What is quality, innovative research?

Dear Readers, I recently went to my editor-in-chief tasks for the Journal and ended up desk rejecting four out of five manuscripts that I was supposed to assign to the editors. Our other editor-in-chief Prof. Klerkx has already discussed how to avoid desk rejections in JAEE (Klerkx 2020). Let me add to that by explaining what the Journal understands as quality research, and the criteria we use to evaluate manuscripts (by editors who can desk reject before a review and by reviewers). Quality research starts from the research proposal and goes through to final dissemination of results. Quality research means you have thoroughly examined the relevant theoretical frameworks and situated your researchable problem within this literature. It means that you have obtained ethical clearance and conducted the research in an ethical manner. It means you have used the most appropriate methods and have ensured the reliability and validity of the data. It means you have clearly and succinctly written up the introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and the practical and policy implications of your work (as well as what your research means for the underlying theory). According to our aims and scope, the Journal is