brycewang-stanford Submission Preflight (jhr-submission)
When to trigger
- "Submitting tomorrow" — last check before uploading to msubmit.net
- Unsure which declarations and footnotes JHR expects at initial submission
- Confirming the 40-page limit and single-anonymous formatting are met
Process facts (verified 2026-06-01; re-confirm on the live page)
- JHR is published by University of Wisconsin Press for the Board of Regents, housed at the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP); founded 1965; Editor Anna Aizer (Brown) now, Michael Lovenheim (Cornell) from 2026-07-01.
- Submit only via http://jhr.msubmit.net. Do NOT email the editor, coeditors, managing editor, or editorial office directly.
- Scope is the first gate. JHR is empirical microeconomics (labor, development, health, education, discrimination, retirement) with a policy bent and does NOT consider management/personnel ("HR") research. The fee is not refunded for out-of-scope papers.
- Nonrefundable submission fee: $175 on the live Authors page ($150 in the Sept-2024 policy PDF — verify which is current). No fee for invited revisions; economic-hardship exemption may be requested. The fee does not guarantee outside review.
- Length is page-based, not word-based: max 40 pages including references, tables, and figures at 12pt, 1.5-line spacing, 1-inch margins; up to 50 pages if double-spaced; footnotes may be smaller/single-spaced. Overflow goes to an Online Appendix (must not be excessive).
- Single-anonymous review: referees are anonymous, author names are not hidden — so do not waste effort anonymizing the body.
Preflight checklist
Scope & fit
- This is empirical microeconomics with a policy-relevant question, not HR-management/personnel work
- A clear causal or descriptive contribution to one of JHR's fields
Format & length
- <= 40 pages incl. references/tables/figures (12pt, 1.5-spacing); or <= 50 double-spaced
- Online Appendix holds overflow and is not bloated
- Tables/figures numbered, called out in order, with self-contained notes
Required front matter & footnotes
- Per-author Disclosure Statement up front (funding/support >= $10,000 over 3 yr, positions, relatives/partners, right-to-review, IRB status)
- Data-archive plan footnote with a persistent (DOI) link, or a waiver request made now (see jhr-replication-and-data-policy)
- Data Availability Statement drafted for the title page
- For RCTs: pre-analysis plan existence, registry, and deviations stated
- Author-order randomization "r" superscript used if applicable
Files for msubmit.net
- Main manuscript (within page limit) + Online Appendix
- Cover letter (question, design, headline result, policy relevance)
- Optional: prior journal's decision letter + referee reports to speed review
Worked page budget for the 40-page cap
Illustrative allocation for a design-based JHR manuscript at 12pt, 1.5-spacing (adjust to the paper, but the proportions are the point):
| Section | Pages | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Intro incl. reconciliation paragraph | 5 | Question, variation, magnitude, bridge to prior estimates |
| Institutional setting + data | 7 | Treatment definition, sample construction, linkage |
| Empirical strategy | 4 | Estimator, clustering, identifying assumption stated once |
| Results + design diagnostics | 11 | Roughly 5-7 exhibits: main table, event study or first stage, reconciliation |
| Heterogeneity + external validity | 4 | Only policy-mapped cuts |
| Conclusion + references | 6 | References count against the cap |
| Slack | 3 | R&R additions will need it |
A draft at 47 pages is not "close" — cut exhibits to the Online Appendix before upload, since the cap includes tables, figures, and references.
Cover-letter skeleton
1. Question + JHR field (labor/education/health/development/discrimination/retirement)
2. Identifying variation in one sentence (rollout / cutoff / lottery / instrument)
3. Headline magnitude in policy units
4. One reconciliation sentence vs. the closest published estimate
5. Notes: archive-plan footnote or waiver; optional prior-journal reports attached
Anti-patterns
- Paying the nonrefundable fee on an out-of-scope HR-management paper
- Emailing the editor instead of using msubmit.net
- Blowing past 40 pages and dumping the excess into a bloated appendix
- Omitting the disclosure statement or the data-archive footnote (can reverse acceptance)
- Over-anonymizing the body for a single-anonymous journal
Output format
【Scope】empirical micro + policy, not HR-mgmt? [Y/N]
【Length】<=40pp (or <=50 double)? overflow in appendix? [Y/N]
【Fee】$175 nonrefundable acknowledged / hardship? [Y/N]
【Disclosure】per-author statement up front? [Y/N]
【Data】archive footnote + DAS (or waiver requested)? [Y/N]
【Files】manuscript / appendix / cover letter staged? [Y/N]
【Next step】await desk decision → jhr-rebuttal on R&R
Supplementary resources
templates/checklist.md— full pre-submission self-check../../resources/official-source-map.md— official JHR URLs behind every fact