Ethics and the Accounting Publishing Process: Author, Reviewer, and Editor Issues

Are codes of ethics needed to guide author, reviewer and editor publishing practices in accounting journals? What practices are considered unethical, and to what extend do they occur? A survey of ninety-five journal editors who publish accounting articles rated author, reviewer and editor practices as ethical or unethical, and estimated the frequency with which these practices occur. Respondents also commented on current publishing practices regarding the double-blind review process, payments for reviews, confirmatory bias, and whether codes of ethics are needed for the publication process. More than half the editors supported the status quo, and felt that that codes were not necessary for editors and reviewers. They were evenly split on the question of an author code of ethics.     

The inside scoop: Acceptance and rejection at the journal of international economics

There is little work on the inner workings of journals. What factors seem to affect the ability to publish in a journal? Could simple rules (which are already used by some journals) like the desk rejection of a significant minority of papers, help to streamline the process? At what cost? How well do journals seem to do in choosing papers? What can we say about the extent of type 1 and type 2 errors? Do editors seem to have uniform standards or are some harsher than others? We use data on submissions to the Journal of International Economics to help answer these questions.     

Knocking at the gate: The path to publication for entrepreneurship experiments through the lens of gatekeeping theory

We draw on gatekeeping theory to explore the individual and routine-level criticisms that entrepreneurship experimentalists receive during the review process. Using a multi-study approach, we categorize common gatekeeping themes and present illustrative critiques derived from a unique sample of decision letters and a supplemental survey of entrepreneurship editors. In combination, we extend gatekeeping theory by considering how it applies to the scholarly domain, contribute to the literature by exploring an alternative theoretical explanation as to why entrepreneurship experiments might fail to survive the review process, and finally, provide contextualized recommendations for authors and reviewers of experimental research.     

Ethical Practice in the Accounting Publishing Process: Contrasting Opinions of Authors and Editors

Academic accounting researchers often offer anecdotal evidence that the publishing process is rife with unfair and unethical practices, and similar contradictory evidence supports accounting journal editors' claims that the process is fair and ethical. This study compares the perceptions of accounting authors and editors on the ethicacy and frequency of specific author, editor and reviewer practices. Both authors and editors are in general agreement about the ethical nature of editors and author practices. However, there are significant differences between the groups regarding reviewer behavior, and regarding the frequency of occurrence of questionable author, editor and reviewer practices. Additionally, the majority of authors believe that codes of publishing ethics are needed, while editors do not. Women authors are significantly more supportive of such ethical codes when compared to their male counterparts.     

The “Invisible Hands” in Research: The Critical Roles of Reviewers and Associate Editors

In this Editorial, we underscore the critical roles fulfilled by reviewers and associate editors (AEs) in the provision of the journal's review process. The so‐called “invisible hands” of reviewers and AEs not only influence the editorial outcomes of individual works, but, more substantially, the author experience with and research impact of the journal. To that end, we offer observations and guidelines for reviewers and AEs, reinforcing the expectations we maintain for those helping to shape the work that ultimately appears in the journal.     

Reforming the IMF's Weighted Voting System

This paper surveys various proposals to reform the IMF's quota determination process and voting regime. We first provide some necessary context by describing IMF decision rules, including the methods by which the Fund determines quotas according to countries’ relative positions in the world economy. This section also addresses the arbitrariness of the IMF quota determination process and how IMF decision rules hamper developing country influence within the Fund. Following this, we review several proposals designed to provide developing countries greater voice in IMF decision‐making. We conclude that the problems of developing country representation are not likely to be fixed by either reallocating quotas on the margins of the existing IMF system or by tinkering with the quota‐determination formulas. Rather, more fundamental institutional adjustments will be required.     

Reflections on 40 Years of the Journal of Business Logistics: From the Editors

This editorial embodies a series of essays from the current and past editors of the Journal of Business Logistics in marking the 40th anniversary of the journal. The compendium is intended to illustrate the evolution in logistics thought and practice as well as the journal's role in documenting and advancing the field. Key trends are identified in each era. Further, each editor expresses opinions of the current and future state of the discipline. This review reflects on the evolution of the Journal of Business Logistics and envisions the futures of the logistics field and supply chain discipline.     

WTO规则在中国法院间接适用理论与司法实践评析

WTO规则的特殊性决定了其不宜在国内法院直接适用,间接适用才是符合WTO宗旨和目标的恰当方式。"解释一致"是实践中常用的间接适用方法。我国司法机关适用WTO规则的实践情况并不容乐观:首先是缺失司法审查制度的实践,另外实践中关于WTO规则适用方式并不一致。因此,我们有必要采取措施确保司法实务部门统一正确地间接适用WTO规则,这对我国恰当履行WTO义务、保障国际贸易更快更好发展具有重要价值。     

Pigott,Stanley. OBM/A Celebration: One Hundred and Twenty-Five Years in Advertising. London: Ogilvy,Benson & Mather Limited, 1975

Abstract

This study reports the results of a survey of advertising managers and editors of weekly and daily newspapers and of selected consumer magazines concerning the issue of feature advertising. Feature advertising is defined as paid advertising space that looks like editorial copy in the form of a short feature article. It was posited that this type of advertising might offer a unique challenge to the process of advertising self-discipline among print media. Ad managers and editors differed on a number of points, but agreed that questions pertaining to feature ads should be addressed through media self-discipline.     

Legal Origins,Corporate Governance,and Environmental Outcomes

Despite significant scholarly debate about knowledge production in the management discipline through the peer-review journal processes, there is minimal discussion about the ethical treatment of the research subject in these publication processes. In contrast, the ethical scrutiny of management research processes within research institutions is often highly formalized and very focused on the protection of research participants. Hence, the question arises of how management publication processes should best account for the interests of the research subject, both in the narrow sense of specific research participants and in the broader understanding of the subject of the research. This question is particularly pertinent in light of significant codification of research ethics within academic institutions, and increasing self-reflection within the management discipline about the “good” of management research and education. Findings from a survey and interviews with management journal editors (and others involved in journal publication) reveal a complex scenario; many editors believe that a formalized requirement within the journal publication process may have detrimental outcomes and, in fact, diminish the ethical integrity of management scholarship. Building on these findings, this paper argues that ethical concern for the research subject merely in terms of institutional rule compliance and avoidance of harm to individual participants is insufficient, and calls for explicitly positive engagement with both the individual and the collective subject of management research should receive due ethical consideration. An alternative model involving reflexive ethical consideration of research subjects across the publication process—with implications for role of authors, reviewers, editors, and research subjects—is outlined.     

The Ethics of Predatory Journals

Predatory journals operate as vanity presses, typically charging large submission or publication fees and requiring little peer review. The consequences of such journals are wide reaching, affecting the integrity of the legitimate journals they attempt to imitate, the reputations of the departments, colleges, and universities of their contributors, the actions of accreditation bodies, the reputations of their authors, and perhaps even the generosity of academic benefactors. Using a stakeholder analysis, our study of predatory journals suggests that most stakeholders gain little in the short run from such publishing and only the editors or owners of these journals benefit in the long run. We also discuss counter-measures that academic and administrative faculty can employ to thwart predatory publishing.     

How prevalent is academic misconduct in management research?

We survey 1215 management researchers, including editors, researchers, and reviewers, about their views and experiences with four types of academic misconduct: plagiarism, self-plagiarism, coercive citations, and questionable reviewing practices. Management researchers hold strict views on plagiarism, though editors report on frequent instances encountered. We find that many management researchers consider self-plagiarism acceptable. There is also a high percentage of editors who report on authors being coerced to add citations of reviewers or journals to their submission. Similarly prevalent is so-called “honorary authorship,” where colleagues and supervisors who did not take part in the work are added as co-authors. Lastly, nearly half of the editors who responded report having witnessed conflicts of interest in peer reviewing. We conclude that the current system of peer reviewing is in need of change, and we discuss possible ramifications to overcome the persistence of academic misconduct.     

Returns to networking in academia

This paper examines effects of academic networks in a Stackelberg differential game between journal editors and authors. Authors choose research papers to maximize satisfaction, while editors determine research quality to maximize journal reputation. Verifying the system for stability, results show that academic networks neither affect the number of publications nor the quality of an author’s papers. Networks only affect the number of an author’s citations. Editors’ preferences for publishing an author because of her network membership seem irrelevant. This happens because editors compete to increase their journal’s reputation by publishing high quality papers. Consequently, there is little room for editorial bias. Further, increased journal competition has the potential to erode the citation gains. The equilibrium research quality is below the maximum possible quality. Increases in publication benefits are shown to leave citations unaffected, increase the number of publications, and decrease research quality. The results generally carry through when publishing markets tend to a monopoly.     

Evidence-based advertising

Complex phenomena such as advertising are difficult to understand. As a result, extensive and repeated testing of diverse alternative reasonable hypotheses is necessary in order to increase knowledge about advertising. This calls for experimental studies: laboratory, field, and quasi-experimental studies. Fortunately, much useful empirical research of this kind has already been conducted on how to create persuasive advertisements. A literature review, conducted over 16 years, summarised knowledge from 687 sources that drew upon more than 3,000 studies (Armstrong 2010). The review led to the development of 195 principles (condition-action statements) for advertising. We were unable to find any of these principles in a convenience sample of nine advertising textbooks and three practitioner handbooks. The advice in these books ignored conditions for the most part. The books also tended to ignore empirical evidence, which is how we learn about conditions; of the more than 7,200 sources referenced in these books, only 30 overlapped with the 687 used to develop the principles. By using the evidence-based principles, practitioners may be able to increase the persuasiveness of advertisements. Relevant evidence-based papers have been published at the rate of 20 per year from 2000 to 2010. The rate of knowledge development could be increased if journal editors invited papers with evidence-based research findings and if open peer review were provided on a continuing basis.     

Recurrent Marketing Decisions: Decision Complexity,Decision Focus,and Firm Performance

In this paper we examine the nature of the decision-making process for recurrent marketing decisions and its effects on firm performance. A conceptual model of recurrent decision-making in a competitive environment is developed and used as a framework for analyzing 96 tactical decisions made by 35 management groups in the last three periods of a management simulation. The decisions were based entirely on a set of decision rules developed by the management groups. The decision rules were coded for whether they were internally or externally focused and how complex their decision process was. These two factors were then used to predict firm performance. There are a number of important results. The greater the uncertainty in the link between a decision variable and its outcome, i) the more likely managers are to prespecify the value of the decision variable rather than construct a decision rule, ii) the less complex the decision rules that are constructed, and iii) the greater the proportion of internally-focused decision rules. In addition, the focus of a decision rule, but not the complexity of the process—independent of the focus—is positively related to performance with firms that focus on both internal and external factors doing best.     

How Consumer Law Travels

This article synthesizes a number of the findings and themes emerging from the various case studies presented about the efficacy of the transplantation process of the EU consumer acquis in some of the EU accession and new Member States. Specifically, the article examines the process of incorporation through the lens of the domestication of the consumer rules either through the making of the local consumer laws or their subsequent enforcement in the case study jurisdictions. The overall conclusions from the case studies are that accession pressures are an important impetus for legal reform in consumer law, that there is limited tailoring of the rules in their transposition, and that there is slow take up by local actors in the resolution of consumer problems. The article suggests that getting it right in the law-making process in tailoring the rules to local needs or the extant local law may not be crucial for their subsequent efficacy, both because deliberations about the efficacy and fit of the rules may be irresolvable ex ante and because the relevant collocutors often do not exist at the time of original enactment of the consumer laws. Yet if the transplanted rules can be enlivened through local institutions as spaces for contestation of the rights and responsibilities that arise under consumer law, they can be domesticated or contextualized precisely through processes of ongoing contestation. From that perspective, it is institutional diversity in implementation in different jurisdictions, remedial hybridity and EU monitoring of the efficacy of local solutions that can help unblock suboptimal local outcomes.     

Explaining Intra‐Africa Internationalization

There is a paucity of literature on intra‐African trade on the continent despite clear indications that the phenomenon is on the increase on the African continent. This review focuses on some of the key issues and outcomes that have been raised in this recent book. The book provides an eclectic bag of theories to explain the phenomenon, but these theories can have a better explanatory power if situated within an Africapitalism context. Also, strategic, political, and digital considerations in internationalization on the African continent are espoused in Part 2 of the book. The final part of the book presents cases from different sectors in multiple countries to buttress the point that intra‐African trade and the emergence of African multinationals is on the rise. The editors have mapped out the nature of intra‐African internationalization but clearly note that the attempt is not exhaustive. Consequently, it represents a starting point for scholars to interrogate the issues that have been espoused in this book.     

The academician–practitioner gap in advertising

The existence of the academician–practitioner gap is readily acknowledged and widely discussed in the marketing/advertising literature. This paper analyses key writings on the nature of the academician–practitioner rift and proposes a new approach complementing the literature. The review identifies five prevailing explanations why miscommunication between academicians and practitioners exists: (1) the failure of academic knowledge dissemination systems; (2) problems with the knowledge content and knowledge form academicians produce; (3) counterproductive academic organisational systems; (4) questions of philosophy of science; and (5) practitioners’ inability and unwillingness to process academic information. The study concludes that one potential explanation is entirely missed in these accounts: the possibility that practitioners’ knowledge about how advertising works is an autonomous construct, which has its own rules and deep structure, and resists simple assimilation attempted by academicians. The study also complements the existing literature by basing the review on firm theoretical grounds: the authors apply the influential sociological theory of professionalisation. Finally, future directions for research investigation are suggested, which moves the predominantly normative discourse into the empirical world.