ExpressO and Resume Bias

In the recent past, I've raised some objections to Scholastica's pricing for law review submissions.  Scholastica's pricing is especially disappointing to me because ExpressO has some serious problems, and competition in this marketplace would be very welcome.

One of the things I don't like about ExpressO is how much they seem to encourage the resume bias that plays a large role in the law reveiw selection process.   I was reminded of this issue when one of my colleagues sent me an e-mail she had received from a  journal.  That e-mail attached an e-mail sent to the journal by ExpressO notifying the journal of her submission.  The re: line of the e-mail said "ExpressO Submission by [professor's name] at Widener University School of Law".  I suppose that is all some journal editors need to know, sad to say.  I think it would be a lot more informative, in the right way, if the re: line said "ExpressO Submission by [professor's name] - [article title]".  That might encourage editors to at least look at the abstract before they decide to ignore the submission or just hit "reject".

Comments

[Jeffrey Harrison]

Do you know why a number of reviews are switching? Is it possible that they prefer the higher price as a way of reducing the number of submissions. In theory, this higher cost might make law profs and little more restrained with respect to mass mailings. I actually do not think so but otherwise I do not understand the change.

[Ben Barros]

That's one possible explanation. I agree that it is unlikely to work. Scholastica claims to have a better back-end of the system, so this might be a plus for the law reviews.

[VAP at 2nd Tier School]

I accidentally submitted a manuscript via Expresso that couldn't be opened because the file was corrupted. I still got 9 dings before someone let me know that there was a problem with the file and I resubmitted...

[ML]

I worry more about "resume bias" at the expedited review end: perhaps if the journal knows that a low-end journal accepted an article, they are less likely to pay attention to the expedited review request or to say yes to the article.