Scientific journals are at the heart of the scientific process, yet their inner working is often somewhat of 

a black box for most of their authors and readers. I will start by briefly reviewing the economic 

models which sustain academic journals, and will then spend most of my talk explaining what happens to your 

paper after it is submitted to a journal. The talk is targeted towards the younger colleagues who have not yet 

inferred much of this information through repeated exposure to the system, but will hopefully contain tidbits 

that are also of interest to more experienced colleagues.