Number of Authors Predicts Influence on Evaluations of Journal Submissions

Abstract

180 students from the University of Canterbury were randomly assigned to reading and evaluating 4 counterbalanced abstracts under the cover story of a departmental journal submission procedure. This study tested whether the number of authors assigned to a journal submission is an influential factor on the acceptance rate of a submission regardless of the quality of the abstract. Also, it assessed whether the influence of a number of authors on the chance of acceptance interacts with the acceptance rate of the journal. In other words, the study investigated not only the extent to which number of authors influences acceptance regardless of quality, but how much of an influence this has for which kind of journals (in terms of the journal’s acceptance rate). The study also measured how much individual personality variables such as guilt-proneness and tendency to adhere to descriptive norms influences a reviewer’s willingness to accept a journal submission. Results found that number of authors had a significant effect on evaluation. Possible reasons and study limitations were discussed.