Is better writing rewarded in peer review?
Our newly published suggests the answer is “Yes”!
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.11.016
#EconSky 🧵 (1/7)
Our newly published suggests the answer is “Yes”!
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.11.016
#EconSky 🧵 (1/7)
Comments
I always tell my students that writing matters ("Even if you have great ideas and great data, you won't get it across the line without strong writing").
Some might say writing shouldn't matter. But I think it should. Everything matters in competitive spaces!
Stage 1:
We language-edited 30 academic papers for clarity.
All papers were written by PhD students in economics. 2/7
We asked writing experts and senior economists to evaluate the original and language-edited version of the same papers.
No evaluator saw both versions of the same paper.
· better written overall (0.60 SD)
· allowing the reader to find the key message more easily (0.58 SD),
· having fewer mistakes (0.67 SD)
· easier to read (0.53 SD)
· more concise (0.50 SD)
· better overall (0.2 SD)
· more likely to be accepted at a conference (8.4 percentage points)
· more likely to get published in a good economics journal (4.1 percentage points)
Better writing removes barriers and demonstrates respect for readers.
Clear academic writing is in the spirit of #OpenScience.
It is open access.
You can find the replication package here: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/DGFXY 7/7
https://vaninwegen.github.io/storage/Algo_Writing_Assistance.pdf