The following tips are meant to help you improve the chances that your paper will be accepted.
- Make sure you have a clear thesis statement in the introduction of your paper. Your thesis may be in the form of a statement or a question. The key is that early in your paper, you need to clearly explain exactly what you are going to investigate and how you are going to go about investigating your question or problem.
- Think about your audience. When you write, try to anticipate the questions that your reader may have. Remember that your reader is trying to understand everything about your research.
- Write with the objective of making your arguments clear, concise, and easy to understand.
- Pay close attention to the quality of your economic reasoning.
- Make your paper topic interesting by explaining why your research project is worth doing at all and also be sure to tell your reader what is significant about your conclusions and why they are interesting.
- If you use tables and figures, be sure to refer to them in your text.
- Avoid spelling and grammatical errors. While the reviewers of paper submissions are ultimately looking for good economic research, excessive errors will distract the reviewer from the content of your paper and as a result, your paper may be looked upon unfavorably as a result.
- Do not forget to properly cite your sources! Papers that are submitted should have proper citations.
- While it is preferable to use third person when writing a research paper, as long as you are consistent throughout the paper, the editorial staff is indifferent to which you actually use.
Finally, here are a couple of excellent references:
McCoskey, D. 1985. Economical writing in Economic inquiry 24: 187-222.
Greenlaw, Steven A. 2006. Doing economics: A guide to understanding and carrying out economic research. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Wyrick, Thomas. 1994. The economist’s handbook: A research and writing guide. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing.