.3 12.3 2005 2004 (thru 4/15/05) First decision 5.3 5.7 Final acceptance 15.6 14.4 TABLE IV Referees for 2004 Agrawal, Ajay Alexander, Peter Anderson, Heather Anderson, Torben Angelucci, Manuela Atack, Jeremy Bachmeier, Lance Baier, Scott Baillie, Richard Baker, Kenneth Bartel, Ann Barth, Jim Bartik, Timothy Baye, Michael Becker, William Berrens, Robert Biddle, Jeff Black, Dan Blanchard, Olivier Bleaney, Michael Blonigen, Bruce Bond, Eric Booker, Kevin Bose, Subir Bradley, Michael Bram, Jason Bruce, Don Brueckner, Jan Bullard, James Burda, Michael Butkiewicz, James Butler, Richard Button, Kenneth Caporale, Guglielmo Maria Capra, Monica Carey, Kathleen Carpenter, Jeffrey Cecchetti, Steve Ceglowski, Janet Chaloupka, Frank Chang, Daisy Chang, Della Charles, Kerwin Chernew, Michael Cheslock, John Chezum, Brian Chiang, Hui-Chu Clark, Jeremy Clay, Karen Coelli, Tim Collins, William Cook, Philip Cooper, David Corredor, Cesar Cote, Denise Coughlin, Cletus Coulson, Edward Cover, James Currie, Janet Dahl, Gordon Dawson, John de Goeij, Peter De Haan, Jakob Deck, Cary Deily, Mary DeSimone, Jeffrey Doh, Bo-Eun Dominitz, Jeff Ducker, Michael Dunlevy, James Durden, Garey Dwyer, Debra Dwyer, Gerald Eckard, E. Woodrow Egger, Peter Einav, Liran Elzinga, Kenneth Escobari, Diego Evans, Garen Evans, Mary Falaschetti, Dino Fernald, John Ferrall, Christopher Ferrero, Giuseppe Ferris, J. Stephen Fishback, Price Fisman, Raymond Fleck, Rob Folland, Sherman Freeman, Donald Freund, Caroline Fuchs-Schuendeln, Nicola Garfinkel, Michelle Garoupa, Nuno Gerali, Andrea Giannetti, Mariassunta Giannoni, Marc Glomm, Gerhard Goff, Brian Gokhale, Jagadeesh Goldsmith, Arthur Gonzalez, Arturo Goodman, Alissa Gopinath, Munisamy Greene, Kenneth Gronberg, Timothy Grossbard-Shechtman, Shoshana Grossman, Philip Gu, Jingping Guariglia, Alessandra Hafer, Rik Hamori, Shigeyuki Hanson, Gordon Hanson, John Harbaugh, William Harrison, Glenn Haslag, Joseph Hausken, Kjell Heckelman, Jac Hein, Scott Hermes, Niels Herrera, Ana Maria Hettich, Walter Hirshleifer, Jack Hitt, Lorin Hoffman, Dennis Holmes, Mark Hoover, Kevin Hoppe, Heidrun Horowitz, Ira Horowitz, John Hubbard, Thomas Hunnicutt, Lynn Imrohoroglu, Ayse Ishii, Jun Jeitschko, Thomas Jindapon, Paan Johnson, Ryan Jolls, Christine Jones, John Kaestner, Robert Kahn, James Kandil, Magda Kasper, Hirschel Keating, John Kenkel, Don Kessler, Anke Kiley, Michael Kim, Geum Soo Kishan, Ruby Klenow, Peter Kletzer, Lori Knoeber, Charles Kopczuk, Wojciech Kovenock, Dan Krause, Catherine Krause, Kate Kretschmer, Tobias Kugler, Adriana Kujal, Praveen Kunze, Astrid Kutan, Ali Laband, David Lane, Julia Le, Quan Lee, Dwight Leonard, Megan Lettau, Martin Levine, Phillip Levinson, Arik Levy, Helen Libecap, Gary Licandro, Omar Lin, Shuanglin Linster, Bruce Liu, DanDan Liu, Liqun Livernois, John Long, Mark Loomis, John Lott, John Love, Alan Lusardi, Annamaria Macpherson, David Manning, Willard Marlow, Michael Marquez, Jaime Maskus, Keith Mayer, Adalbert Mazumdar, Joy McClure, James McCracken, Michael McDaniel, Tanga McKenzie, David Meardon, Stephen Meyer, Jack Michaelides, Alex Mitchem, Eric Moss, Philip Murray Matthew Neal, Terry Neilson, Bill Nelson, Edward Neumark, David Nilssen, Tore Norman, George Noussair, Charles Oettinger, Gerald Ongena, Steven Otto, Glen Oyer, Paul Ozkan, Gulcin Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo Pagan, Jose Papell, David Parkman, Allan Paserman, Marco Daniele Pearce, Doug Peek, Joe Pelletier, Denis Peracchi, Franco Powers, Eric Qiu, Larry Ransom, Michael Rapach, David Ratti, Ronald Reid, Clifford Reilly, Kevin Rettenmaier, Andrew Reyes, Javier Richard, Oliver Rivkin, Steve Rodgers III, William Roush, Jennifer Rubio, Juan Ruggiero, John Sakellaris, Plutarchos Santore, Rudy Schaffer, William Schanzenbach, Max Scholten, Patrick Sefton, Martin Seo, Byeongseon Shambaugh, Jay Shanley, Mark Shearer, Bruce Sheehan, Richard Shin, Joan Shmanske, Stephen Shogren, Jason Sieg, Holger Siegfried, John Skrzypacz, Andrzej Smith, Dean Smith, Todd Snow, Arthur Sorensen, Anders Stanley, T.D. Stefanou, Spiro Stein, Rebecca Stowe, Jill Stratmann, Thomas Stratton, Leslie Straub, John Su, Xiaojing Sutter, Daniel Szymanski, Stefan Tallman, Ellis Tambakis, Demosthenes Tamura, Robert Taylor, Laura Thompson, Eric Tian, Guoqiang Toutkoushian, Robert Trandel, Gregory Trejo, Steve Ugidos, Arantza Vacaflores, Diego Vanhoose, David Verdier, Genevieve Viscusi, Kip Vossler, Christian Wachtel, Paul Waddell, Glenn Wang, Zijun Wascher, William Watson, Elizabeth Watts, Michael Watugala, Megha Weber, Christian Weinhold, Diana Weisman, Dennis Weisman, Dennis Wheelock, David Wiggins, Steve Wilhite, Allen Wills, Doug Wilson, Bart Winkler, Anne Wohar, Mark Wong, Linda Woo, Jaejoon Woolley, Frances Wright, Julian Xu, Yexiao Yi, Kei-Mu Yuen, Terence Zavodny, Madeline Zheng, Buhong Zimbalist, Andrew Zimmerman, Paul Zou, Lin