Preparing to Submit

Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:

  • All Authors: first and last names; affiliations; countries; e-mail addresses; biographies
  • Article Title
  • Abstract
  • We prefer manuscript files to be submitted in Word format. (Please make sure the “Language” is “English” via Tools→Language→Set Language.)
  • Figures/Images as separate files in TIFF, GIF, JPG, PDF, Postscript, or EPS format.
  • Tables and graphs as separate files in Word or Excel format
  • Any permissions clearance documentation that will be needed for us to publish your article. Please also see Copyright and Permissions info, here.

Authors wishing to submit LaTeX files should note the following:

  1. Upload your article in PDF format. Authors are responsible for compiling PDF files from the original LaTeX files. Figures should be included in the compiled PDF and should not be uploaded as individual files. In the submission system choose 'Article file' as the file type.
  2. In addition, upload your original LaTeX files in a zipped folder. (including article, figure, bibliography and library files). In the submission system choose 'LaTeX files in zipped folder' as the file label.
  3. Submit an author information file as described above.

Please note that PDF submissions are only accepted when accompanied by a zipped folder containing source LaTeX files. PDF submissions not accompanied by LaTeX files will be returned to authors for correction and resubmission prior to review.

Please note this journal does not have a LaTeX template.

Please also note that:

  • The main article file and any table, figure etc. files should not contain any information which might identify the authors as articles are double blind reviewed. Main manuscript files containing author details will be returned for correction.
  • Full contact details/author biographies should be included in a separate file as indicated on the submission page. Only full contact details for the corresponding author are required and should include a full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and an email address
  • Author biographies are required for each author of an article and should be no longer than 80 words per author.

The manuscript submission process starts by pressing the “Submit Manuscript” link on your “Home” page after you have logged into the system. Please make sure you have gathered all the required manuscript information listed above BEFORE starting the submission process

Data Disclosure Policy

It is the policy of the IMF Economic Review to publish papers only if the data used in the analysis are clearly and precisely documented and are readily available to any researcher for purposes of replication. Authors of accepted papers that contain empirical work, simulations, or experimental work must provide to the IMF Economic Review, prior to publication, the data, programs, and other details of the computations sufficient to permit replication.

These will be posted on the IMF Economic Review website. The Editor should be notified at the time of submission if the data used in a paper are proprietary or if, for some other reason, the requirements above cannot be met.

As soon as possible after acceptance, authors are expected to send their final manuscript in Word or LaTex format, together with data, programs, and sufficient details to permit replication, in electronic form, to the IMF_ER@imf.org, indicating the manuscript number. Questions regarding any aspect of this policy should be forwarded to the Editor at IMF_ER@imf.org.

The minimum requirement should include the data set(s) and programs used to run the final models, plus a description of how previous intermediate data sets and programs were employed to create the final data set(s). Authors are invited to submit these intermediate data files and programs as an option; if they are not provided, authors must fully cooperate with investigators seeking to conduct a replication who request them. The data files and programs can be provided in any format using any statistical package or software. Authors must provide a Readme PDF file listing all included files and documenting the purpose and format of each file provided, as well as instructing a user on how replication can be conducted.

If a request for an exemption based on proprietary data is made, authors should inform the Editors if the data can be accessed or obtained in some other way by independent researchers for purposes of replication. Authors are also asked to provide information on how the proprietary data can be obtained by others in their Readme PDF file. A copy of the programs used to create the final results is still required.

Format Instructions: editorial style

The style for the IMF Economic Review is essentially that of The Chicago Manual of Style. If you find that the instructions that follow are unsuitable or inadequate for your project, and the Manual of Style offers no solution, please contact the editorial office to discuss the situation before you proceed. Please make sure your paper starts with an italicized Abstract followed by the paper's JEL classification numbers. The opening footnote must include the title and institution of each author and may include acknowledgements. Do not include any disclaimers in the opening footnote as there is a global disclaimer on the Review's copyright page that covers all the papers included in each issue.

Language

Please use American spelling, punctuation, and syntax. Commonly used latin terms (e.g., inter alia) need not be italicized.

If a relatively unfamiliar, non-English term (e.g., chaebol) will appear throughout your work, so that italicization will be cumbersome, you may choose to italicize the term and define it the first time it appears, and thereafter use roman type.

Names of institutions or organizations (e.g., Bundestag; Goskomstat) are not italicized. Diacritical marks should be retained in proper names and non-English words, even when they are not italicized (e.g., Poincaré, émigré, vis-à-vis, raison d'être).

The preferred transliteration system for Russian is the modified Library of Congress system. For the Romanization of Chinese we prefer pinyin.

Preparing your manuscript

Please prepare your manuscript in Scientific Word, LaTex, or Microsoft Word; separate Excel files are acceptable for tables and figures.

Please adhere to the following basic procedures for preparing computerized manuscripts.

Please utilize the following convention for naming your files: your surname to be followed by the element in the file (e.g., Smith-text.doc, Smith-Figure 1.doc, etc.).

If your manuscript is in Microsoft WORD, create a separate file for each table and figure. (If provided in Excel, each table should be in its own separate workbook file.)

Create and retain a backup of your files.

Use only one space after punctuation.

Do not leave blank lines between paragraphs unless there is a deliberate break in the text.

Use a line feed ("carriage-return" key) only to end a paragraph, not at the end of each screen line.

Do not use hyphenation/justification, windows, or other automatic functions in the files you send. They will not transmit properly to our computers.

Do not insert spaces between initials.

Do not use a lowercase "el" (l) for a numeral one (1).

The titles of parts, chapters, tables, etc., and the subheads within a chapter should be brief but informative, parallel in construction, and in a consistent style. As a group, the weighted subheads should give a clear outline of the structure of the work and its parts. Superscript note numbers or asterisks should never appear in a chapter title or subtitle, table title, or subhead.

Quotations

When using quotations from published sources, please follow exactly the spelling and other conventions of the original. Please place interpolations (comments you insert that are not part of the quotation) in square brackets, not parentheses. Indicate internal omissions with ellipsis points; do not use ellipsis points at the beginning or end of a quote.

Quotations need to be identified by source. Direct quotations are enclosed within double quotation marks; quotations within quotations are enclosed in single quotation marks. Commas and periods go inside the close quote (," ."), colons and semicolons outside (": ";). A question mark or exclamation point belongs inside the close quote if it is part of the quotation. A superscript note number follows the close quote, but proper placement of punctuation marks will vary: ("xx xxxxx"),2 "xx xxxxx";3 "xx xxxxx,"4 and "xx xxxxx."5

Citations and references

Remember that a credit (or acknowledgment) note is unnumbered. If it applies to the entire chapter, it should be placed at the foot of the opening page or before the numbered endnotes. Please do not incorporate notes belonging to tables or figures into the sequence of numbered notes, as the exact placement of these elements will not be fixed until the text is paged. The superscript note number is best placed at the end of a clause, sentence, or quotation, outside the punctuation. Superscripts should never appear in chapter titles or subheads.

Use a short-form citation for nonsequential references to a previously cited source (not op cit.). Please note that IMF style uses “and others” (instead of et al.) for any callouts with more than three authors; e.g., Johnson and others (2003) (if there are four authors or more); but Johnson, Harrison, and Smith (2003) (if there are three authors).

Please ensure that all Reference entries have a callout in the text; otherwise the reference entry should be eliminated. Similarly, ensure that all callouts have an associated entry in the Reference list. Below are examples of our Reference styles for journal articles, books, chapters in books, working papers, unpublished material:

Journal article:

English, William B., 1996, “Understanding the Costs of Sovereign Default: American State Debts in the 1840s,” American Economic Review, Vol. 86, No. 1, pp. 259–75. [you may include month instead of issue number, if necessary]

Book:

Eichengreen, Barry, and Richard Portes, 1995, Crisis? What Crisis? Orderly Workouts for Sovereign Debtors (London, Centre for Economic Policy Research).

Chapter in book:

Lindert, Peter, and Peter Morton, 1989, “How Sovereign Debt Has Worked,” in Developing Country Debt and the World Economy, ed. by Jeffrey Sachs (Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press).

Working Paper:

Mendoza, Enrique, G., and Vivian Z. Yue, 2008, “A Solution to the Default Risk-Business Cycle Disconnect,” NBER Working Paper No. 13861 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, National Bureau of Economic Research).

Occasional Paper:

Harrison, John, and William Smith, 2004, Developing Economies in Asia, IMF Occasional Paper No. 268 (Washington, International Monetary Fund).

Unpublished:

Kohlscheen, Emanuel, and Stephen A. O'Connell, 2007, “A Sovereign Debt Model with Trade Credit and Reserves” (unpublished; University of Warwick).

Forthcoming:

Levy Yeyati, Eduardo, forthcoming, “Optimal Debt: On the Insurance Value of International Debt Flows to Developing Economies.” Open Economies Review. [add volume and issue numbers if you know what they will be]
Data in tables
In statistical matter throughout:
dots (...) indicate that the data are not available;
a dash (–) indicates that the figure is zero or less than half the final digit shown, or that the item does not exist;
a single dot (.) indicates decimals;
a comma (,) separates thousands and millions;
"billion" means a thousand million; and "trillion" means a thousand billion;
a short dash (-) is used between years or months (for example, 1998-99 or January-June) to indicate a total of the years or months inclusive of the beginning and ending years or months;
a slash (/) is used between years (for example, 1998/99) to indicate a fiscal year or a crop year; and components of tables may not add to totals shown because of rounding.

The term "country", as used in this publication, may not refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice; the term may also cover some territorial entities that are not states but for which statistical data are maintained and provided internationally on a separate and independent basis.