Since July 2019, the Economic Journal has been implementing pre-acceptance replication checks on papers submitted to the journal. These replication checks seek to ensure that the code provided is complete and, when combined with the data, replicates all the tables and figures in the paper. The ultimate goal is to promote transparency and reproducibility in economic research but the journal also views it as a service to authors.
Replication checks involve a team of advanced Ph.D. students who need to be coordinated and coached. In addition, replication checks are at an early stage of development at several other journals in economics, with standards and practices evolving, and new opportunities arising. Examples of open questions includes the development of best practices in case of restricted access data, management of copyrights, storage and curation of the data and code. For this reason, the board of editors of the Economic Journal is seeking to build expertise around these issues to be able to develop sound but frontier replication policies and contribute to the debate on transparent, reproducible and replicable research.
The remit of the data editor will be to design and implement replication, data and code policies for the Economic Journal with the view of promoting transparency, reproducibility and replicability of research published in the Economic Journal, without imposing excessive burden on the authors. In particular, this person will:
- coordinate and coach the replication team to ensure professional, accurate and efficient (fast turnaround) handling of replication checks
- correspond with authors and editors to report on results of replication checks
- work with editors and EJ staff to identify solutions to streamline the workflow and communicate with authors
- review and update existing replication and data policies of the journal
- work with OUP, data providers, providers of scientific infrastructure and other stakeholders to identify technical and legal solutions that promote transparency, reproducibility and replicability of research
- take part in the biannual meeting of the EJ editorial team
There are already a replication team and work routines established for points 1-3, making it easy for any incoming data editor to take over the replication checks.
The data editor will be reporting to the board of managing editors. Interested individuals should be contacting Estelle Cantillon at Estelle.Cantillon@ulb.ac.be. Since replication checks are already in place, we are seeking to appoint the data editor as soon as possible.
