v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack AStablev2026.2

Working paper

A scholarly document circulated through institutional working-paper series (e.g., NBER, IZA, CEPR), academic websites, or repositories, presenting research in progress for community feedback prior to (or sometimes instead of) formal peer review and journal publication.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A 2024 NBER Working Paper cited in policy debates years before journal publication

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A peer-reviewed journal article is not a working paper

Editorial commentary

Common in economics and social sciences where the dominant publication culture treats working papers as the primary mode of dissemination and journal publication as a later certification. Distinct from preprints by often being explicitly less polished and by having an established institutional series.

References

NBER Working Paper Series
RePEc Research Papers in Economics

Also known as

Discussion paper (working) · WP

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Working paper"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/working-paper" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "Working paper",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/working-paper",
  "description": "A scholarly document circulated through institutional working-paper series (e.g., NBER, IZA, CEPR), academic websites, or repositories, presenting research in progress for community feedback prior to (or sometimes instead of) formal peer review and journal publication.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-outputs-expanded/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/working-paper",
  "sameAs": [
    "Discussion paper (working)",
    "WP"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

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