Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in 57 countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, journal articles and software components. The project started in 1997. Its precursor NetEc dates back to 1993.
Using its IDEAS database, RePEc provides links to over 700,000 full text articles. Most contributions are freely downloadable, but copyright remains with the author or copyright holder. It is among the largest internet repositories of academic material in the world.[1]
Materials to RePEc can be added through a department or institutional archive or, if no institutional archive is available, through the Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA). Institutions are welcome to join and contribute their materials by establishing and maintaining their own RePEc archive.
Leading publishers, such as Elsevier and Springer have their economics material listed in RePEc. RePEc collaborates with the American Economic Association's EconLit database to provide content from leading universities' working paper or preprint series to EconLit. Over 900 journals and over 2500 working paper series have registered, for a total or 700,000+ articles, 600,000+ of which are online.
The information in the database is used to rank the almost 20,000 registered economists. Andrei Shleifer is currently the highest ranked economist, followed by Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Barro.[2] The economics department of Harvard University is ranked first, followed by University of Chicago and the World Bank.[3] Massachusetts is the top region, followed by the United Kingdom and California.[4] There are also rankings by country and subdiscipline.
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The following web sites offer various services provided by RePEc: