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Expedited editorial decision in COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Sun, Zhuanlan
  • Liu, Sheng
  • Li, Yiwei
  • Ma, Chao

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant lockdowns have interrupted the way scientists live and work. This nevertheless caused an unforeseen impact of COVID-19: the pandemic substantially increased editorial speed. Here, we causally identify the impact of the pandemic on the editorial decision time, based on a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity (RD) design that compares (N = 339,199) papers submitted in the lead-up to and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that editors make acceptance decisions significantly quicker after the pandemic, reducing the editorial decision time of revised papers by 8.9 days on average. The pandemic, however, has unequal impacts on editors. The results reveal a larger reduction in editorial decision time for editors of high-tier journals, in the field of social science, or with busy work schedules. Finally, our findings also allude to the potential for the increase of editorial speed, and will stimulate policy changes in scientific enterprises that strive for accelerated publishing.

Suggested Citation

  • Sun, Zhuanlan & Liu, Sheng & Li, Yiwei & Ma, Chao, 2023. "Expedited editorial decision in COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:17:y:2023:i:1:s175115772300007x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2023.101382
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    Cited by:

    1. Xie, Yundong & Wu, Qiang & Wang, Yezhu & Hou, Li & Liu, Yuanyuan, 2024. "Does the handling time of scientific papers relate to their academic impact and social attention? Evidence from Nature, Science, and PNAS," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    2. Sun, Zhuanlan & Clark Cao, C. & Ma, Chao & Li, Yiwei, 2023. "The academic status of reviewers predicts their language use," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4).
    3. Zhuanlan Sun & Chenwei Zhang & Ka Lok Pang & Ying Tang & Yiwei Li, 2024. "Do Changes in Journal Rank Influence Publication Output? Evidence from China," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(11), pages 7035-7054, November.
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