Frequently asked questions:

1. 1. I am writing my term paper, Master, Ph.D.,... thesis and need information about ....
2. Which workingpapers are downloadable?
3. Can you send me paper xxx?
4. How do I get paper xxx?
5. I cannot download a downloadable paper. What should I do?
6. I have downloaded the paper, but cannot view/print it. What can I do?
7. How do I contact the author of paper xxx?
8. How do I get my paper listed in BibEc and WoPEc?

1. I am writing my Master, Ph.D.,... thesis and need information about ....

If you subject is related to anything in economics, BibEc and WoPEc are a good places to find it. However, the only way for us to find out if there is information available is to ask our web service. That is exactly what you have to do. We do not have any secret information, nor can we access the service in a different way. We can not give you any service in addition to what we provide everybody with on the web.

2. Which papers are downloadable?

The NetEc site hosts two big databases. One is BibEc, the other is WoPEc. BibEc contains only bibliographic information about papers, none of these is available online at least not through our site. We do not know where they could be downloadable and therefore can provide you with no further help. Please do not ask for further help. WoPEc is a collection of online documents. These papers are in principle downloadable.
 

3. Can you send me paper xxx?

No. There is a simple reason for this: We do not have them. We simply collect and distribute information about papers, but we do not collect or distribute the papers. No matter how urgent it is for you to obtain a certain paper, we can not help.
 

4. How do I get paper xxx?

When a paper is not available online, but you need it there are a number of ways to proceed: the paper might already be published somewhere in a journal, so you could get hold of the journal through your library. Otherwise try to contact the author, see question 7
 

5. I cannot download a downloadable paper. What should I do?

Please check first that the paper is available online. This is clearly indicated in the search results and on the paper HTML page. If it is available online, there are 2 reasons why a download might fail:

This can happen occasionally, please let us know if you think that the URL is wrong. We will try to find the correct URL.

 A typical and frequent example are the papers issued by the National Bureau of Economics (NBER). These papers are only available to users of certain Internet domains (usually those of developing countries). If there are restrictions than they are indicated through the working paper page we have generated. Read them carefully. If you think that restrictions do not apply to you, do not contact us. We can do nothing about organisations distribution policy, nor can we
bypass restrictions ourselves. Contact the publishing organisation (in case of NBER have a look at http://www.nber.org ).

6. I have downloaded the paper, but cannot view/print it. What can I do?

Our papers are distributed in a number of different formats. Not all of them are instantly readable with a program like Winword. Additionally many papers are compressed to save disk space and transfer time. First check if the paper is compressed - this is usually indicated by a file suffix of .zip, .gz, .tgz, .tar.z etc. In the Windows world the Shareware program WinZip usually does a good job of uncompressing these files. The most common file formats which cause trouble with our users are Postscript documents (usual extension: .ps) and Portable Document Format documents (usual extension: .pdf). For the .ps files you need a postscript viewer, there is a free one available called ghostscript or ghostview. If you have a Postscript printer, you can also send it to the printer. Ask your local computing support. For .pdf files you will need the Acrobat Reader from Adobe Software. We cannot help you with installing these software packages, please ask your system administrators if you need help. If you think however, that you did everything right, and that the actual file is corrupted, do not hesitate to contact us.

7. How do I contact the author of paper xxx?

We can not provide you with any extra information about authors other than in the pages that describe the paper. If there is no contact information about the author, you can also try to contact the publishing institution. We have already collected information about plenty of economic institutions at http://edirc.repec.org/. Use this service!

8. How do I get my paper listed in BibEc and WoPEc?

The data in BibEc and WoPEc come from a database called RePEc. If your paper is in RePEc then it will also be listed it will also be listed in other services that use the same database, like IDEAS and NEP.