================= HES POSTING ================= 
 
[Roy: I'd be happy to provide more information for your student if needed. 
 
Ross] 
 
 
           A comment on the Review process 
          of the Journal of Political Economy 
 
 
General Synopsis of Editorial Review Process 
 
All articles in the 1920's are reviewed by someone at University of 
Chicago (under the Marshall and the Viner/Knight editorships). Most 
articles are double reviewed (the second reviewer might be someone outside 
UofC, but related in some way to the department -- e.g., Frank H. Knight 
prior to 1927 or J.M. Clark after). Where there are differences of 
opinion, a third opinion is sometimes sought. As far as I can tell, the 
reviewer always knew the name of the author (the review request form 
included the author's name and institutional affiliation), but it is not 
clear whether the author was told who had reviewed his/her article. The 
JPE paid its authors approximately $1/page up to 1928 (I do not have any 
information about payment beyond that date). 
 
Any earlier editorial policy is harder to see, although Veblen's editorial 
letters suggest a fairly loose editorial policy--he'd get someone he knew 
to read it if he had any questions. Veblen's editorial correspondence is 
basically an extension of his personal correspondence. 
 
It is also important to note that articles for an upcoming volume were 
often solicited (remember that the JPE was a _house_ publication which 
eventually gained an international reputation). If any refereeing of 
solicited articles was done, it was usually not a reject/accept decision, 
but to acquire editorial suggestions (an exception is one of Frank 
Knight's unpublished essays which was rejected by Marshall after being 
solicited). Interestingly, it appears that a number of the articles by 
women (Elizabeth Abbott, for example) were solicited (you may know that 
the JPE had a higher percentage of female authors in the early years than 
other economics journals, although its female authors were often from 
other disciplines). The solicitation of articles to fill an issue appears 
to have ended during the Viner/Knight years (1928-1945)--probably because 
there were enough articles submitted to fill most issues and because the 
journal became more narrowly focused. 
 
Finally, it is worth noting that the journal's audience still included a 
substantial number of non-academics until at least the end of the 1920s. 
Chicago-area businessmen subscribed, as did a number of non-academic 
professionals outside economics. When Viner and Knight took over in 1928, 
the journal had already moved quite far toward serving primarily the 
economics discipline; however, one could still say that the narrowing of 
focus was pursued vigorously under their editorship (N.B., the 
University's Journal of Business began publication in the 1920s). 
 
 
Archival material available (that I am aware of): 
 
JPE Papers, University of Chicago Library, Special Collections [only 
material from 1904-05 and the 1920s is available, because other boxes 
contain material restricted under Chicago's 50 year rule] 
 
Leon C. Marshall Files, Department of Economics Records, University of 
Chicago Library, Special Collections [Marshall tried to keep departmental 
business separate from journal business, but didn't always succeed] 
 
Frank H. Knight Papers, University of Chicago Library, Special Collections 
[Knight only served as editor when Viner was unavailable. What editorial 
material is in the Knight Papers is in the correspondence] 
 
Jacob Viner Papers, Princeton University Libraries [I do not know the 
extent to which Viner's Papers contain editorial correspondence, but I 
expect there is some] 
 
Albert Rees Papers, Duke University Library, Special Collections [because 
Rees was editor in the 1950s, his correspondence may provide a source for 
information about the editorial review process that is currently 
restricted from view by Chicago's 50 year rule] 
 
Chicago's 50-year rule: The University of Chicago archives sometimes 
restrict access to boxes in journal and departmental records which 
contain material less than 50 years out-of-date (the key is whether it  
contains personnel, budgetary or editorial information). Consult with the  
archivist for more details and for possible exceptions. 
 
 
Ross B. Emmett 
[log in to unmask] 
http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~emmettr/ 
 
============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ 
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]