[AISWorld] More on journal cycle times

[Kevin G Crowston]

> From: "Thomas Stafford (tstaffor)" 

> There is a pragmatic yet informal quid pro quo at journals: "those who wish to enjoy the  
> peer review services should contribute to the peer review services as well." It is not  
> actually stated as a requirement, but everybody understands. Not everybody honors  
> it, but it is known. 

Perhaps it is time to formalize the exchange? E.g., a simple system in which a (quality) review for a journal would earn a token, and 3 tokens would have to be redeemed for each paper submission. Doctoral students and recent graduates might be given a small number of tokens to get them started, and perhaps a secondary market would start to exchange excess tokens for cash. 

Or maybe just a database of who reviews and who doesn’t to guide effort in searching for reviewers. Why waste a good reviewer on someone who doesn’t reciprocate? 
 
> >>> the effective time for review a paper can be estimated on 2-3 hours in 2-3 iterations,  
> so the problem is the scheduling of the paper assigned by the reviewer, so it is very likely  
> that the paper is in stand by for months. This is the process review problem. None of us  
> can believe that the review process lasted several months because reviewers read the  
> paper all of this time.>>>

It does seem to be the case that reviews are mostly done at (or just after) the deadline. So a simple solution to getting reviews done more quickly is to move the deadline earlier, i.e., ask if a reviewer can do a review this week rather than in 6 weeks. Both are equally likely, but the later is nearly guaranteed to take longer. 

Personally though, when I’m asked to review, I ask for longer deadlines because I’ve usually already agreed to review other papers and I try to do no more than 1 review every 2 weeks (yes, 25 reviews/year, not counting conferences, grant agencies, editorial duties, etc.). (I’m currently taking reservations for May.) 

Kevin Crowston
Syracuse University Phone: +1 (315) 443-1676
School of Information Studies Fax: +1 (815) 550-2155
348 Hinds Hall Web: http://crowston.syr.edu/
Syracuse, NY 13244-4100 USA