If you participate in online discussions about economics research, if you have an online syllabus, or if you share some literature through email, you are likely providing a link to some full text on a publisher’s site. I want to argue here that it is a better idea to link to a RePEc service (abstract pages on EconPapers and IDEAS or links from NEP reports). The reasons are the following:
- Link to full texts go stale. RePEc URLs are permanent and contain updated links to full texts.
- If the full text link is gated behind a paywall, the RePEc link can still provide context and often a link to a free version.
- Alternatively, if the full text link is going to a working paper, a RePEc page may have a link to a version published in a journal.
- Clicking on a RePEc link will give the author(s) credit, this cannot happen if the link goes directly to the full text.
- A RePEc abstract page also provides related research (cites, references) and links to author profiles. The interested reader can thus explore for more.
EconPapers and IDEAS each have easy tools if you want to share a link through social media or email. Use them!
The RePEc Blog 