Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Games, a new online game theory journal

This announcement came in today's email.

Dear All,
The first issue of Games, dated March 2010, has been published and is available under http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/1/1/
This first issue shows that, contrary to generally accepted practices, quick but rigorous refereeing and quick publication are feasible also in game theory. Counting both accepted and rejected papers, the average time from submission to first editorial response is currently 34 days, i.e. under 5 weeks. Concentrating on ultimately accepted papers, the overall average time from submission to publication online is currently 61 days. For me,
more instructive that these numbers have been the anecdotes. For example, I was astonished to see that it is perfectly possible to get highly detailed referee reports on a 60‐page, mathematically dense paper within a few weeks, and from established referees. Another rewarding experience concerns the reaction of authors, as for example when I asked an author of an experimental paper to conduct a full‐scale replication, expecting the revision to take months, and received the revision including the replication in a few weeks. Reasonable speed appears to be contagious.
It seems that the editorial delays we have grown used to are just an established but highly inefficient convention‐‐‐nothing more. Still, transitions from an inefficient equilibrium to a more efficient one can be notoriously difficult to implement. The first (short) issue has been completed, and the first paper in issue 2 is
already out, but we are still a long way from establishing the journal and the associated quick refereeing process. For this, I would like to ask for your help.
What can you do for the journal? First, talk about it and encourage good researchers to submit, quoting the speed of the editorial process. Second, if you are not already doing it, consider editing a special issue (feel free to contact me with your proposals). Third, consider submitting your own work. Related to the last point, currently Games would especially welcome literature surveys in your respective fields; although of course they would be submitted to the same rigorous (but quick!) refereeing process as any other paper, feel free to propose a topic so that the scope can be discussed in advance.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support. Special thanks go to those who have already acted as referees and to the Guest Editors. I look forward to Issue 2!
Carlos Alós‐Ferrer
Editor‐in‐Chief, Games
‐‐
Frauke Muenzel, Managing Editor
Games Editorial Office
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
Kandererstrasse 25, CH‐4057 Basel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 61 683 77 34
Fax +41 61 302 89 18
E‐mail: games@mdpi.org
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/games/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Molecular Diversity Preservation International ?!