Research paper checklist

Guidelines and tips for papers

  • A research paper is not an essay!

    • Personal opinions don’t have a place

    • Sources should be primarily academic (peer-reviewed journals, working papers, etc.), maybe some non-academic sources for motivation only

    • Divide your paper into labeled sections

  • Present tense when describing what people find and what you find.

  • First-person active voice! (I estimate a regression, NOT “A regression is estimated”)

    • Single-authored paper first person singular, “I.” (You’re not the queen!)

    • Joint-authored paper first person plural, “we.”

    • Don’t believe me? Check out any economics paper published in the past 20 years. There’s some variation in I vs. we, but all use active voice.

Abstract & Title

  • Descriptive title included

  • 250 words or less abstract

Introduction

  • States your research question clearly

  • Explains what economic theory says about the potential answers to your questions, and/or defines clear hypotheses that you test

  • Describes why your topic is important

  • Describes what you do

  • Describes what you find

  • Describes how it contributes

  • Reader can infer all main points of paper just from introduction

Motivation/Literature Review

  • At the back of your mind, when motivating your paper, ask “what is the link to economics”?

    • If studying discrimination, what does economic theory tell us about why discrimination exists/persists

    • If studying stock market returns, what do economic models tell us about our ability to predict returns?

  • Includes papers that have answered your research question (or similar research question)

  • Research results described in present tense (“Smith finds,” not “Smith found”)

  • Papers linked clearly to their contribution (as relates to your research question)

Methodology, data, and empirical specification

  • Data source described and cited

  • Population model written out (you can use the Equation Editor in Word)

    • Use proper equation notation (betas, u, etc.)

    • Use appropriate subscripts (i, t, y, etc.)

    • All relevant variables explained/defined

    • Use “real names” to describe variables when possible (i.e., use female for women, not w1)

    • Don’t forget the error term!

  • Describe your methodology. Are you estimating a model using OLS? If so, say so.

  • Correct standard errors: robust? Clustered? Something else?

Please enjoy this empirical specification handout!

Results

  • When using categorical/dummy variables, what is your omitted category? Make sure you know and that it’s clear.

  • What are the units of your measures?

    • Is that percent or percentage points?

  • In most contexts, about 3 places past the decimal point is right, but it depends on the magnitudes. If you really want to be precise, set and stick to a reasonable number of significant digits. There’s no place for a number like 0.05403823 or 0.0000000 in your tables.

Tables and Figures

  • Tables should be properly formatted. That is, they should be made in Excel (or LaTeX) and NEVER copied and pasted out of Stata

  • Variables should be described using real words. I.e., “number of children,” not “numchld.”

  • Tables and figures should be numbered (Table 1, Table 2, etc… Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) and should also be given a title. Refer to tables by their numbers in the text.

  • Tables should include standard errors and significance stars

References

  • Use footnotes rather than endnotes

  • At the end of your paper, include list of references cited

  • Include a minimum of 5 academic sources (8 total)

  • You can format using APA or Chicago style

    • Citation Owl or Google Scholar will do it for you

  • In-text, cite with author and year (Author, Year; Author, Year)

AI Attribution

  • Include an AI attribution statement at the end of your paper

    • If you used AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot), identify which tools you used and describe what you used them for (e.g., brainstorming, editing, coding assistance)

    • If you did not use any AI tools, state that explicitly

    • This is worth 2 points and is full credit or zero — don’t skip it!

Working with data

If you’re working with people

  • What is the age range you want in your sample?

  • What years of data do you need?

  • If in the US, do you want citizens, or do you also want to include immigrants?

  • If dealing with labor force variables, do you want all people of working age, all those who are in the labor force, or all who are employed?

Last updated on April 10, 2026

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