FACTORS IN THE EDITORIAL DECISION.

This study seeks to test the hypothesis that quality is, as it should be, the major determinant in the decision to publish a submitted manuscript. Although this is regarded as the principal hypothesis, it is not possible to test it directly with the available data. However, support for the hypothesis can be inferred from the extent of agreement among independent raters of submitted papers and from the repeated rejection by another board of the journal Social Problems referees of an accidental sample of previously rejected manuscripts. It is further hypothesized that there is a general tendency on the part of individual raters toward either severity or leniency, which has a significant, although indirect, influence on the publication decision. Finally, it is hypothesized that greater severity of judgment is achieved when a manuscript is evaluated by a specialist, someone with particular knowledge of, and interest in, its topic, than by a nonspecialist. Upon receipt, all manuscripts were scanned by the Editor-in-Chief. The occasional crank manuscripts were sifted out and returned, as were manuscripts on topics obviously divergent from the interests of Social Problems.