Frequently Asked Questions

Does CPP/Adp require exclusive rights to my paper?

Yes. CPP/Adp will only consider papers that are not previously published, not currently under consideration elsewhere, and do not have excessive overlap with other published or submitted material. After a paper has been published in CPP/Adp, the Journal will normally allow subsequent reproduction in edited volumes, substantial reproduction in review articles, and other reasonable use of the material.

What about "publication" of a working paper on the Internet? Does this conflict with CPP/Adp submission?

A working paper that is available to be read or downloaded through the Internet may also be submitted to CPP/Adp. However, you should submit a paper to CPP/Adp only if you are willing to remove the final version of your paper from Internet availability if it is accepted for publication. In particular, the Journal will not provide locked pdf files of accepted papers to authors to post on their Web site, to distribute to others, or for any other purpose. CPP/Adp views Internet availability of an accepted or published paper as a violation of its copyright. CPP/Adp asks for the cooperation of authors in this protection of copyright. Previous versions of the paper may be left on the Internet.

Does the CPP/Adp have an "appeals" policy for rejected papers?

The Journal is very reluctant to consider appeals of rejected papers. All journals inevitably make both Type I errors (rejecting good papers) and Type II errors (accepting flawed papers). Fortunately, there is an easy remedy for Type I errors: you can submit your paper to another journal. Alternative publication outlets are usually numerous enough that rejection at any one journal does not impose undue hardship on the author, provided the paper is handled with reasonable speed.

CPP/Adp is aware that by focusing on issues of policy relevant to Canada, in some cases there may not be many alternative outlets of comparable quality. As such, we are very careful in our evaluation of all papers submitted to the Journal. Ultimately, however, we simply do not have enough editorial time to engage in an appeal process. If there is an obvious and crucial misunderstanding on the part of the referee, there might be some value in pointing this out to the editor or co-editor handling your paper. Otherwise, your best bet is almost always to submit the paper elsewhere.

It is important for authors to understand that Journal pages and referees are a scarce resource. There are times when the editor and/or the co-editors will make a decision not to review a paper with no obvious flaws or shortcomings because of what we consider to be a relatively narrow focus for a general interest policy journal such as CPP/Adp, lack of analytical content (i.e., more description than analysis), or a superficial discussion of policy implications. While decisions such as these are obviously subjective, and we are under no illusion that authors will agree with them, they are sometimes necessary.

What is CPP/Adp's policy toward data availability and confidentiality?

Ideally, papers published in CPP/Adp should be based on data that can be made available to readers. Making data used in published papers available will not always be possible. At a minimum, however, CPP/Adp will require a detailed description of exactly how the dataset was constructed, how outliers were rejected, etc. The objective is that a reader could, in principle, replicate exactly what was done in the paper.

Sometimes, papers make use of confidential data. This is a particular problem with some Statistics Canada data. In fact, Canadian researchers not infrequently get Statistics Canada to run regressions for them, but never themselves have access to the data. The Journal does not rule out papers based on confidential data. However, confidentiality definitely reduces the academic value of a paper. Conversely, for some papers, an important source of value might be simply generating and making available an interesting data source.

In summary, the Journal will exhibit a preference for papers that are based on data that can be made available if requested. However, papers using confidential data are not ruled out, but the data description must be very clear in such cases so that a person who had access to the data could replicate the results.