Journal of Economic Psychology remains the leading journal in behavioral economics and economic psychology

Last year, the Journal of Economic Psychology became the leading journal in behavioral economics and economic psychology according to the Impact Factors for scientific journals (see last year’s post). This year, we have consolidated this position and even increased the difference. See the graph below! The Journal of Economic Psychology‘s Impact Factor is now 3.5 (Journal Citation Reports, two-year citation window, reference year 2022). It is up from 3.0 last year and 2.0 two years ago. For comparison, we are clearly ahead of excellent journals as Experimental Economics (IF of 2.3, last year 2.4) and Judgment and Decision Making (IF of 2.5, unchanged from last year). Other thematically-related journals that we compare ourselves to are Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (JEBO: IF 2.2, last year 2.0), Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (JBDM: IF 2.0, last year 2.5), Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (JBEE: IF 1.6, last year 1.8), and Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics (JNPE: IF 0.7, last year 1.3). Those are all good journals, and we have good friends in their boards. But, with apologies for boasting, we remain the leader of the pack. Thanks are due to all our Associate Editors, reviewers, and of course authors, who have made the journal’s success possible.

Open Letter to JoEP Authors, Part II: Is Your Paper Appropriate?

This is the second entry in a short guide for prospective authors of the Journal of Economic Psychology. The first entry contained a short overview. This entry discusses how to decide whether your paper is appropriate for the journal.

Although the final word on whether your manuscript is appropriate for the journal or not lies with the editors, here are a few easy criteria.

Reaching Out As A Scientist

I firmly believe that scientists have the obligation to reach out to society, and do so in an agile and timely way (at least as much as publication delays allow us). Putting my time and effort where my mouth is, I have just joined Psychology Today as a contributor. The first post in my blog “Decisions and the Brain” there is on “Why We Are All Crooked Bankers.” I have also just covered the same research in a post in the Spanish blog Nada es Gratis, “Egoísmo eres tú: robando a las masas.“

Both posts cover my research article “Generous with individuals and Selfish to the Masses,” published in Nature Human Behaviour this year. It humbled me to see the impact that this article had beyond academic circles. It was covered in a large number of newspapers after acceptance, including newspapers as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung or Le Temps, and popular-science magazines as New Scientist, Spektrum, or QUO. It was also covered in Nature as a Research Highlight, and I wrote about it in “Behind the Paper” at Nature: Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Journal of Economic Psychology is the leading journal in behavioral economics (and economic psychology)

The new Impact Factors for scientific journals have just been published (Journal Citation Reports, two-year citation window, reference year 2021). The Journal of Economic Psychology has jumped up to an IF of 3.00 (from 2.04 last year and 1.72 two years ago). With apologies for boasting, we are now the leader of the pack in behavioral economics, economic psychology, and judgment and decision making, having surpassed excellent journals as Experimental Economics (IF of 2.39, last year 2.37) and Judgment and Decision Making (IF of 2.5, last year 2.54). As in previous years, we are ahead of thematically-related journals as JEBO (IF 2.00, last year 1.64), JBEE (IF 1.83, last year 1.38), and JNPE (IF 1.28). We have also surpassed solid journals as the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (IF 2.508). See the graph!

An Open Letter to Prospective JoEP Authors, Part I: The Checklist

So you want to submit to the Journal of Economic Psychology. Great!

Before you do, though, there are a few things you should consider. Your time is valuable, and we do not want to waste it. And we hope you agree that the editors’ and reviewers’ time is also valuable. You might be able to save some of it by following a few simple steps. By doing so, you will also show that you do value our journal and are familiar with it, and, let’s be honest, that is not unimportant for the evaluation of your paper.

In four upcoming posts, I will elaborate on the steps that, as an Editor in Chief, I would really like authors to follow before submitting. But here is a brief summary already. I will link the step titles to the more detailed posts as I work my way through them (Hint: There is a “Follow” button on the right-hand-side which will warn you of new posts).

Surveys and Reviews at JoEP

At JoEP, we love Review Articles. We have a special category for them, we allow them to be longer than standard articles, and we try to expedite their handling. Yet, we are currently desk-rejecting most of the reviews/surveys we receive. Why?

There seems to be an expectations mismatch. Regrettably, many of the Review Article submissions that we currently receive follow a mechanical, mainly bibliometric approach. They address topics as how much has it been published on the topic, who has published it, country affiliations, which keywords are used, etc. This is very interesting for bibliometrics (which is a research field on its own), but it is not interesting for us. At all. Sorry!

Avoiding “out of scope” at JoEP

In a previous post, I discussed desk rejections at the Journal of Economic Psychology, which I have been editing since January 1st, 2019. Here I want to pay special attention to a particular type of those: “out of scope,” that is, desk rejections indicating that “I regret to inform you that your paper is not appropriate for our audience.” The Journal of Economic Psychology publishes research which is generally at the intersection of economics and psychology. As a declaration of intentions, we are interested in the psychological foundations of and mechanisms underlying economic decisions. That covers a lot of ground, including (obviously) all of economic psychology, generally all of behavioral economics, and also nascent fields as neuroeconomics and behavioral economic theory.

Still, as the Editor in Chief, I regularly reject papers with an “out of scope” notice.

Editor in Chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology

On January 1^st, 2019, I became the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology (JoEP), an interdisciplinary journal which publishes research both on Economic Psychology and on Behavioral Economics. I have succeeded Martin Kocher and Stefan Schulz-Hardt, who in turn succeeded Erik Hoelzl and Eric Kirchler a couple of years ago. There will eventually be a second Co-Editor, but for the moment being I am alone at the helm, and I have committed to be a Co-Editor until at least end of 2022. I know the journal well, as I have been in the board as an Associate Editor for some years now (since the times of Erik and Eric).

Fairness is a Thin Layer

A quote attributed to Werner Herzog reads that “civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.” Some of my recent work together with Anja Achtziger and Alexander K. Wagner points out that the same might be true about fairness and pro-social behavior.

Take our 2015 article “Money, Depletion, and Prosociality in the Dictator Game,” published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics. Merely days after publication, it found some echo in the press, for instance here.

Quo Vadis, Economics? (III) Economics Needs More Data, and a Lot More Maths

Economics, as psychology, studies human behavior. Unlike psychology, however, economics has always faced harsh demands to deliver quantitative predictions. Knowing that human beings favor this or that is not enough. How much are they willing to pay for it? Are consumers better or worse off if the an airline merger is authorized, or if a state monopoly is forced to admit competition? By how much more will the unemployment rate go up in countries in the south of Europe in the next two years if the German savings rate remains unabated?