Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Editorial Policy

Editorial Process

Articles appearing in the journal are primarily solicited by the editorial team. However, we do look at all unsolicited material. In general, with few exceptions, authors of published JEP papers are researchers with a PhD in economics or a closely related field.  Due to the volume of submissions received, proposals that do not meet JEP's editorial criteria will receive only a brief reply. Proposals that appear to have JEP potential receive more detailed feedback.

Philosophy and Style

The Journal of Economic Perspectives attempts to fill part of the gap between refereed economics research journals and the popular press, while falling considerably closer to the former than the latter. For many, the articles will present insights and issues from a specialty outside the readers' usual field of work. For specialists, the articles will lead to thoughts about the questions underlying their research, which directions have been most productive, and what the key questions are.

JEP does not publish book reviews or literature reviews. Highly mathematical papers, research-intensive papers on narrowly focused topics, and papers that address an economic subspecialty in a manner inaccessible to the general AEA membership are not appropriate for the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Disclosure Policy

All authors must provide disclosure statements identifying potential conflicts of interest. If authors have nothing to disclose, they are obligated to submit a statement explicitly stating this. Disclosure statements should also include whether IRB approval was obtained for the project, and if not, state the reason(s). For published papers, a brief summary of potential conflicts of interest should appear in the acknowledgement footnote. The entire disclosure statement is posted with the paper on the journal's website. View the full Disclosure Policy.

Data Legality Policy

All data used in papers published in journals of the American Economic Association should be legally acquired. The editor may choose not to publish the paper if some or all of the data were not legally obtained. View the full Data Legality Policy (effective July 2023).

Data and Code Availability Policy

It is the policy of the American Economic Association to publish papers only if the data and code used in the analysis are clearly and precisely documented and access to the data and code is nonexclusive to the authors.

Authors of accepted papers that contain empirical work, simulations, or experimental work must provide, prior to acceptance, information about the data, programs, and other details of the computations sufficient to permit replication, as well as information about access to data and programs. View the full Data and Code Availability Policy.

RCT Registration Policy

It is the policy of the AEA journals that all work involving field experiments must be registered with the AEA RCT Registry prior to submission for publication.