Journal Reporting Times, EJMR vs. Self-Reported Stats from Journals.

Methodology: I took the self-reported data I collected here (which come from from ejmr here), and compared to the official journal stats collected by Juan Carlos Suárez here.

Overall, the data line up fairly well.

Here is the correlation in journal first-response times, conditional on being sent out for review.  The R-squared is a respectable .52, although AEJ: Micro is an outlier on EJMR, where it actually does better than what the official statistics suggest (with N=16 though...). Author-reported weight times are about two weeks longer on average, but on ejmr, you round to the nearest month vs. day, so some difference isn't surprising.

Here is the correlation between desk rejections, author vs. journal reported. The regression coefficient is close to 1, and the R-squared is .63. The intercept is -.072, as average reported desk-rejections are lower on ejmr.

Here's the Data:

Journal	Desk Reject Rate (EJMR)	Desk Reject (Official)	First Response Time, Conditional on Being Sent Out to Referees (EJMR)	First Response Time, Conditional on Being Sent Out to Referees (Official)
QJE	61%	66%	1.5	1.5
JPE	50%	49%	8.0	4.0
REStud	34%	49%	4.5	3.4
ECTA	23%	32%	3.6	3.4
AEJ: Macro	21%	38%	2.9	3.4
AEJ: Applied	37%	45%	2.5	2.7
Journal of Finance	33%	32%	3.0	2.2
AER	47%	46%	3.7	3.1
JEEA	58%	49%	2.5	3.2
AEJ: Policy	36%	51%	2.8	3.1
EJ	45%	55%	3.7	3.6
AEJ: Micro	25%	38%	3.4	4.5

Ranking Economic Journals by Speed, Updated

I decided to update my previous ranking on economics journals ranked by speed.

In the table below, # is the journal's rank by citations (may be 2 years old, I didn't update this), and then there is data on the acceptance rate, desk rejection rate, average time to acceptance, median time to acceptance, and the 25th and 75th percentiles (all in terms of months). Only journals with at least 5 observations were included. Data come from here.

There are some similarities with the previous ranking by speed. The QJE is still the fastest, and the JME still brings up the rear -- despite the fact I've doubled the sample size.

One note is that I just copy-pasted and ran my previous code, so if you notice any errors below, please let me know.

My big hesitation with doing this is that I think it may not purely be a good thing to incentive journals to respond quickly. They tend to do this by desk-rejecting more papers, and I worry that desk-rejections are often done on the basis of institutional affiliation, or perhaps after a less-than-fully-thorough examination of the paper. I may do an updated version which conditions on the paper going out to journals. Nevertheless, if you are contemplating which journal to submit a paper to, this may be helpful.

#	Journal Name	Accept %	Desk Reject %	Avg. Time	Median Time	25th Percent. (Months)	75th Percent. (Months)	N =
1	Quarterly Journal of Economics	1%	61%	0.59	0	0	1	82
80	Journal of Economic Geography	0%	80%	0.67	0	0	1	5
12	Journal of the European Economic Association	3%	58%	1.16	0	0	2	31
81	Kyklos	8%	33%	1.33	1	0.5	2	12
94	Economics and Human Biology	43%	43%	1.50	1	0	3	7
74	Management Science	18%	45%	1.55	2	0	2	22
15	Review of Financial Studies	11%	37%	1.59	2	0	2	27
78	Demography	0%	80%	1.60	1	0	2	5
14	Journal of Human Resources	15%	54%	1.60	1	0	3	46
31	European Economic Review	28%	44%	1.72	1	0	3	50
6	American Economic Journal: Applied Economics	8%	37%	1.76	2	0	3	49
13	American Economic Journal: Economic Policy	8%	36%	1.83	2	0	3	36
100	China Economic Review	67%	33%	1.83	2	0.5	2	9
7	Journal of Finance	0%	33%	2.05	2	0	3	21
19	Journal of Financial Economics	24%	18%	2.06	2	1	3	17
27	Journal of Financial Intermediation	14%	29%	2.14	3	1	3	7
9	American Economic Review	7%	47%	2.16	1	0	4	91
46	Econometrics Journal	0%	50%	2.17	0.5	0	5	6
55	Review of Income and Wealth	17%	67%	2.17	0.5	0	4	6
38	Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis	29%	6%	2.18	2	1	3	17
37	Journal of Population Economics	22%	44%	2.22	3	0	4	9
76	Explorations in Economic History	56%	11%	2.22	2	2	3	9
32	Theoretical Economics	8%	0%	2.23	2	2	2	13
90	Economics Letters	45%	25%	2.24	2	1	2	114
42	Review of Finance	0%	8%	2.25	2.5	1.5	3	12
16	Economic Journal	16%	45%	2.26	2	0	4	56
34	Journal of Health Economics	13%	55%	2.32	2	1	4	31
5	American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics	13%	21%	2.33	2	1.5	3	24
62	Regional Science and Urban Economics	52%	14%	2.35	2	2	3	21
65	International Journal of Industrial Organization	7%	20%	2.47	2	1	4	15
91	Public Choice	14%	48%	2.48	1	0	3	29
35	Labour Economics	9%	27%	2.55	2.5	2	3	22
41	Journal of Law and Economics	0%	43%	2.57	3	1	4	14
61	Journal of Comparative Economics	27%	33%	2.63	2	0.5	4.5	15
71	European Journal of Political Economy	38%	23%	2.69	2	2	3	13
58	B.E. Journals in Economic Analysis & Policy	33%	7%	2.71	3	1	4	15
26	Journal of Urban Economics	22%	17%	2.72	3	1	4	18
30	American Economic Journal: Microeconomics	19%	25%	2.74	3	1	4	16
4	Econometrica	6%	23%	2.77	3	1	4	35
24	Journal of Applied Econometrics	9%	35%	2.78	2	0	5	23
57	Industrial and Labor Relations Review	27%	36%	2.82	2	1	5	11
64	The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization	18%	27%	2.82	3	2	4	11
85	Energy Journal	38%	0%	2.88	3	2	3.5	8
36	World Bank Economic Review	8%	31%	2.92	2	2	4	13
11	Journal of Labor Economics	0%	32%	3.00	3	0	6	19
21	Journal of Public Economics	12%	27%	3.10	3	1	4	60
83	American Journal of Health Economics	43%	0%	3.14	3	2	4	7
3	Review of Economic Studies	4%	34%	3.16	3	0	5	73
23	Journal of Development Economics	17%	41%	3.16	3	1	4	54
63	Oxford Economic Papers	17%	42%	3.23	3	1	5	12
67	Journal of Banking and Finance	18%	18%	3.25	3	2	4	28
87	Southern Economic Journal	14%	14%	3.29	4	2	4	7
99	American Journal of Agricultural Economics	23%	0%	3.31	3	3	4	13
82	Journal of Macroeconomics	31%	25%	3.31	3	0.5	5.5	16
69	Economics and Politics	40%	0%	3.33	3	1	6	5
89	Journal of Economic History	17%	0%	3.33	3	2	4	6
93	Review of Economics of the Household	20%	10%	3.46	3	1	3	10
17	Journal of Economic Growth	0%	0%	3.50	2.5	2	3	10
92	Small Business Economics	25%	25%	3.50	3	1.5	5	8
10	Review of Economics and Statistics	2%	48%	3.51	2	0	5	65
56	Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization	30%	27%	3.67	4	0	6	33
25	Journal of Business and Economic Statistics	20%	10%	3.70	2.5	2	5	10
49	Canadian Journal of Economics	28%	6%	3.72	4	3	5	18
53	Economics of Education Review	50%	7%	3.79	4	2	5	14
51	Journal of Industrial Economics	13%	33%	3.81	4	1.5	5.5	15
88	World Development	39%	37%	3.92	3	1	6	49
33	Journal of Economic Theory (Elsevier)	21%	18%	3.94	4	3	5	33
22	RAND Journal of Economics	6%	21%	3.97	4	3	5	34
68	Macroeconomics Dynamics (Cambridge)	57%	21%	4.07	4	1	6	14
28	Experimental Economics	38%	8%	4.08	3	2	6	13
40	Journal of Environmental Economics and Management	24%	8%	4.15	3.5	2	5	25
45	Econometric Theory	0%	40%	4.20	4	0	5	5
84	Health Economics	8%	50%	4.21	3	3	6	12
44	Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control	50%	14%	4.22	3	1	4	22
54	Journal of Economics and Management Strategy	54%	8%	4.23	3	3	6	13
66	International Tax and Public Finance	14%	14%	4.29	3	2	7	7
60	B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics	63%	0%	4.33	4	2	6	8
75	Economic Theory	23%	27%	4.35	4	1	6	22
95	Energy Economics	55%	0%	4.42	4	3.5	6	11
98	Economics of Transition	71%	14%	4.50	4.5	2.5	6	7
47	Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics	29%	36%	4.64	4	2	6	14
72	Environmental and Resource Economics	27%	47%	4.69	4	2.5	6.5	15
18	Journal of International Economics	18%	6%	4.71	3	3	6	17
43	Journal of International Money and Finance	40%	5%	4.75	3	2	7	20
97	Journal of Corporate Finance	14%	14%	4.75	3.5	3	6.5	7
73	Review of International Economics	30%	10%	4.91	3	3	6	10
52	Games and Economic Behavior	18%	18%	4.94	4	3	6	50
59	Economic Development and Cultural Change	27%	20%	5.00	4.5	3	6.5	15
48	Economic Inquiry	25%	25%	5.18	3	2	7	36
39	Journal of Economic Surveys	0%	40%	5.20	5	0	7	5
2	Journal of Political Economy	0%	50%	5.34	3	2	8	32
96	Empirical Economics	44%	13%	5.56	5.5	3.5	6	16
50	Economica	11%	53%	5.57	3	1	6	19
20	Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking	13%	13%	5.72	4.5	2.5	9	30
77	Journal of Public Economic Theory	27%	18%	5.86	6	3	9	11
79	The World Economy	40%	0%	6.25	5	3.5	8.5	5
70	Econometric Reviews	33%	0%	6.86	7	4	10	6
29	Journal of Econometrics	10%	10%	6.90	6.5	5	10	10
86	Journal of Empirical Finance	38%	0%	8.22	7	6	13	8
8	Journal of Monetary Economics	21%	11%	9.12	6	4	11	19