Dear Family Members:
Late last week, working paper #15000 was posted to the NBER website
and became available for download. Our faithful print subscribers will
be receiving their copies shortly. This milestone paper is by Anne Case
and Chris Paxson: "The Impact of the AIDS Pandemic on Health Services
in Africa." NBER Working Paper #1, published in June 1973, was by Finis
Welch: "Education, Information, and Efficiency". The pace of working
paper production has picked up over time. It's been less than six years
since the publication of Working Paper #10000, Richard Freeman's "Trade
Wars: The Exaggerated Impact of Trade in Economic Debate."
Marking this milestone is a good moment to underscore several features
of the NBER working paper series, which counts more than 1300
subscribers, ranging from colleges and universities to government
agencies and press organizations.
The first and most important reminder regarding the NBER working
papers is that they cannot include policy recommendations. By charter,
the NBER does not take positions on policy issues in its books or
papers. Working papers may describe the effects of particular policies
("an increase in unemployment benefits by ten percent generates a four
percent increase in the duration of unemployment spells") they may not
offer recommendations ("the results suggest that the level of
unemployment benefits should be increased"). Papers that make policy
recommendations have to be revised for inclusion in the NBER series, and
when the recommendations are central, they should be disseminated
through another outlet.
Second, prospective NBER working papers cannot have been published
elsewhere, or accepted for publication in a journal to whose publisher
you have transferred copyright. We also ask that limit the distribution
of your NBER papers through other working paper series. Of course,
posting papers on your own website is fine, as is including your papers
in your department or university's working paper series. If you have
non-NBER co-authors, they are welcome to include your paper in any
working paper series in which they participate. Please in particular
refrain from posting your paper directly to SSRN. NBER working papers
are cross-posted to their website automatically, and the presence of
multiple copies of your paper can create confusion.
Third, let me alert you to two changes in our working paper submission
form ( http://www.nber.org/wpsubmit ) that went into operation last
fall. The form asks you to provide information in your acknowledgment
footnote on the source of funding for your research - this includes
public and private funders. In addition, you are asked to disclose (via
email link to our Director of Research and Grants Management, Alterra
Milone) any arrangements that might create a potential conflict of
interest with respect to your research findings. Financial conflicts of
interest are particularly important in this regard; they might include
consulting relationships or other arrangements that could lead to an
actual or an apparent conflict. There is growing attention to potential
conflicts of interest in scientific research, and disclosing funding
sources and potential conflicts are important steps for preserving the
integrity of research distributed through the NBER working paper series.
Finally, as electronic rather than print distribution of working
papers becomes more the norm in our field, we are scaling back the
default number of printed working papers that you will receive when you
submit an NBER working paper. Starting in June, by default each author
will receive five printed copies of their paper. Our working paper
submission form will continue to allow you to order additional printed
copies if you need them.
Let me close by encouraging you to take advantage of the NBER
working paper series as a means to distribute your research and to help
improve its visibility. Thank you, as always, for your active
participation in the NBER. All best wishes.
Jim Poterba
Received on Tue May 26 2009 - 11:17:03 EDT
