[Excerpts taken from the article “Editor’s Corner”, by Travis Lybbert, published in The Exchange, the newsletter of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association]

“In my time as AJAE editor over the past four years, an interesting crisis for our profession – and, indeed, for the wider social sciences…As this crisis unfolded, we as editors frequently discussed appropriate responses for the AJAE and how we might increase research transparency. These discussions led to some substantive revisions to the AJAE Editorial Policies…”

“We have elevated our data and code sharing policy from a suggestion to an expectation…the share of empirical articles in the AJAE that are accompanied by data and code…has increased from 8% in 2015 to nearly 20% today.”

“With support from the AAEA, we also recently launched a ‘Data and Code Verification Pilot’ that supports a small team of analysts that use these files to verify “push button” replicability of the tables and figures in the manuscript.”

“Addressing the crisis of confidence of the past decade will require more than changes in journal policies and editorial practices, but the AJAE Editorial Board is striving to play a constructive role in building greater transparency and restoring confidence in empirical analysis.”

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