The RePEc Blog

The news of the month is the launch of a completely revamped CollEc site and application, thanks to the efforts of Christian Düben. We counted 619,269 file downloads and 3,311,625 abstract views in November 2020. We welcomed a few new archives: Duisburg-Essen University, Conselho das Finanças Públicas, Indian Statistical Institute, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, National Bank of Kazakhstan, Bengaluru Dr. B.R.Ambedkar School of Economics. Finally, the milestones we reached:
80,000,000 cumulative downloads through IDEAS
50,000,000 cumulative articles downloads through reporting services
25,000,000 cumulative downloads through EconPapers
12,000 students listed on RePEc Genealogy.

The big news is that RePEc topped a million indexed working papers. With almost all of them freely available, they are a very significant component to RePEc’s mission of enhancing the dissemination of research for everyone. In other news, we welcomed the following new RePEc archives: National Bank of Kazakhstan, Monash University(II), Escuela Profesional de Economía, Forum New Economy, University of Kassel(II). We counted 587,522 File downloads and 3,200,445 abstract views over October 2020. And we reached the following milestones:

3,333,333,indexed items
1,000,000 indexed working papers
75,000 NEP reports issued

For once, we welcomed just a single new participating archive, from the University of Johannesburg. We counted 437,145 file downloads and 2,761,617 abstract views. And we reached the following milestones:

2,500,000 items with abstracts
60,000 book chapters available online
500 indexed book series

July is usually a very calm month, but we still got a good crop on new participating archives: Technical University Munich (II), Nazarbayev University, ECONtribute, Columbia University (II), Université Catholique de Louvain (II), National Academy of Sciences (USA), Asociación Argentina de Economía Política. Also, we counted 454,745 file downloads and 2,361,833 abstract views. Finally we reached the following milestones:

200,000,000 cumulative abstract views for articles
3,000,000 items available online
1,250,000 items with extracted references

RePEc occasionally adds new functionalities, and when they do not work out, one has to accept to shut them down. We have stopped disseminating the new working papers from NEP through Twitter. This service was popular, with over 20,000 followers. Unfortunately, Twitter kept blocking the feeds and it was simple not workable. One can still get the NEP reports through email and RSS. The listings of economists on Twitter and the associated Twitter lists are still functional.

Over the last month, we counted 536,405 file downloads and 2,930,444 abstract views. We welcomed a few new participating archives: Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Science, Learning Gate Publishing, Eastern Centre of Science and Education, Monash University(II). Finally, the milestone we reached:

700,000 articles with extracted references

RePEc is back in full swing, with lots of new material indexed and lots of traffic as well. During last month, we counted 627,455 file downloads and 2,912,146 abstract views, and welcomed the following publishers: Institute of Business Administration (Karachi), ILMA University, Journal of Research in Economics, Politics & Finance, Association for Cultural and Socio-Economic European Collaboration, Indian Journal of Commerce & Management Studies, Gran Sasso Science Institute, IJSAB International, London Academy of Science and Business. And we reached the following milestones:

240,000,000 cumulative working paper abstract views
60,000,000 cumulative working paper downloads
3,200,000 indexed items
800,000 working papers with abstracts
12,000 blog posts indexed on EconAcademics.org

Many users are unclear how RePEc works and how it differentiates itself from other services. This blog post tries to clarify in a succinct manner.

The core of RePEc is the metadata about the publications. The core is actually completely decentralized, and that metadata is compiled by the respective publishers and made available from their servers. There are currently over 2000 of those so-called RePEc archives. This means that publishers have full responsibility for their contents. The central core of RePEc is in fact just a set pointers indicating the location of the RePEc archives.

All that data is therefore freely available to anyone who wants to use it. Those are RePEc services that assemble all the pieces and make it available in various forms. For example, NEP sends emails about new papers, EconPapers and IDEAS allow to browse or search the data, or CitEc uses the data to try to extract citation data. The latter is an example of a RePEc service that enhances the data and makes it available to other RePEc services. A notable other example is the RePEc Author Service, which allows authors to create a compilation of all their works indexed in RePEc. These profiles are then reused by other services.

For more services using, enhancing, and disseminating the RePEc metadata, see the RePEc homepage. For instructions on how a publisher can contribute, see here. All RePEc services are free.

While most of RePEc is automated, and thus functions the same way whether we are in a pandemic or not, the content and the usage of the services have made noticeable shifts in the past month or two. First in terms of new content, it has slowed down, but with an exponential increase in material relating to Covid-19. As of this writing, there are 779 items relating to Covid-19 in RePEc. Also in terms of usage, it is slightly up compared to March, with an definite focus on Covid-19 related material. See for example, the 25 most downloaded working papers. All in all, we counted 617,754 file downloads and 2,914,152 abstract views.

Related to this, we inaugurated an Economics Virtual Seminar Calendar that is already getting very good usage. We have only two new RePEc archives to announce, though: IJSAB-International and the London Academy of Science and Business. Finally, we still reached a milestone:

800,000 articles with citations

The principal audiences of RePEc are the academic and policy worlds, and they are both in upheaval, in many cases, due to work from home and a change of focus. As detailed in a recent blog post, RePEc can help. This has been reflected in a healthy traffic for those RePEc services that report such numbers: 587,065 file downloads and 2,692,586 abstract views. Also, the circumstances have not prevented more archives to join RePEc: Ateneo de Manila University, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania, Agence française de développement, Robert Triffin International, Entrepreneur’s Guide (Russia), University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. And we reached a few milestones:

1,600,000 items in author profiles
800,000 articles with extracted references

Another good month in terms of traffic to reporting RePEc services: 459,113 file downloads and 2,282,794 abstract views. Welcomed a few more archives: Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Entrepreneur’s Guide, Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi Hryhorii Skovoroda State Pedagogical University, University College London. And we reached a few more milestones:

2,000,000 indexed articles available online
1,500,000 indexed articles with abstracts
1,250,000 cited items
1,200,000 items with references
800,000 cited articles