If publishing economics papers in top economics journals is your goal, you need excellent writing skills, because the economics literature has high standards. So, you need to learn how to write economics research papers that present your results clearly and use flawless language. The following tips from economics researchers, writers, editors, reviewers, and faculty will help you write better economics articles for scholarly journals.
“Writing tips for Ph.D. students”—John Cochrane
“Many economists falsely think of themselves as scientists who just ‘write up’ research. We are not; we are primarily writers. Economics and finance papers are essays. Most good economists spend at least 50% of the time they put into any project on writing”, Cochrane says. As well as striving to improve your research skills, you must also work on your writing skills.
This concise resource is primarily for PhD students, but it can be valuable for anyone writing economics papers.
Here are some of Cochrane’s most useful tips for those who write economics research papers:
- The abstract should say “what you find, not what you look for”.
- Start the introduction with your contribution, and give the details later. He says: “A good paper is not a travelogue of your search process. We don’t care how you came to figure out the right answer. We don’t care about the hundreds of things you tried that did not work. Save it for your memoirs.”
- Keep the literature review brief.
- Begin the results section with your main finding.
- Minimize the amount of theory you include.
- The conclusions shouldn’t duplicate your results or discussion.
- Avoid unnecessary repetitions. If you find yourself saying “in other words”, it’s a warning sign you’re repeating yourself. Go back and revise the sentence.
- Don’t try to impress the reader (or the editor or the referees) with your knowledge.
- Use footnotes and parentheses sparingly.
- Figures are a precious part of the paper, because they save you many words, so make the most of them.
- Write in the first person (use I if you’re a single author, or we if you have co-authors). But avoid the editorial we if you’re the only author.
“Practical tips for writing and publishing applied economics papers”—Timothy Beatty and Jay P. Shimshack
The authors’ advice on writing and publishing economics papers will help you understand what an applied economics story is and how to choose good research questions. You’ll also learn how to write great introductions.
“Poorly written papers confuse the reviewer and obscure contributions. You must get the abstract and intro ‘right’”, the authors say in this presentation.
“The introduction formula”—Keith Head
Make the introduction shine, because it’s the most important part of your economics research paper. The introduction is the part that journal editors read first, and also the only section that many of your readers will actually read before skimming through the rest of your paper.
Write the introduction, revise it once, and then edit it again each time you work on your paper. By the time you complete your economics manuscript, the introduction should have gone through more revision rounds than any other section of your manuscript. This is what Keith Head recommends on his blog, where he also explains a formula for writing strong introductions:
- Craft a catchy introductory line (“hook”) and live up to it.
- Make the research question clear to the reader.
- Cherry-pick the works you cite in your literature review. They should all contribute to the story of your paper.
- Specify the three main contributions of your research.
- Avoid stating the obvious, such as “the last section concludes the paper.”
- Read the text aloud to spot errors that the eye might have missed.
- When discussing robustness, avoid being “precise (but wrong) and vague (but useless)”, Head says.
- Use precise language. For example, avoid writing “qualitatively the same”, but instead explain what qualitative features are the same.
The literature review section—“Writing tips for economics research papers” by Plamen Nikolov
Nikolov’s guide has plenty of advice on how to write economics research papers. Here are some of his tips for authors of economics papers:
- If your paper has a separate literature review section, give it a title that connects previous literature to the topic of your manuscript.
- While you should be generous with citations and crediting others’ work, focus on the most closely relevant papers to yours. Do not cite and discuss all related literature to your topic.
- Be diplomatic when criticizing other research papers. Some of their authors may become your paper’s reviewers.
“Good ideas don’t have to be long ideas.”—David Evans
Sometimes you have to publish an idea, method, or piece of research immediately. You either don’t have time to write a long economics research paper, or the idea is not that complex and doesn’t warrant more than a couple of pages. Heed the advice of David Evans and consider publishing a short economics article. Some of the journals where you can publish a short economics paper are Science, Economics Letters, Economics Bulletin, and Applied Economics Letters.
Getting published in economics journals—Tips from journal editors
Though this is an older newsletter (dated 2011), it has advice that continues to be relevant for anyone writing economics research papers for peer reviewed journals.
- Economics journal editors care the most about the importance of the research question and results, the organization of the paper, and the novelty of its method or data.
- The introduction is the section journal editors read first. Keep it short and engaging.
- All the citations should be relevant to your paper. Be generous with the number of works you cite, but avoid citing every paper remotely related to yours.
- Be fair and objective when evaluating the literature. One of the authors of the papers you reference could be your reviewer.
- Submit the manuscript in its best shape. Revise it, proofread it, and get others’ feedback on it before you send it to a journal. One of the newsletter contributors says, “As an editor, when I get a paper that is riddled with typos, I can’t help but have that color my view of the overall enterprise”.
- Don’t rush to write the letters to reviewers. Take time to cool off to be able to formulate tactful answers to the reviewers’ comments. Ask your colleagues’ opinion about the referee reports if you can’t be objective.
- Pay attention to paper length. Editors prefer a shorter paper to one that seems “a forced march through every idea that popped into the author’s head while working on the project”.
- Strive for precision, concision, and accuracy—of both language and content.
- Consider hiring a freelance editor, especially if English is your second language.
Ready to start writing and publishing economics papers?
As an economist, you are primarily a writer rather than a scientist—says John Cochrane. Becoming a good writer requires effort and practice. You need to consult the right resources on writing economics papers, as well as seeking feedback from experienced authors, editors, and reviewers.
Also, as you learn to write by imitation, make a habit of reading economics articles and try to figure out “the formula” of good writing in economics. And if you need a comprehensive style guide for economics papers, the INFORMS Style Guide is an excellent resource.
Finally, be patient. Even the best economics papers have started their life as a rough draft. They have gone through many revisions, reviews, and editing and proofreading sessions before they became ready for print. To speed up and simplify the process of writing and publishing economics papers, consider collaborating with an independent editor.
Do you need a freelance editor to help you prepare your economics manuscript for submission to a journal? Or do you need to have your job market paper edited so you impress hiring committees? Send me a message at editor@languageediting.com.
Related posts:
- How to make scientific figures for publication: A 10-step guide
- The basics of editing research papers with math
- How to reduce economics manuscript word count to meet journal guidelines
Last revised on 19 May 2023
