Editorial Favoritism in Chinese Journals

Abstract：

Like its rapidly growing economy, China’s science and technology input and output are also growing rapidly, but top academic breakthroughs are still incommensurate with its vast economic volume and investment in science and technology. Using the data on the publications and citations of more than one million academic papers in Chinese journals from 2001 to 2017, this study examines one possible cause for this paradox: rent seeking and favoritism is a serious phenomenon in the field of science in China. we find that editorial departments of Chinese journals prefer articles written by authors affiliated with the same institutions that they are affiliated with. In addition, the number of citations and downloads of those institution-connected papers are statistically lower by at least 20.8% and 18.3% than those authored by researchers affiliated with other institutions. Moreover, heterogeneity analyses also show that, in some cases, institution-connected papers bear greater citation (download) discounts. 

Speaker Biography：  

郭峰，上海财经大学公共经济与管理学院投资系副教授。研究领域涵盖金融学、政治经济学和文献计量学等范畴，目前主要研究兴趣是探索机器学习在经济学中的应用。在《经济研究》、《经济学季刊》、《管理世界》、Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization等中英文学术期刊上发表论文40余篇，在主流媒体发表经济时评90余篇，出版学术专著2部，参著数部。主持国家社科基金青年项目、博士后科学基金面上项目各1项，主持或参与其他课题10余项。