brycewang-stanford JRU Workflow Router (jru-workflow)
Overview
This is the router. It tells you which jru- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (JRU) — the field's leading specialized outlet for decision-making under risk and uncertainty. Founded in 1988 and edited since by W. Kip Viscusi (Vanderbilt), published by Springer (Springer Nature Link; ISSN 0895-5646 print / 1573-0476 electronic), JRU is the home journal of expected utility and its alternatives (prospect theory, rank-dependent utility, ambiguity / Knightian uncertainty), of risk-preference measurement, of the value of a statistical life (VSL), and of insurance, precaution, and intertemporal risk. It publishes decision theory, lab and field experiments, and empirical / structural estimation side by side.
Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as JRU. Operational tells that you are at JRU and not a sibling: the paper's object is a risk or uncertainty primitive — a utility/probability-weighting representation, an elicited risk or ambiguity parameter, a VSL, an insurance-demand elasticity — not a market design, a game-theoretic equilibrium, or a generic behavioral anomaly. Volatile process specifics (exact word/abstract limits, OA fees, board members) are marked (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准) or 待核实; never invent them.
When to trigger
- The user asks "what should I do next?" on a JRU-bound draft
- A draft needs its current bottleneck diagnosed (theory vs. elicitation vs. estimation)
- Work is ping-ponging between the decision model, the experiment, the empirics, and the response letter
- A JRU decision letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode
Routing table
| Current symptom | Next skill |
|---|---|
| Question feels like a generic anomaly, not a risk/uncertainty primitive | jru-topic-selection |
| Contribution vs. EU/PT/ambiguity literature is fuzzy or oversold | jru-literature-positioning |
| The decision-theoretic representation or axioms are loose | jru-theory-model |
| What identifies the risk/ambiguity parameter (elicitation or structural) is unclear | jru-identification |
| Results may be sensitive to spec, sample, incentive frame, or inference | jru-robustness |
| Exhibits bury the choice patterns / parameter estimates | jru-tables-figures |
| Prose buries the decision model; abstract/intro do not land | jru-writing-style |
| Experiment data, z-Tree/oTree code, or structural code need packaging | jru-replication-package |
| Want to anticipate the likely referee objections before submission | jru-referee-strategy |
| Ready to submit via Springer's portal; need a preflight | jru-submission |
| Received an R&R / reject-and-resubmit; need a response strategy | jru-rebuttal |
Default order
jru-topic-selection— lock a genuine risk/uncertainty primitivejru-literature-positioning— stake the contribution vs. EU and its alternativesjru-theory-model— get the decision-theoretic representation rightjru-identification— what elicits or estimates the parameterjru-robustness— incentive-, spec-, and inference-robustnessjru-tables-figures— make choice patterns and estimates legiblejru-writing-style— make the idea land (abstract + intro last)jru-replication-package— assemble experiment instructions + data + codejru-referee-strategy— wargame the report before it arrivesjru-submission— Springer portal preflightjru-rebuttal— after the decision letter
jru-writing-styleis a late-stage polish; do not rewrite the intro before the representation and the elicitation/estimation settle.
Anti-patterns
- Treating JRU as interchangeable with Experimental Economics (which is method-general — it cares whether the experiment is well-run, not whether the object is a risk primitive)
- Treating JRU as JEBO (broad behavioral / organizational) or Theory and Decision (pure axiomatics with no measurement)
- Polishing exhibits while the parameter estimates are still moving
- Letting an appendix carry the axiom or the incentive-compatibility argument the main text must establish
Routing by paper archetype
JRU spans four risk-and-uncertainty branches, and the binding constraint differs by branch. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.
| Archetype | Likely first bottleneck | Enter at |
|---|---|---|
| decision-theory / representation | axioms ↔ functional form ↔ behavioral content | jru-theory-model |
| lab/field experiment eliciting risk or ambiguity | incentive-compatible mechanism + estimand | jru-identification → jru-robustness |
| structural / empirical risk preferences (VSL, insurance) | what variation identifies the parameter | jru-identification |
| replication / methods comparison of elicitation devices | design + data + code transparency | jru-replication-package → jru-robustness |
Worked routing example (illustrative)
A user says: "We elicit ambiguity aversion with a matching-probabilities task and estimate an α-MEU model, but a referee says the elicitation is not incentive-compatible and the model is unfalsifiable." That is two distinct JRU pushbacks — the mechanism does not truthfully reveal the preference (owned by jru-identification) and the representation has no behavioral content (owned by jru-theory-model). Fix the representation first so the estimand is well-defined, then defend the mechanism; only once the headline ambiguity parameter is stable do you return to jru-tables-figures and jru-rebuttal.
Sibling-venue routing (when JRU may be the wrong home)
Part of routing is catching a paper that should not be at JRU at all. If the diagnosis below fits, the binding step is jru-topic-selection (to re-anchor) or a different venue entirely:
| Tell | Likely better home |
|---|---|
| The contribution is the experimental technique, not a risk primitive | Experimental Economics |
| Several behavioral findings, no single decision-theoretic claim | JEBO |
| Pure axiomatization with no measurable implication | Theory and Decision |
| A managerial decision tool rather than a positive risk claim | Management Science (decision analysis) |
If the primitive is the headline and the application is merely the setting, JRU is right — route into the chain at jru-topic-selection.
Minimal decision snippet
if decision_letter_arrived: -> jru-rebuttal
elif ready_to_submit: -> jru-submission
elif anticipating_referees: -> jru-referee-strategy
elif exhibits_unclear: -> jru-tables-figures
elif results_fragile: -> jru-robustness
elif parameter_id_unclear: -> jru-identification
elif representation_loose: -> jru-theory-model
elif contribution_fuzzy: -> jru-literature-positioning
else: -> jru-topic-selection