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