This document discusses publication lags in economics research, with working papers appearing years before peer-reviewed published work. It questions whether publication means anything given the large number of working papers now available. It also considers options for the National Bureau of Economic Research's web repository, such as providing open access to working papers along with links to related materials, peer reviews, and published versions of the papers.

1. Peer Review, Publication and the Diffusion of
Economic Knowledge
Joshua Gans
University of Toronto
WP@20000, July 2014

2. Publication and Peer Review Lags
• Working papers appear years before published work
• Working papers are not peer reviewed
• Almost: some are discussed at conferences
• Does publication mean anything?
• With 20,000 working papers and growing, what
identifiers should be on NBER ‘published’ work?

4. Web Repository Options
• Open access
• Comments and Conference Discussions
• Dataset links
• Versions
• Links to published works
• Links to press and summaries
• Citations
• Should the NBER provide peer review (that is then submitted to
journals)?