brycewang-stanford Submission Preflight (jde-submission)
When to trigger
- "Submitting tomorrow" — last check before pressing submit on Editorial Manager
- Unsure which files and metadata Editorial Manager expects
- Confirming the chosen route's limits (full-length / short-paper / pre-results) are met
- Checking the replication package, declarations, and language consistency
Process facts (verified 2026-06-20; editors + fees re-verified 2026-06-22; re-confirm volatile items on the official page)
- JDE is published by Elsevier and submitted through Editorial Manager. It is the leading field journal in development economics, edited by Editors-in-Chief A. Foster (Brown) and K. Macours (Paris School of Economics) — re-verified 2026-06-22; re-confirm on the ScienceDirect editorial-board page before naming them in a cover letter.
- Review is single-anonymized (referees know the author; the author does not know referees). Do not anonymize the manuscript as if it were double-blind unless the current guidance changes.
- A USD 50 non-refundable submission fee applies to original manuscripts. Open access is optional and charged only after acceptance; the current APC is USD 4,760 excluding taxes.
- Submission cap: no more than three papers per author within any 12-month period.
- Replication readiness: data, programs, and computational details can be requested at the review stage, so the package must be ready at submission (see jde-replication-and-data-policy).
- Language: the manuscript must be in either American or British English, not a combination. References may be in any consistent style at submission (JDE applies its style at the proof stage), with author-date citations.
Route-specific limits
- Full-length: no fixed length limit; extensive online appendix expected.
- Short-paper (limited-revision): ≤ 6,000 words, ≤ 5 exhibits, online appendix ≤ 20 pages, self-contained.
- Pre-results review (Stage 1): proposal ≤ 60 pages, abstract ≤ 150 words, cover page with JEL codes, hypotheses, statistical analysis plan, power analysis, and ethics/funding/conflict disclosures.
Preflight checklist
Route & format
- Route chosen (full-length / short-paper / pre-results) and its caps met
- References in a consistent author-date style (house style applied at proof stage)
- Tables/figures numbered, called out in order, with self-contained notes
- Online appendix attached (extensive for full-length; ≤ 20 pp for short-paper)
Language & declarations
- One consistent English variant (US or UK), not mixed
- Conflict-of-interest, funding, and ethics/IRB disclosures prepared
- Confirmed the paper is not under review elsewhere
- Within the three-per-12-months submission cap
- USD 50 submission fee budgeted and payment screen re-checked
Replication & files
- Replication package submission-ready (master script + README + pinned versions + seeds)
- Restricted-data access path documented if data cannot be shared
- Cover letter (concise: development question, design, headline result, route)
- Mendeley Data / repository deposit staged for the accepted stage, or restriction explanation ready
Content sanity
- Abstract states the finding with a magnitude in welfare units (see jde-writing-style)
- Identification diagnostics complete (see jde-identification-strategy, jde-data-analysis)
- No over-claiming beyond what the design supports
Desk-screen failure modes (what gets a JDE paper bounced before review)
| Failure at the desk | Preflight catch |
|---|---|
| No first-order development stake — generic micro on LMIC data | Confirm the development mechanism is the point (see jde-topic-selection) |
| Short-paper track over 6,000 words or 5 exhibits | Hard-count words and exhibits before route selection |
| Mixed US/UK English across the manuscript | One-pass spelling sweep for a single consistent variant |
| Causal claim on OLS + controls, undefended | Identification diagnostics complete before submitting |
| Replication package not staged (can be requested in review) | Master script + README + seeds ready at submission, not later |
| Fourth submission inside a 12-month window | Track the three-per-12-months cap across co-authored papers |
Worked preflight vignette (illustrative)
Hypothetical: a cluster-randomized health-information experiment, sharp single result, draft at 5,400 words with 4 exhibits.
- Route: fits the short-paper track — under both the 6,000-word and 5-exhibit caps, self-contained, online appendix at ~14 pages (under the 20-page cap, illustrative).
- Preflight hits: the manuscript was anonymized as if double-blind — un-anonymize, since review is single-anonymized; the cover letter omitted the USD 50 fee budget — add it before filing.
- Go/no-go: replication package regenerates all 4 exhibits from
run_all; COI/IRB disclosures attached; within the 3-per-12-months cap → cleared to submit.
Anti-patterns
- Anonymizing as double-blind when JDE review is single-anonymized
- Sending a long paper to the short-paper track (it caps words and exhibits)
- Submitting without a review-ready replication package (it can be requested during review)
- Mixing US and UK English; forgetting the USD 50 submission fee
- Exceeding the three-submissions-per-12-months cap
Output format
【Route】full-length / short-paper / pre-results (caps met? Y/N)
【Review model】single-anonymized — manuscript handled accordingly? [Y/N]
【Language】consistent US or UK English? [Y/N]
【Replication package】review-ready? [Y/N]
【Declarations】COI / funding / ethics prepared? [Y/N]
【Fee】USD 50 submission fee ready? [Y/N]
【Submission cap】within 3-per-12-months? [Y/N]
【Next step】await decision → jde-rebuttal on R&R
Supplementary resources
../../resources/external_tools.md— data sources and Stata/R/Python packages for development empirical work../../resources/official-source-map.md— official JDE URLs behind every fact in this pack