It turns out that the original “gumshoes” of the late 1800’s were shoes or boots made of gum rubber, the soft-soled precursors of our modern sneakers… At the turn of the century “to gumshoe” meant to sneak around quietly as if wearing gumshoes, either in order to rob or, conversely, to catch thieves. “Gumshoe man” was originally slang for a thief, but by about 1908 “gumshoe” usually meant a police detective, as it has ever since.

Happy to hear that an article in the JPE is in process!

I have found curriculum vitae websites of authors and researchers to be very helpful, and they are usually linked to at the bio page. In fact, many of them will list every article published, and some will link to free copies that are not available from the publisher website.

Contact information never hurts, either. As shown in the original post, researchers do email back and you can make a good contact.