Details of submissions to The Unjournal

Note: This section largely repeats content in our guide for researchers/authors, especially our FAQ on "why engage."

Jan. 2024: We have lightly updated this page to reflect our current systems.

What we are looking for

We describe the nature of the work we are looking to evaluate, along with examples, in . Update 2024: This is now better characterized under and .

If you are interested in submitting your work for public evaluation, we are looking for research which is relevant to global priorities—especially quantitative social sciences—and impact evaluations. Work that would benefit from further feedback and evaluation is also of interest.

Your work will be evaluated using our evaluation guidelines and metrics. You can read these before submitting.

Important Note: We are not a journal. By having your work evaluated, you will not be giving up the opportunity to have your work published in a journal. We simply operate a system that allows you to have your work independently evaluated.

If you think your work fits our criteria and would like it to be publicly evaluated, please submit your work through .

If you would like to submit more than one of your papers, you will need to complete a new form for each paper you submit.

Conditional embargo on the publishing of evaluations

By default, we would like Unjournal evaluations to be made public. We think public evaluations are generally good for authors, as explained . However, in special circumstances and particularly for very early-career researchers, we may make exceptions.

If there is an early-career researcher on the author team, we will allow authors to "embargo" the publication of the evaluation until a later date. This date is contingent, but not indefinite. The embargo lasts until after a PhD/postdoc’s upcoming job search or until it has been published in a mainstream journal, unless:

• the author(s) give(s) earlier permission for release; or

• until a fixed upper limit of 14 months is reached.

If you would like to request an exception to a public evaluation, you will have the opportunity to explain your reasoning in the submission form.

Why might an author want to engage with The Unjournal?

1. The Unjournal presents an additional opportunity for evaluation of your work with an emphasis on impact.

2. Substantive feedback will help you improve your work—especially useful for young scholars.

3. Ratings can be seen as markers of credibility for your work that could help your career advancement at least at the margin, and hopefully help a great deal in the future. You also gain the opportunity to

What we might ask of authors

If we consider your work for public evaluation, we may ask for some of the items below, although most are optional. We will aim to make this a very light touch for authors.

1. A link to a non-paywalled, hosted version of your work (in any format—PDFs are not necessary) that can be given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Again, we will not be "publishing" this work, just evaluating it.

2. A link to data and code, if possible. We will work to help you to make it accessible.

3. Assignment of two evaluators who will be paid to assess your work. We will likely keep their identities confidential, although this is flexible depending on the reviewer. Where it seems particularly helpful, we will facilitate a confidential channel to enable a dialogue with the authors. One person on our managing team will handle this process.

• By completing the submission form, you are providing your permission for us to post the evaluations publicly unless you request an embargo.

• You will have a two-week window to respond through our platform before anything is posted publicly. Your responses can also be posted publicly.

For more information on why authors may want to engage and what we may ask authors to do, please see .

I (David Reinstein) am an economist who left UK academia after 15 years to pursue a range of projects (). One of these is :

The Unjournal (with funding from the and the Survival and Flourishing Fund) organizes and funds public-journal-independent feedback and evaluation, paying reviewers for their work. We focus on research that is highly relevant to global priorities, especially in economics, social science, and impact evaluation. We encourage better research by making it easier for researchers to get feedback and credible ratings on their work.

To indicate your potential interest in roles at The Unjournal, such as those described below, please fill out this quick survey form and link (or upload) your CV or webpage.

• If you already filled out this form for a role that has changed titles, don’t worry. You will still be considered for relevant and related roles in the future.

• If you add your name to this form, we may contact you to offer you the opportunity to do paid project work and paid work tasks.

Furthermore, if you are interested in conducting paid research evaluation for The Unjournal, or in joining our advisory board, please complete the form linked .

Feel free to contact contact@unjournal.org with any questions.

Quick links to role descriptions below

Additional information

The Unjournal, a not-for-profit collective under the umbrella and fiscal sponsorship of the , is an equal-opportunity employer and contractor. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, volunteers, and contractors. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, disability, age, or veteran status.

See our data protection statement .

See for an overview of The Unjournal.

Overview and call

I am , founder and co-director of The Unjournal. We have an open call for committee members, board members, reviewers, and suggestions for relevant work for The Unjournal to evaluate.

The Unjournal is building a system for credible, public, journal-independent feedback and evaluation of research.

We maintain an open call for participants for four different roles:

1. (involving honorariums for time spent)

2. members (no time commitment)

3. (who will often also be on the Advisory Board)

You can express your interest (and enter our database) .

Evaluators

We will reach out to evaluators (a.k.a. "reviewers") on a case-by-case basis, appropriate for each paper or project being assessed. This is dependent on expertise, the researcher's interest, and a lack of conflict of interest.

Time commitment: Case-by-case basis. For each evaluation, for the amount of time to spend.

Compensation: We pay a minimum of $200 (updated Aug. 2024) for a prompt and complete evaluation, $400 for experienced evaluators. We offer additional prizes and incentives, and are committed to an average compensation of at least $450 per evaluator. .

Who we are looking for: We are putting together a list of people interested in being an evaluator and doing paid referee work for The Unjournal. We generally prioritize the pool of evaluators who signed up for our database before reaching out more widely.

Interested? Please fill out (about 3–5 min, same form for all roles or involvement).

Projects and papers

We are looking for high-quality, globally pivotal research projects to evaluate, particularly those embodying open science practices and innovative formats. We are putting out a call for relevant research. Please suggest research . (We offer bounties and prizes for useful suggestions – see note.) For details of what we are looking for, and some potential examples, and accompanying links.

You can also .

We provide a separate form for research suggestions. We may follow up with you individually.

Contact us

If you are interested in discussing any of the above in person, please email us () to arrange a conversation.

We invite you to fill in to leave your contact information, as well as outlining which parts of the project you may be interested in.

Note: This is under continual refinement; see our for more details.

These are principally not research roles, but familiarity with research and research environments will be helpful, and there is room for research involvement depending on the candidate’s interest, background, and skills/aptitudes.

There are currently one such role:

Communications, Writing, and Public Relations Specialist (As of November 2023, still seeking freelancers)

Further note: We previously considered a “Management support and administrative professional” role. We are not planning to hire for this role currently. Those who indicated interest will be considered for other roles.

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Communications, Writing, and Public Relations Specialist

As of November 2023, we are soliciting applications for freelancers with skills in particular areas

The Unjournal is looking to work with a proficient writer who is adept at communicating with academics and researchers (particularly in economics, social science, and policy), journalists, policymakers, and philanthropists. As we are in our early stages, this is a generalist role. We need someone to help us explain what The Unjournal does and why, make our processes easy to understand, and ensure our outputs (evaluations and research synthesis) are accessible and useful to non-specialists. We seek someone who values honesty and accuracy in communication; someone who has a talent for simplifying complex ideas and presenting them in a clear and engaging way.

The work is likely to include:

1. Promotion and general explanation

   • Spread the word about The Unjournal, our approach, our processes, and our progress in press releases and short pieces, as well as high-value emails and explanations for a range of audiences

   • Make the case for The Unjournal to potentially skeptical audiences in academia/research, policy, philanthropy, effective altruism, and beyond

Most relevant skills, aptitudes, interests, experience, and background knowledge:

• Understanding of The Unjournal project

• Strong written communications skills across a relevant range of contexts, styles, tones, and platforms (journalistic, technical, academic, informal, etc.)

• Familiarity with academia and research processes and institutions

Further desirable skills and experience:

• Academic/research background in areas related to The Unjournal’s work

• Operations, administrative, and project management experience

• Experience working in a small nonprofit institution

Proposed terms:

• Project-based contract "freelance" work

• $30–$55/hour USD (TBD, depending on experience and capabilities). Hours for each project include some onboarding and upskilling time.

• Our current budget can cover roughly 200 hours of this project work. We hope to increase and extend this (depending on our future funding and expenses).

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Proposed projects

We are planning to hire 3–7 researchers for a one-off paid project.

There are two opportunities: Contracted Research (CR) and Independent Projects (IP).

Project Outline

• What specific research themes in economics, policy, and social science are most important for global priorities?

• What projects and papers are most in need of further in-depth public evaluation, attention, and scrutiny?

• Where does "Unjournal-style evaluation" have the potential to be one of the most impactful uses of time and money? By impactful, we mean in terms of some global conception of value (e.g., the well-being of living things, the survival of human values, etc.).

This is an initiative that aims to identify, summarize, and conduct an in-depth evaluation of the most impactful themes in economics, policy, and social science to answer the above questions. Through a systematic review of selected papers and potential follow-up with authors and evaluators, this project will enhance the visibility, understanding, and scrutiny of high-value research, fostering both rigorous and impactful scholarship.

Contracted Research (CR) This is the main opportunity, a unique chance to contribute to the identification and in-depth evaluation of impactful research themes in economics, policy, and social science. We’re looking for researchers and research users who can commit a (once-off) 15–20 hours. CR candidates will:

• Summarize a research area or theme, its status, and why it may be relevant to global priorities (~4 hours).

  • We are looking for fairly narrow themes. Examples might include:

    • The impact of mental health therapy on well-being in low-income countries.

We will compensate you for your time at a rate reflecting your experience and skills ($25–$65/hour). This work also has the potential to serve as a “work sample” for future roles at The Unjournal, as it is highly representative of what our and are commissioned to do.

We are likely to follow up on your evaluation suggestions. We also may incorporate your writing into our web page and public posts; you can choose whether you want to be publicly acknowledged or remain anonymous.

Independent Projects (IP)

We are also inviting applications to do similar work as an “Independent Project” (IP), a parallel opportunity designed for those eager to engage but not interested in working under a contract, or not meeting some of the specific criteria for the Contracted Research role. This involves similar work to above.

If you are accepted to do an IP, we will offer some mentoring and feedback. We will also offer prize rewards/bounties for particularly strong IP work. We will also consider working with professors and academic supervisors on these IP projects, as part of university assignments and dissertations.

You can apply to the CR and IP positions together; we will automatically consider you for each.

Get Involved!

If you are interested in involvement in either the CR or IP side of this project, please let us know .

The potential roles discussed below combine research-linked work with operations and administrative responsibilities. Overall, this may include some combination of:

Note on other versions of this content.

Submit your work to be eligible for our “Unjournal: Impactful Research Prize” and a range of other benefits including the opportunity for credible public evaluation and feedback.

First-prize winners will be awarded $2500, and the runner-ups will receive $1000.

Note: these are the minimum amounts; we will increase these if funding permits.

Prize winners will have the opportunity (but not the obligation) to present their work at an online seminar and prize ceremony co-hosted by The Unjournal, , and

The Unjournal, with funding from the and the , organizes and funds public-journal-independent feedback and evaluation. We focus on research that is highly relevant to global priorities, especially in economics, social science, and impact evaluation, and aim to expand this widely. We encourage better research by making it easier for researchers to get feedback and credible ratings on their work.

We aim to publicly evaluate 15 papers (or projects) within our pilot year. This award will honor researchers doing robust, credible, transparent work with a global impact. We especially encourage the submission of research in "open" formats such as hosted dynamic documents (Quarto, R-markdown, Jupyter notebooks, etc.).

The research will be chosen by our management team for public evaluation by 2–3 carefully selected, paid reviewers based on an initial assessment of a paper's methodological strength, openness, clarity, relevance to , and the usefulness of further evaluation and public discussion. We sketch out .

All evaluations, including quantitative ratings, will be made public by default; however, we will consider "embargos" on this for researchers with sensitive career concerns (the linked form asks about this). Note that submitting your work to The Unjournal does not imply "publishing" it: you can submit it to any journal before, during, or after this process.

If we choose not to send your work out to reviewers, we will try to at least offer some brief private feedback (please on this).

All work evaluated by The Unjournal will be eligible for the prize. Engagement with The Unjournal, including responding to evaluator comments, will be a factor in determining the prize winners. We also have a slight preference for giving at least one of the awards to an early-career researcher, but this need not be determinative.

Our management team and advisory board will vote on the prize winners in light of the evaluations, with possible consultation of further external expertise.

Deadline: Extended until 5 December (to ensure eligibility).

Note: In a subsection below, , we outline the basic requirements for submissions to The Unjournal.

How we chose the research prize winners (2023)

The prize winners for The Unjournal's Impactful Research Prize were selected through a multi-step, collaborative process involving both the management team and the advisory board. The selection was guided by several criteria, including the quality and credibility of the research, its potential for real-world impact, and the authors' engagement with The Unjournal's evaluation process.

1. Initial Evaluation: All papers that were evaluated by The Unjournal were eligible for the prize. The discussion, evaluations, and ratings provided by external evaluators played a significant role in the initial shortlisting.

2. Management and Advisory Board Input: Members of the management committee and advisory board were encouraged to write brief statements about papers they found particularly prize-worthy.

3. Meeting and Consensus: A "prize committee" meeting was held with four volunteers from the management committee to discuss the shortlisted papers and reach a consensus. The committee considered both the papers and the content of the evaluations

This comprehensive approach aimed to ensure that the prize winners were selected in a manner that was rigorous, fair, and transparent, reflecting the values and goals of The Unjournal.