EZ -Referee Reports

Because it is faster, authors prefer your referee reports by e-mail. Also, there is no danger of your report being lost in trans-Atlantic or Pacific voyage. Your report can reach authors the same day as you write the report.

Thank you for contributing to the professional excellence of the Review of Development Economics.

Send an e-mail addressed to the editor, briefly explaining your reasons for recommendting one of the following actions:

A. Accept in present form or with slight changes.
B. Accept for publication after minor revision.
C. Reconsider for publication after extensive revision.
D. Reject, with suggestions for possible submission elsewhere.
E. Shrink to a note (of no more than 10 pages) with suggestions.
F. If your report contains no equations, you can embed it in your letter.

Prepare your comments as an attachment to be sent to authors

A. Explain your reasons, suggestions, and concerns.
B. Comment on the manuscript's originality, clarity, contribution to literature, and relevance to real world problems.
C. Make suggestions about its length, organization, tables, and figures.
D. If the paper is clearly below RDE standards, detailed comments are unnecessary.
E. Please e-mail comments as a PDF file attached to your e-mail. The editorial office will handle only PDF files. While popular among scholars for exchanging drafts, Microsoft Word files with .DOC extension are not safe because command languages can be embedded that can destory the hard disks of the recipients.

Use Acrobat Distiller, not PDF Writer

Experienced people say that Acrobat PDF Writer does not produce acceptable PDF files except under limited conditions.

1. From your word processor, print your document to Adobe Distiller, then save the pdf file in your desired directory.
2. Attach the pdf file to your e-mail to the editorial office.
3. Avoid using nonstandard symbols. Please visit the NSF site concerning problems you encounter when creating PDF files, http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/pdfcreat.htm.