Mixtape Mailbag #5: My comments on a reader's paper using diff-in-diff to study a program's impact reducing violence against women

A reader asks for advice after several rejections

Mixtape mailbag is a weekly reader response style substack in which a reader will write in with a question, and I give my opinion. If I use your question, I will “comp” you a 7-day free trial. So please send me a question!

Today’s letter comes from a reader named D. They asked for advice on how to frame a paper of theirs as they’ve had trouble getting it published. They’ve tried three Econ journals and one crime journal, all rejections. They said it was okay for me to discuss the paper on here, and so I took the job seriously. This is a picture of me wearing Wolverine pajamas drinking two steaming hot cups of tea, one of which is about 4x the size of the other, as I read their letter and manuscript.

---

Dear Scott,

I hope you are doing well. 

I was wondering if you would provide feedback on my working paper titled “Impact of a Centralized Response System on Crimes Against Women – Evidence from India’s Dial-100” (attached).

I have received desk rejections from several economics journals [list of journals redacted] and the only feedback some editors provided was that the topic wasn’t suitable for these journals. When I sent it to [a redacted quantitative criminology journal] the paper went through a round of review. While reviewers recommended an R&R, the editor decided to reject it because the revisions required were extensive.

I was hoping to get some feedback particularly on the framing of the paper. Are there any changes I could make to be able to get past the editor’s desk and eventually publish this paper?

Thank you, in advance, for your time.

Best regards,

D

---