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Failure in the market for reviewing economics papers: Good readers, bad referees, and ugly papers

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  • Hatzinikolaou, Dimitris

Abstract

The paper discusses the problem of incompetent and/or irresponsible refereeing of scientific papers, with emphasis on economics papers. To illustrate, I describe my own confrontation with erroneous published papers, and demonstrate that writing comments on such papers does not always solve the problem. Finally, based on previously suggested as well as on currently used solutions, I propose a change in the review process by abolishing referee anonymity and letting the authors appeal publicly if they think their papers have been evaluated improperly. This change will render the process self-correcting.

Suggested Citation

  • Hatzinikolaou, Dimitris, 2012. "Failure in the market for reviewing economics papers: Good readers, bad referees, and ugly papers," MPRA Paper 45384, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 26 Sep 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:45384
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/45384/1/MPRA_paper_45384.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    6. Dimitris Hatzinikolaou, 2010. "Econometric Errors in an _Applied Economics_ Article," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 7(2), pages 107-112, May.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Review process; referee anonymity; causality; endogeneity; spurious regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation

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