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[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Knight's unpublished essays which was rejected by Marshall after being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
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http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~emmettr/
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