Please participate in the following survey to help improve the publication process.

The American Economic Association, the European Economic Association, the Econometric Society, and the Royal Economic Society have established an ad hoc joint committee charged with proposing ways to improve the publication process in economics, in light of the technological advances over the last half century but the relatively limited changes to the publication process. The decision to implement any suggestions will rest with individual journals.

The committee invites feedback from members of the AEA, EEA, ES, and RES on potential improvements to the publication process. We encourage you to fill out this survey where you can share your opinions and ideas about potential improvements.

This committee acknowledges the importance of innovation within individual journals and the adoption of successful new practices across the field. Our goal is to supplement this ongoing innovation by offering recommendations that are most effective when broadly adopted. These recommendations may include standardized citation practices, methods for acknowledging authors’ contributions, responsibilities for authors, expectations and professional standards for referee reports and communications with coeditors, and standards for handling conflicts of interest. Implementing uniform practices, expectations, and norms across many journals can reduce the burden on both authors and reviewers who otherwise need to adjust their submissions or reviews for each journal’s unique requirements.

The committee will refrain from offering recommendations on competitive aspects such as pricing, page charges, referee compensation, review duration, or publication timelines.

The committee also aims to identify and report the aspects of the publication process that receive the most satisfaction and dissatisfaction from members. This information will guide both the committee’s efforts and can help individual journals in pinpointing areas most in need of improvement.

The AEA, EEA, ES, and RES appointed the following members to the Committee on Improvements to the Publications Process in Economics: Joseph Altonji, Guido Imbens, Kevin Lang, Erzo Luttmer, Imran Rasul, Stefanie Stantcheva, and Romain Wacziarg.

This survey is entirely anonymous. It should take around 10 minutes to complete. 

The survey will remain open until Wednesday, July 3rd.

On behalf of the committee,
Joe, Guido, Kevin, Erzo, Imran, Stefanie, and Romain.