brycewang-stanford JPubE Workflow Router (jpube-workflow)
Overview
This is the router. It does not replace any specialized skill. It tells you which jpube- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the Journal of Public Economics (JPubE).
Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as JPubE — Elsevier's flagship field journal in public economics / public finance, founded in 1972 by Tony Atkinson and currently edited by Nathaniel Hendren (MIT) and Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia). The journal covers the economic role of government — taxation, public expenditure, social insurance, redistribution, externalities, public goods, and fiscal policy — applying modern theory and quantitative methods to policy questions of interest to an international readership. Operational tells you are at JPubE and not a free top-5 generalist: a US$165 submission fee (US$82.50 for students; waived for Elsevier article-transfer submissions), submission via Editorial Manager, single anonymized review with a minimum of two reviewers, a 250-word abstract cap, required highlights, author-date references, Elsevier Option C research-data routing, an optional SSRN preprint, and one appeal per submission. Live-check the official Guide for Authors before upload.
When to trigger
- The user asks "what should I do next?"
- A draft is handed over and the current bottleneck needs diagnosing
- Work is ping-ponging between empirics, framing, writing, and response letters
- A JPubE decision letter arrived and the user needs revision mode
Routing table
| Current symptom | Next skill |
|---|---|
| Idea is not clearly a public-economics question / policy "so what?" unclear | jpube-topic-selection |
| The government-role contribution is fuzzy or undersold | jpube-contribution-framing |
| Placement against the public-finance literature is vague | jpube-literature-positioning |
| Causal claim rests on OLS + controls; no quasi-experiment | jpube-identification-strategy |
| Estimates exist but data handling / robustness is thin | jpube-data-analysis |
| Tables are dense; design is not figure-forward | jpube-tables-figures |
| Prose buries the policy lesson; abstract over 250 words | jpube-writing-style |
| Need to assemble data/code per Elsevier Option C | jpube-replication-and-data-policy |
| Want to understand the single-anonymized review timeline | jpube-review-process |
| Ready to submit via Editorial Manager; need a preflight + fee check | jpube-submission |
| Received an R&R / want to use the one appeal wisely | jpube-rebuttal |
Default order
jpube-topic-selection— lock the public-economics question + policy stakesjpube-contribution-framing— frame the government-role contributionjpube-literature-positioning— stake it against the public-finance frontierjpube-identification-strategy— make the quasi-experimental design crediblejpube-data-analysis— administrative-data handling, elasticities, robustnessjpube-tables-figures— finalize figure-forward exhibitsjpube-writing-style— land the policy lesson (250-word abstract last)jpube-replication-and-data-policy— Elsevier Option C research-data routejpube-review-process— understand the single-anonymized timelinejpube-submission— Editorial Manager preflight + feejpube-rebuttal— after the R&R
jpube-writing-styleis a late-stage polish. Do not rewrite the intro before identification is settled.
Stage-gate diagnostic
Each gate must hold before the next skill earns its turn. If a gate fails, route back rather than forward.
| Gate | Holds when | If it fails, route to |
|---|---|---|
| Fit | A government-role question with a welfare/policy stake | jpube-topic-selection |
| Contribution | One sentence ties an estimate to a policy lever | jpube-contribution-framing |
| Position | Two or three frontier papers and your delta named | jpube-literature-positioning |
| Identification | A policy-induced discontinuity, not OLS + controls | jpube-identification-strategy |
| Welfare mapping | Estimate converted to DWL / MVPF / sufficient stat | jpube-data-analysis |
| Form | 250-word abstract, author-date, editable source | jpube-writing-style / jpube-submission |
Worked routing vignette (illustrative)
A user arrives with a clean event-study DID = −0.06 on a benefit-reform take-up margin (illustrative) and asks "is it ready to submit?" The router does not jump to jpube-submission. It checks gates: identification holds (clean pre-trends), but the welfare-mapping gate fails — the −0.06 is never converted to a fiscal-externality or MVPF term. So the route is back to jpube-data-analysis (build the MVPF), then jpube-contribution-framing (state the policy payoff), and only then forward to writing and submission. The router's job is to catch the missing welfare step before the desk screen does.
【Current stage】topic / framing / position / identification / analysis / exhibits / writing / data / review / submit / rebuttal
【Failing gate】[name the first gate that does not hold]
【Route to】jpube-<skill>
【Blocked-on】welfare mapping / identification / fee / abstract / appeal-decision
Anti-patterns
- Do not skip framing and jump to identification — JPubE referees judge the public-finance contribution first
- Do not budget zero for the US$165 fee (it is real, unlike many free generalist journals) unless you are transferring within Elsevier
- Do not let
jpube-rebuttaldraft a letter before the revised manuscript exists, and do not waste the single allowed appeal on a weak case