TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Feld, Jan
AU  - Lines, Corinna
AU  - Ross, Libby
        TI  - Writing Matters
        PY  - 2023/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16571
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16571
        AB  - For papers to have scientific impact, they need to impress our peers in their role as referees, journal editors, and members of conference committees. Does better writing help our papers make it past these gatekeepers? In this study, we estimate the effect of writing quality by comparing how 30 economists judge the quality of papers written by PhD students in economics. Each economist judged five papers in their original version and five different papers that had been language edited. No economist saw both versions of the same paper. Our results show that writing matters. Compared to the original versions, economists judge edited versions as higher quality; they are more likely to accept edited versions for a conference; and they believe that edited versions have a better chance of being accepted at a good journal.
        KW  - academic writing
KW  - writing quality
KW  - economics
KW  - randomized experiment
        ER  -