The incompetence of economics journals.

About a month ago I submitted a paper to the 2020 “Money, Macro and Finance Society” meeting in Cambridge (MMFS). They provided an email address for authors with queries about the submission process. I had a querie, so I sent an email but got no reply.

Then they said the meeting had been delayed for a year due to Covid. So I decided I wanted to withdraw my paper, but their instructions said that authors needed their permission to withdraw.

So I sent a second email asking for permission, and again got no reply. (And please note I do not have my email system automatically delete stuff it thinks is spam: i.e. I run thru all incoming emails myself. Plus I’ve checked my email trash file just to make sure there’s nothing there from MMFS)

Given that MMFS is funded by both the George Soros financed “Institute for New Economic Thinking” and the Economic and Social Research Council, you’d think they’d be able to afford to employ someone to answer emails, wouldn’t you? Or perhaps the relevant person doesn’t bother getting out of bed in the morning.


The Kiel Economics E-Journal.

Anyway, I then decided to try the Kiel Economics E-Journal, and spent two or three days getting the paper ready for submission. Plus given that this journal asks authors to suggest people willing to review articles submitted, I had to spend a large amount of time tracking down potential reviewers, and contacting them to see if they were willing to review.

Anyway, I finally submit the paper, and get an email from them saying “…you have successfully completed your submission.” But two days later, I get an email saying they are not accepting new papers because they are “restructuring” their organisation.

It apparently doesn’t occur to them that it might be an idea to put something about their “restructuring” on their main web site in large font so that authors do not spend days preparing papers, only to discover they have wasted their time.

I then asked them how long this “restructuring” was likely to last, and they said about three months. Imagine working for a firm or other employer which can afford to turn away customers for three months. Nice work if you can get it. 

The moral is that if you’re unemployed and looking for a job which involves lying in bed half the day, you could try finding a job at a university or similar academic institution.

And finally it is now three days since they told me they are “restructuring”, though of course their “restructuring” could have been going on much longer than that for all I know. But there is still nothing on their site warning authors that they’ll be wasting their time submitting papers. Indeed the automatic paper submission system still appears to be working.

Why not keep yourself amused over the coming days and weeks by periodically visiting the site to see how long it takes them to get round to placing a warning there?