The way it works now is you write a paper then you send it to a journal and they review it and decide whether to publish it. The basic unit is the paper. What if we made the author the basic unit? Instead of inviting submissions, Econometrica invites applications for the position of author. Some number of authors are accepted and they can write whatever they want and have it published in Econometrica. The term would be temporary, maybe 1 year.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just write the paper you want to write, not the paper that the referees want you to write? The quality of papers would unambiguously increase. After all, your acceptance is a done deal, anything you write will be published, why bother writing anything less than the most interesting idea that is currently on your mind.
Quality control is achieved by rotating in the authors currently writing the most interesting stuff. Once the current slate of authors is chosen, there is no need anymore for referees or editors. But if you want peer review, you can have that too. Anyone wishing to prepare a referee report is invited to do so, they can even do it anonymously if they want and even make it open to the public. The journal might even want to append the reports onto the published paper.
Come to think of it, these journals already exist: blogs. Cheap Talk invites you to apply to be an author guest blogger. (Past and current holders of this position include Roger Myerson, Lones Smith and Jeroen Swinkels.)
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January 25, 2012 at 6:28 am
Authors vs. journals — Marginal Revolution
[…] From Jeff: The way it works now is you write a paper then you send it to a journal and they review it and decide whether to publish it. The basic unit is the paper. What if we made the author the basic unit? Instead of inviting submissions, Econometrica invites applications for the position of author. Some number of authors are accepted and they can write whatever they want and have it published in Econometrica. The term would be temporary, maybe 1 year. […]
January 25, 2012 at 6:50 am
Gorgasal
“After all, your acceptance is a done deal, anything you write will be published, why bother writing anything less than the most interesting idea that is currently on your mind.”
I’m afraid it will rather be: “why bother writing anything new – just regurgitate your last paper’s introduction and follow up with a tiny wrinkle or special case of what you already published half a year ago. And save the real work for papers where referees will keep you from making your life too easy.” Longer publication list = better chance at tenure & more research grants.
No, I certainly do *not* think that the quality of papers would increase, and especially not “unambiguously”.
January 25, 2012 at 7:57 am
Michael Webster
Open Sage does this, for a fee. I agree with a number of commentators who argue that you cannot simply remove editorial direction.
January 25, 2012 at 8:36 am
Blogs are better than academic journals… « azmytheconomics
[…] Reading: Paul Krugman on blogs vs journals. Cheap Talk on the perfect journal Advertisement GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); GA_googleAddAttr("Origin", "other"); […]
January 25, 2012 at 9:21 am
Anon
I think there is a serious moral hazard problem here.
January 25, 2012 at 10:02 am
Anonymous
my thoughts are that there is some irony here and you should not read this post literally
January 25, 2012 at 10:39 am
Jonathan Robinson
These kinds of journals already exist to some extent…the Annual Reviews of….
January 25, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Carl
Just what the profession needs: more opinionated pieces with less requirements of rigor. Though this blog in particular has been more carefully articulated than others (who have proven Nobel-worthy), do we really want more half-baked, less-carefully-argued ideas? In the words of the immortal Jerry Seinfeld: Just what the city needs! More slow-moving, wicker vehicles.
January 26, 2012 at 11:41 pm
N
This post must be sarcastic. I can only imagine what kind of papers someone accomplished and political like Krugman will write for an entire year.