Do female economists face longer delays in publishing their empirical research?
This is the central question we address in our new IZA Discussion Paper “The Delayed Acceptance of Female Research in Economics” by Stephan B. Bruns, Anthony Doucouliagos, Hristos Doucouliagos, Johannes König, T.D. Stanley and Katarina Zigova. The study uses a unique dataset of over 62,000 empirical findings from 424 meta-analyses to examine whether the time between submission and acceptance differs by author gender and if so, why.
On average, articles authored by women take significantly longer to be accepted by economics journals. The delay is about five weeks for female-only co-author teams and nine weeks for solo-authored articles by women.
These delays cannot be explained by differences in author affiliation, productivity, or the novelty of research. Quite the opposite: Female-authored articles receive more citations, suggesting that women face higher publication thresholds.
Figure 2: Time to acceptance by gender of the author
Another key finding: The gender gap in acceptance time is not reduced by a higher share of female editors on editorial boards. But it does shrink significantly in research areas where more women are publishing. In fields with a higher share of female authors, the publication process appears more equitable.
Main Takeaways
- Female-authored articles take longer to be accepted—even after controlling for quality, productivity, and institutional affiliation.
- Solo-authored papers by women face the longest delays.
- Female-authored work is more highly cited, pointing to a higher standard for acceptance.
- Editorial board composition appears less important than the broader gender balance in the field.
These results shed light on a subtle but consequential form of inequality in academia. They suggest that delays in the review process may contribute to slower career progression for female economists.
You can read the full paper here:
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/314546/1/dp17649.pdf
Dr. Johannes König 