The Economist maintains a tradition of publishing articles anonymously in order to present a corporate voice. Some online pieces now carry attributions.

Lists of contributors record the authorship of articles in each edition of the newspaper. Between 1941 and Feb 1968, lists include records of payments for some articles, presumably to contributors not employed by the newspaper.

Lists are written up in notebooks until 2004. Thereafter, they are typed, loose leaf bundles. Lists from 1998 to 2004 appear to have been typed up from the notebooks as loose leaves.