The 4 issues of De Economist published in 2012 contain 20 papers of which 14 papers were published in regular issues and 6 papers were published in a special issue on the flexibility of the labor market. The special issue contained papers on employment protection legislation, flexicurity, wage-tenure profiles, flexible contracts and contingent employment. The regular issues cover a wide range of topics with for examle papers on pay-as-you-go pension schemes and Dutch pension funds, Dutch hospital merges and school responsiveness to quality rankings. The impact factor of De Economist is increasing. In 2008 for example the impact factor was 0.26, in 2010 it was 0.62, while in 2011 the impact factor was 0.77.

The table below provides additional information. In 2012 there were 44 regular submissions, slightly more than in 2011. As shown in the table below, of these 44 submissions so far 4 were accepted, 30 were rejected, and 10 are still in the editorial process. Of the rejected papers 15 were desk-rejections, i.e. rejected within a week after submission. The acceptance rate of papers submitted in 2012—ignoring the papers in stock—was 12 %. If we also exclude the desk-rejections, the acceptance rate was 21 %. These papers were on average 46 days in the editorial process before a decision was taken. If we exclude the desk-rejections this is 81 days. The duration until first decision in 2012 was 46 days, excluding desk rejections this was 81 days.

Numbers

2012

2011

2010

Accepted

4

8

18

Regular rejection

15

17

23

Desk rejection

15

17

10

Stock December 31, 2012

10

1

0

Sub-total

44

43

51

Special issues + editors contributions

4

9

15

Total

48

52

66

Regular papers—rates (\(\%\))

Acceptance

12

19

35

Regular rejection

44

40

45

Desk rejection

44

40

20

Total

100

100

100

Acceptance excl. desk rejections (\(\%\))

21

32

44

Days to first decision

Regular papers

46

65

46

Regular papers excluding desk rejections

81

108

57

For reason of comparison the table below also shows similar numbers for the 2010 and 2011 submissions. The acceptance rate for the regular papers that were submitted in 2011 was 19 % (2010 35 %). Ignoring the desk-rejections, the acceptance rate in 2011 is 32 % (2010 44 %).

Since 2011 the editors allow authors to include in the submission editorial letters and referee reports from failed submissions at other journals. This does not mean that no other referees will be used, but the use of previous information will speed of our editorial process. So far, not many authors have used this possibility.

The editors of De Economist would like to thank the following reviewers for their contribution to the editorial process:

Hans Bloemen

Peter Broer

Thomas Dohmen

Henk Don

Joost Driessen

Remco van Eijkel

Henri de Groot

Monique de Haan

Marco Hoeberichts

Jan Jacobs

Adriaan Kalwij

Bas van der Klaauw

Ruud Koning

Roel Mehlkopf

Jochen Mierau

Jose-Louis Moraga

Meike Morren

Machiel Mulder

Franz Palm

Damian Pfajfar

Luc Renneboog

Peter van Santen

Bert Schoonbeek

Peter Schotman

Marc Schramm

Sjak Smulders

Arthur van Soest

Paul Veenendaal

Marno Verbeek

Frank Verboven

Frederic Vermeulen

Aico van Vuuren

Jan van Ours

Managing editor