A major component of RePEc is the RePEc Author Service, which allows economists to create an online profile of their works as they are indexed in RePEc. There are several benefits to this. For users, cross-links between profiles and abstract pages allow to discover easily what else the authors have written. For authors, they obtain download statistics and citation alerts, and a link they can refer people to their profile. As for departments, authors can count towards their rankings. So far, about 40,000 authors have registered.
Unfortunately, RePEc loses contact with some of the registered economists. The principal reason is that they move to a different address and neglect to amend their contact details at the RePEc Author Service. This is currently the case for about 500 economists, and we encourage notification to RePEc so that we can reconnect with them. A list of such authors is available here.
Sadly, we also lose contact with some economists because they pass away. While we obviously do not want to send them their monthly statistics, we still want to keep their profiles as they continue to provide information to users. This is why volunteers take over maintenance of those profiles. But before doing so, RePEc needs to be alerted that someone has passed away. Thus, do not hesitate to contact the RePEc Author Service administrator in this regard. A list of known deceased and registered economists is here.
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