Trends in the publication of experimental economics articles

We report data on the experimental articles published from 2000 to 2021 in seven leading general-interest economics journals. We also look at time trends in the characteristics of the published experimental articles, including citations and the nationality of the authors. We find an overall increasing trend in the publication of non-lab experiments in all journals. By contrast, the share of lab experiments has more than halved in the AER and remained low in other Top five journals. The diverging trends for non-lab and lab experiments are not universal as the shares of both have increased in two other high-ranking economics journals (JEEA and EJ). We also observe some heterogeneities in publication, citations, rankings, and locations of authors' affiliations across journals and types of experiments

Trends in the publication of experimental economics articles

We report data on the experimental articles published in the last two decades in seven prominent, general-interest economics journals, considering laboratory and other types of experiments separately. In addition, we also look at time trends in the characteristics of the published experimental articles. We find an overall increasing trend in the publication of experimental research. This is mainly driven by non-lab experiments, which have overtaken lab experiments in all considered outlets. The reversal of fortunes is most striking in the AER, where the share of lab experiments more than halved over the past twenty years and converged to the share of lab experiments in other Top 5 journals. We also observe some heterogeneities in publication, citations, rankings, and locations of authors’ affiliations across journals and types of experiments