About AEA Papers and Proceedings

ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)

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AEA Papers and Proceedings, published once a year, contains AEA proceedings and selected papers presented at the AEA sessions of the ASSA Annual Meeting.

In 2018, AEA Papers and Proceedings became a standalone journal and is no longer the May issue of the AER.  Although it will continue to be published in May, it will now be known as the AEA Papers and Proceedings. For issues published before 2018, please visit: https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/aer/issues.

How are papers selected for AEA Papers and Proceedings?

Seven to eight months in advance of the annual January meeting, the American Economic Association's (AEA) President-elect, with the help of a Program Committee, selects the meeting sessions from the proposals received. From among these sessions, the President-elect chooses, at the time of organizing the annual meeting, a number of sessions to be printed in the AEA Papers and Proceedings. Due to space limitations, the number of included sessions is strictly limited. Usually, each member of the Program Committee invites a session of three papers that is included in the AEA Papers and Proceedings. By Executive Committee decision, the President-Elect chooses at least 12 additional submitted papers for the AEA Papers and Proceedings. Eighteen papers included in the AEA Papers and Proceedings are selected by AEA Committees.

How can I have my paper published in AEA Papers and Proceedings?

The AEA Papers and Proceedings includes only papers that are presented at the AEA's annual meeting. All papers must first be proposed, accepted, and presented at the AEA's annual meeting.

To propose a paper, authors should visit the AEA's Annual Meeting Submission Portal. The Submission Portal opens in early March. It closes at the beginning of April for individual proposals and in mid-April for complete session proposals. 

Authors interested in presenting a paper are advised to propose a complete session, rather than individual papers. The AEA's EconHarmony site allows prospective authors to post session ideas and find others with similar paper ideas in order to form a group session. EconHarmony opens in early February and accepts proposals through mid-April. Note that EconHarmony does not function as a submission portal: all prospective authors must use the AEA's standard Submission Portal in order to have their proposals considered. 

All prospective authors receive an email notification by August of whether their proposal to present has been accepted or rejected. Shortly thereafter, authors whose sessions have been selected to be included in the AEA Papers and Proceedings are notified. These authors will receive several notifications of applicable deadlines, length requirements, and style guidelines in the months prior to the Annual Meeting. The deadline for paper submission is typically several days following the end of the Annual Meeting.

Can my contribution to AEA Papers and Proceedings simply be a shortened version of a full-length paper that is being considered for publication elsewhere? 

Authors in such circumstances, with a paper accepted in AEA Papers and Proceedings, need to be able to publish a short and readable paper with some new content. It is recommended that authors not simply create abbreviated versions of longer papers, but instead, use this opportunity to publish an extension of an aspect that has been left out of the full-length paper. This is especially important if one’s full-length paper is slated for publication elsewhere.

Follow these guidelines for preparation of papers to appear in the AEA Papers and Proceedings.