From: Steve McIntyre

Sent: April 16, 2004 12:48 PM

To: Ziemelis, Karl

Subject: Fw: AER submission policy

----- Original Message -----

From: "Ross McKitrick"

To: "Steve McIntyre"

Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 10:59 AM

Subject: AER submission policy

Dear Steve

The American Economic Review--our very top journal, recently reiterated its submission policy for empirical papers in light of a recent attempt by 2 economists to replicate some papers. At http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/submissions.html  it states:

It is the policy of the American Economic Review to publish papers only  if the data used in the analysis are clearly and precisely documented  and are readily available to any researcher for purposes of replication. Details of the computations sufficient to permit replication must be

provided. The Editor should be notified at the time of submission if the data used in a paper are proprietary, or if, for some other reason, the

above requirements cannot be met.

The Editors today published the following statement:

In an article recently published in this journal, B. D. McCullough and H. D. Vinod (2003) report  that they tested the replication policy by soliciting data and code from authors of articles appearing in the June 1999 issue. While some authors responded in a timely and forthcoming way, not all did, according to McCullough and Vinod. Replicability is essential if empirical findings are to be credible and usable as a starting point for other researchers. The findings of McCullough and Vinod have led us to conclude that more active enforcement of the replication policy by

this journal is necessary.

Submitters should be aware that the Editors now routinely require, as a condition of publication, that authors of papers including empirical results (including simulations) provide to this office, in electronic form, data and code sufficient to permit replication. Exceptions, for proprietary data for example, must be approved by the Editor in advance of the review process. Electronic data appendices will be posted on the journal’s Web site, http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/.

Authors of previously published articles who wish to submit a data appendix for posting are welcome to do so. In any case, published authors are strongly encouraged to comply with the replication policy, should requests for data and programs be received. The Editors should be notified if an author of a previously published article does not make a reasonable effort to comply with the journal’s replication policy

Ben S. Bernanke, Editor

Ross McKitrick