The RePEc Blog

In the past months we have added some new features to the Citations in Economics service:

References input service

Many documents in CitEc cannot be automatically processed due to a variety of reasons: they are not open access, not in PDF format or the PDF file can not be converted to text. Although some publishers provide us access to gated references, many are still missing. Often we get requests from authors asking why a citation to one of their papers is not included in CitEc. The answer is always the same: because the citing paper has not been processed. If this is your case, it is now possible to provide CitEc with the missing references and they will be processed. We ask, though, that all references from the citing paper be provided. Incomplete reference lists will not be considered. The lists of references and the contributor will be made public. The input form can be found here or from any IDEAS abstract page.

Add citation now

In some cases a paper cites a document available in RePEc but the system is not able to identify it as a RePEc item. For each reference not automatically linked by the system, the user may now add the handle of the cited document. All citations submitted through this feature are monitored to check if it is correct or not. A link to this form can be found from any IDEAS abstract page.

Citation profiles for authors

CitEc now provides citation profiles for authors. For each registered author in the RePEc Author Service, we provide a profile with her scientific production and the number of citations of each paper. Also we provide some indicators like the h-index and information about recent co-authors. For an example look at: http://citec.repec.org/p/z/pzi1.html. Note that this is work in progress, and the statistics on this page are not yet adjusted the way they are for the ranking statistics (versioning, self-citations).

New design for series pages

We have changed the format of the citations and production graphics. Also the papers bibliographic data is presented in a clearer way. An example at: http://citec.repec.org/s/2010/miewpaper.html

Included historical data for series pages

The time series for series citation data now goes back to 1990. Citations, document production and impact factor for all years is provided.

Use of persistent URLs

Now it is possible to access the citation data for authors and documents using short and persistent URLs like:, http://citec.repec.org/RePEc:mie:wpaper:382 or http://citec.repec.org/pdu7. To create such URLs simply add to http://citec.repec.org/ the paper/article handle or RePEc Author Service Short-ID.

It is now possible to use RePEc Author Service credentials to log into some other websites using the OpenID schema. This means that users do not need to use separate user names and passwords for those websites.

OpenID uses a user’s web page to establish credentials, as long as the website participates in OpenID. The RePEc Author Service now does so, with the drawback that few users know their profile URL (for example: http://authors.repec.org/pro/pzi1/). For this reason, services using OpenID credentials through RePEc will typically request the user’s RePEc short-ID (for example: pzi1). The latter can be found on an author’s profile on EconPapers or IDEAS, or by using a RePEc short-ID lookup tool.

A typical authentication procedure goes as follows:

1. The user is asked for a personal RePEc short-ID at a referring service.
   
2. The service forwards this information to the RePEc Author Service, which shows the habitual log-in page.
   
3. The user enters the usual RePEc Author Service credentials (email address and password).
   
4. Upon success, the RePEc Author Service asks for confirmation that log-in should proceed at the referring service.
   
5. Upon confirmation, the referring service obtains confirmation from the RePEc Author Service that this is the person with this short-ID.
   

Steps 2 and 5 are bypassed if the user has a live RePEc Author Service session. It should be noted that the RePEc Author Service does not communicate the email address or the password, only that the owner of the short-ID (and its corresponding web page) is indeed this person. The referring service is then free to use the short-ID in its own authentication.

Note that some people will not be able to use this authentication service right away. Indeed, their RePEc Author Service profile needs to be enabled for this. This is not the case for anybody who has not logged in the RePEc Author Service since late June 2012.

OpenID authentication through RePEc is currently in use for the maintenance of reading lists and publication compilations on IDEAS, as well as for the RePEc plagiarism committee. Other services that require authentication, tied to RePEc or not, will soon follow.

We have noticed that material on RePEc is used quite heavily on social media, in particular Facebook, Twitter and Delicious. To make it easier, IDEAS now features on every page buttons that allow a user to quickly link with some services. Currently, the following options are available: Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Google+ and Reddit. In addition, there is a button to print and one to email the link.

The code for all this was custom written to avoid using tracking cookies that are common with similar referral services. One consequence is that the email button will only work if an email client is installed on the computer. It will not work with Gmail, Hotmail, and other web-based email services.

In addition, Google Translate has been implemented as well, which should be able to translate any page you your language of choice, even when several languages are present. Of course, only the original version is guaranteed to be accurate. Note that this service uses a tracking cookie, but virtually everyone already has a Google cookie anyway.

EconPapers will soon implement the same features.