brycewang-stanford Submission Preflight (aeja-submission)
When to trigger
- "Submitting tomorrow" — last check before pressing submit on the AEA system
- Unsure which files, fees, and declarations the AEA submission expects
- Confirming title/byline/front matter, JEL codes, and disclosure statements are in order
- Confirming the paper is data-policy-ready should it advance
Process facts (official AEA pages checked 2026-06-20; editor + fees re-verified 2026-06-22)
- AEJ: Applied is one of the four American Economic Journals, published by the American Economic Association (AEA), quarterly; submission is through the AEA online submission system.
- Single-blind review: author identities are visible to referees; referee identities remain anonymous to authors. The manuscript should include title, byline, and author affiliations on the first page.
- Submission fee: AEA members: high-income USD 200, middle-income USD 100, low-income USD 0. Nonmembers: high-income USD 300, middle-income USD 200, low-income USD 0. Papers rejected without review receive a 50 percent refund.
- Publication fee: accepted papers first submitted on or after 1 February 2024 are assessed USD 15 per typeset page at proofs.
- Length/front matter: abstract of 100 or fewer words; JEL codes; title, byline, and author affiliations on the first page; recommended maximum equivalent to 40 pages at 11-point/1.5 spacing/1-inch margins or 45 pages at 12-point/1.5 spacing/1-inch margins.
- Editor (re-verified 2026-06-22): Raymond Fisman (Boston University), lead-editor term beginning January 2026; coeditors Leah Boustan, Marika Cabral, Peter Hull, Xavier Jaravel, and Nicholas Ryan; Data Editor: Lars Vilhuber (Cornell). Re-verify the masthead on the AEA editors page before submission.
- Data & code: the AEA Data and Code Availability Policy applies; papers offered R&R are asked to submit their data replication package at resubmission, and accepted papers must clear the Data Editor's compliance/reproducibility check before publication (
aeja-replication-package). - One paper under review at a time per AEA rules; AI cannot be listed as an author.
Preflight checklist
Front matter
- Title, byline, and author affiliations appear on the first page
- Acknowledgement footnote includes author emails, author-order statement, funding/grants, acknowledgments, IRB details, and RCT registration where applicable
- JEL codes assigned; keywords listed; abstract is 100 words or fewer
Format & exhibits
- Length within the AEJ: Applied recommendation or consciously justified
- Tables and figures legible; standard errors reported (stars permitted but SEs are required); exhibit notes self-contained
- Supplemental appendix prepared for nonessential material and kept separate from the main paper
- References complete and consistent (AEA author-date house style)
Files, fee & policy readiness
- Main PDF + supplemental appendix uploaded as required by ScholarOne
- Submission fee ready for the submitting author's AEA membership and country-income tier
- Publication-page-fee exposure understood if accepted
- Replication package buildable into an openICPSR deposit; Data Availability Statement drafted
- Experimental/own-data: instructions/instruments ready; pre-registration cited
Declarations
- Separate disclosure statement PDF for each author (including "nothing to disclose" where applicable)
- Confirmed not under review elsewhere; AI not listed as an author
Anti-patterns
- Submitting a manuscript that hides the title/byline/affiliations despite the single-blind rule
- Forgetting JEL codes, disclosure PDFs, or the required front-page information
- Treating the data/code package as irrelevant at submission or R&R, then scrambling at the publication gate
- Omitting standard errors from exhibits, or notes that are not self-contained
- Assuming the fee tier without checking AEA membership and country-income status
Output format
【Front matter】title/byline/affiliations + acknowledgement footnote + JEL + <=100-word abstract? [Y/N]
【Exhibits】SEs reported, notes self-contained, online appendix separate? [Y/N]
【Fee】submission tier and publication-page-fee exposure understood? [Y/N]
【Data-policy readiness】openICPSR-buildable + DAS drafted? [Y/N]
【Declarations】disclosure done; not under review elsewhere; no AI author? [Y/N]
【Next step】submit via AEA system → aeja-rebuttal after the decision
Supplementary resources
templates/checklist.md— 8-section pre-submission self-check../../resources/official-source-map.md— official AEA/AEJ: Applied URLs behind every fact
Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills → AEJ-Applied-Economics-Skills/skills/aeja-submission/SKILL.md