Reviewing the Review Process: Comparing Submit-to-Accept Delays in Accounting Journals to Other Business Disciplines

Abstract

We use hand-collected data to analyze submission-to-acceptance (STA) times in the top-tier accounting journals relative to other top-tier business journals from 1993 through 2019. We find that before 2008, top-tier accounting journals had shorter average STA times relative to other business disciplines. After 2008, top-tier accounting journals’ STA times steadily grew each year (from 18 to 23 months, on average), while STA times in other disciplines slightly declined (from 20 to 19 months). While we hypothesize that STA times in all business disciplines would be relatively shorter for papers with authors from more highly ranked universities (i.e., “elite” coauthor teams), we find that STA times are only shorter for “elite” co-author teams in top-tier accounting journals. This disparity between “elites” and “non-elites” is not present in other business disciplines. Moreover, the increase in STA times in accounting after 2008 was greater for “non-elite” relative to “elite” co-author teams. Finally, we examine whether longer STA times in top-tier accounting journal impacted the likelihood of tenure for accounting Ph.D. graduates from 2002 to 2014. We predict and find that assistant professors are less likely to be tenured at their first institution if journal articles published towards the end of their probationary period have relatively longer STA times. However, we find that longer STA times only impact tenure outcomes for assistant professors initially placed at lower-ranked “non-elite” schools. Our results should be of interest to journal editors, reviewers, provosts, deans, tenure and promotion committees, and department chairs in business schools.