The Review of Economic Studies receives more than 1700 new submissions per year. To assist the Editorial Office in prompt processing of this high volume of papers authors are requested to follow these guidelines that apply to both new and revised submissions.
Please read these instructions carefully and follow them closely to ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as efficient and quick as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with these instructions.
With effect from 1 July 2023, the following submission fee structure applies due to increased costs.
The submission fee is USD 200 for new submissions.
There is a reduced submission fee of USD 120 if each author meets at least one of the following conditions: (i) is a current student, (ii) is within six years of completing their PhD, or (iii) resides in a low- or middle-income economy (according to the World Bank classification). Supporting evidence with links to authors’ websites or CVs is required at the time of submission.
Resubmissions are not subject to this fee, except for ‘reject and resubmits’, which are subject to the fee.
The motivation for this change is to raise revenue so as to cover increased costs. Over the last decade the annual number of new submissions to the Review has more than doubled, from 700 to more than 1700. This increase in new papers reflects our success in the sense that submitting to the Review has become more attractive. However, it has also increased the cost of running the journal. To handle the higher volume of papers, the Review has increased the editorial team from four managing editors in 2009 to eight today.
The costs associated with this increase could be financed either by increasing the price charged to libraries or by introducing a submission fee. We find the submission fee alternative most reasonable.
Note that payment of the submission fee does not guarantee that a full review process is going to be carried out. Prior to deciding whether to take the time-consuming step of sending a manuscript to referees, the editors review each manuscript to make sure it is appropriate for the journal and that it has a sufficiently high chance of receiving a favorable review. If not, the editor in charge determines that the paper is not appropriate for the Review and that it would not be a good use of the referees’ time or the author’s time to send the manuscript to outside reviewers. This process requires some time input from the editors, which is why our policy is to charge the submission fee even for papers that are not subject to a full review process.
The submission and fee represent a contract between RESL and the individual making the submission, not any institution that may employ them. In other words, this is a ‘business to consumer’ not a ‘business to business’ transaction. Additionally, this payment does not constitute consultancy fees or advice. The submission fee charged is inclusive of all taxes that RESL will have to pay in the UK. No repayment of any tax element of the submission fee will be made to the submitter or to his/her agent or any institution that the submitter seeks to seek reimbursement.
The Review of Economic Studies is published by the Oxford University Press. Copyright, Licence and Open Access information can be found here.
Authors should submit new and revised manuscripts online at:
http://editorialexpress.com/restud
where they will be guided through a simple and secure procedure which will enable them to upload their papers, along with any supporting material, and also enter or update their personal details. Manuscripts are evaluated by the Review of Economic Studies on the understanding that they have been submitted solely to it and that they have not been previously published or previously accepted for publication in other scientific journals either in whole or in part.
In order to guarantee a fair review process to all authors, the Review adopts strict guidelines to avoid professional conflicts of interests in the allocation of submissions to managing editors. In particular, the Review does not allow its managing editors to handle submissions by advisors, advisees, current colleagues at the same institution (regardless of department), coauthors (with a 10 year grace period), family members, or any other authors whose personal or professional ties to an editor may call into question the integrity of the review process. Managing Editors are expected to disclose and discuss any assignment that might violate the Review’s conflict of interest guidelines, but retain the right to make allocation decisions as necessary on a case-by-case basis. In case of doubt, the current team of editors has adopted a strict interpretation of the policy and reassigned papers when there are the slightest concerns about a possible conflict of interest. These paper allocations cannot be appealed by submitting authors, nor will managing editors discuss the rationale for their decisions with authors.
Submitting authors may make a suggestion for the editorial assignment. The editorial team tries to respect these suggestions as long as they are compatible with editorial workloads and expertise, but must void any suggestion that violates the Review’s conflict of interest rules.
Since at least 2013, the managing editors and the Chair of the Board of the Review of Economic Studies have been refraining from submitting their own papers to the Review for the duration of their editorial term.
Authors of accepted papers that contain empirical work, numerical simulations, or experimental work must in principle make available to the journal any data, programs, and details for the computations necessary for replication. You are strongly advised to read the Data Availability Policy before you make a submission.
Requests for exemptions should be clearly stated in the cover letter when the article is first submitted. The article will then be reviewed at the discretion of the Managing Editors and the Data Editor. Exceptions will not be considered later in the review and publication process.
The Review of Economic Studies endorses DCAS, the Data and Code Availability Standard [v1.0], and its data and code availability policy is compatible with DCAS.
With effect from 1st July 2022, papers should be under 45 pages. In some exceptional circumstances, some papers may need to be longer. In these cases, the authors should provide compelling reasons why they seek an exception prior to submission. Such requests should be directed to Elias Papaioannou.
Submitted manuscripts should be formatted for paper of standard size with (i) no more than 45 pages including title page, tables, figures, references and appendices, (ii) margins of at least 1 inch on all sides, (iii) 1-1/2 spaced text in 12-point font (references and footnotes can be single-spaced). The 12pt font applies to the entire manuscript, including appendices. Pages should be numbered.
Authors should upload a single PDF file containing the complete manuscript (i.e. title page, abstract, text, figures and tables), as this makes the reviewing process easier for Editors and referees. This applies to the original version of the manuscript and any revised versions. Due to figure file size constraints, you may have to submit separate files for figures if it is strictly necessary. The location of these Figures should be indicated in the text.
Authors may include into the submission an appendix intended for online publication only. Such an appendix should be clearly labeled “Online Appendix”. Such an online appendix should not exceed 30 pages (with the same font and spacing requirements as the manuscript). Online appendices are for additional results and robustness analyses that are not central to the main paper. The main paper should be self-contained, and should thus also encompass proofs of key results, or at least a sketch of the argument.
The following guidance is suggested only.
Title page
The title should be short, specific and informative. The first name, initial(s), and surname of each author should be followed by his or her department, institution, city with postcode, and country. The fax, telephone number and Email address of the corresponding author should also be provided. It is editorial policy to list only one author for correspondence. Any changes of address may be given next to the Affiliations or Acknowledgements. An abstract of no more than 150 words as well as keywords should be included with all submissions.
Abbreviations
Non-standard abbreviations should be defined at the first occurrence and introduced only where multiple use is made. Authors should not use abbreviations in headings.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements and details of non-financial support must be included at the end of the text before references and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Please note that acknowledgement of funding bodies and declarations regarding conflict of interest should be given in separate Funding and Conflict of interest sections, respectively.
Tables
All tables should be accompanied by a title, and footnotes where necessary. The tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Units in which results are expressed should be given in parentheses at the top of each column and not repeated in each line of the table. Ditto signs are not used. Avoid overcrowding the tables and the excessive use of words. The format of tables should be in keeping with that normally used by the journal; in particular, vertical lines, coloured text and shading should not be used. Please be certain that the data given in tables are correct.
Spell-check
It is recommended that authors spell-check all files before submission.
Supplementary material
Authors may include the files for any other supplementary material to be submitted with your manuscript only where necessary.
Datasets and computer programs
You are strongly advised to read the Data Availability Policy before you submit your paper.
Please note that the editorial team reserves the right to treat ‘revise and resubmit’ papers as new submissions after two years.
The Review of Economic Studies accepts comments on papers previously published in the journal if the following two conditions are satisfied:
Since assessing both conditions requires editorial work, we kindly ask the authors of the comments to submit them through the regular route but indicate in the cover letter that the manuscript is a comment on a previously published paper. The submission fee for comments is the same as for any other submitted papers.
Authors are not allowed to submit revisions of manuscripts that have been previously rejected unless they are explicitly invited to resubmit by an editor.
Upon receiving their final acceptance decision, authors will be contacted by the Journal Manager as soon as possible who will give them instructions on how to send files for publication purposes and any other data necessary to support their paper.
Please make sure that you have read our policy on data availability. Failure to comply with its terms could delay or even prevent publication of your paper.
The Review of Economic Studies is published by the Oxford University Press. Copyright and Licence information can be found here.