Submission Preflight (expecon-submission)

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — the last check before uploading to Editorial Manager
• Unsure which files the ExpEcon submission expects (manuscript, instructions, package)
• Confirming the manuscript is anonymized for double-blind review
• Verifying the no-deception and incentive statements are in the paper before it goes out

Process facts (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准)

• Experimental Economics is the official journal of the Economic Science Association (ESA); as of January 2025 (Vol. 28) it is published by Cambridge University Press and is fully open access (CC BY) — it moved from Springer (verified 2026-06-22). Re-confirm the current platform and any APC/waiver before submitting.
• Editors (verified 2026-06-22): David Huffman (Cornell), Friederike Mengel (Essex), Andreas Ortmann (UNSW), Arno Riedl (Maastricht), and Marta Serra-Garcia (UC San Diego) — co-editors rather than a single EiC. Re-verify on the Cambridge editorial-board page before naming one.
• Submission portal: Editorial Manager (editorialmanager.com/eec). Review is anonymous (double-blind); accepted papers require the approval of two editors.
• Hard gates: the journal only considers studies that do not deceive participants and in which participants are incentivized. These are entry conditions, not preferences.
• Instructions at submission: the instructions participants received must be supplied at the time of submission (reviewers check them for deception and comprehension). Methodology and replication papers are explicitly in scope.
• Data appendices: authors submit separate data appendices attached to the article page on publication, consistent with the ESA Data and Replication Policy (trusted-repository deposit). Exact length/abstract limits and APC/waiver terms are 待核实 — confirm on the current Cambridge journal page.

Preflight checklist

The two gates (verify first)

• No deception anywhere in the design; the paper states this explicitly
• Salient real incentives for every elicited object; ECU→money conversion and realized average payment reported

Manuscript & anonymization

• Manuscript anonymized for double-blind review (no author names, no identifying repository/IRB links in the blind copy; self-cites neutralized)
• Abstract states the treatment contrast and the numeric headline effect
• Design/Procedures section is reproducible from the text; names z-Tree/oTree
• Predictions are signed and treatment-indexed; primary vs. exploratory results labeled
• Effect sizes reported with CIs at the session/matching-group level (not stars only)

Files for Editorial Manager

• Main manuscript (anonymized)
• Participant instructions for every treatment (required at submission)
• Data appendix / replication materials per ESA policy; experiment software (z-Tree .ztt / oTree app) ready
• Pre-registration / PAP link (or Stage-1 Registered Report protocol) and timestamp
• Cover letter framing the methods contribution and (if relevant) replication/RR status

Declarations

• IRB/ethics approval and consent procedure stated; explicit no-deception statement
• Funding and competing-interest disclosures; confirmation paper is not under review elsewhere
• Open-access/CC-BY and any APC/waiver terms checked on the current Cambridge page (待核实)

Right journal, right ESA outlet

Before you submit, confirm the paper is a full design paper, not a short-format piece. The ESA runs two journals: Experimental Economics (the method flagship, full papers) and the Journal of the Economic Science Association (JESA) — its shorter-format outlet for replications, null results, software notes, comments, and minor extensions. A brief replication or a z-Tree/oTree tool note is usually a JESA submission, not an Experimental Economics one. Submitting a short note to the flagship invites a transfer suggestion and lost time.

Cover letter essentials

• One paragraph framing the methods contribution (the design/elicitation advance), not the topic.
• Explicit statement that the study used no deception and real salient incentives.
• Pre-registration / Registered Report status with the registry link and timestamp.
• If a replication: what is replicated, the added power, and why it belongs in the flagship rather than JESA.
• Suggested non-conflicted referees (optional but useful given double-blind review).

Anti-patterns

• Uploading without the participant instructions — a structural incompleteness here
• Any deceptive procedure, or hypothetical/token "incentives" — a desk reject
• A non-anonymized manuscript breaking double-blind review
• Stars-only significance with no effect sizes/CIs at the group unit
• Treating the new CC-BY open-access model as a submission-time fee without checking current terms
• Sending a short replication/software note to the flagship instead of JESA

The anonymization pass (double-blind, done last)

Because review is anonymous, the blind manuscript needs a dedicated scrub that authors routinely botch:

• Remove author names, affiliations, and acknowledgments from the blind copy.
• Neutralize self-citations ("Smith (2022) showed" → "prior work showed [ref]") so they do not reveal authorship.
• Strip identifying links — your lab's repository, an OSF page tied to your name, a university IRB number — from the blind copy; provide them separately for the editor.
• Scrub document metadata (PDF author field, file properties) and any "Track Changes" author tags.
• Keep the instructions and data-appendix references in a way that lets referees read them without de-anonymizing you.

A manuscript that names its authors through a repository link defeats the blind review the journal runs; do this pass last, after all content is final.

Output format

【Journal】Experimental Economics (ESA flagship; Cambridge UP, OA, 检索于 2026-06)
【Skill】expecon-submission
【Gates】no deception? salient incentives? both stated in paper? [Y/N]
【Anonymized】double-blind copy clean? [Y/N]
【Instructions】all treatments attached at submission? [Y/N]
【Package】data appendix + z-Tree/oTree + PAP/RR link ready? [Y/N]
【Declarations】IRB / disclosures / OA terms checked (待核实 where unverified)
【Next step】submit via Editorial Manager (editorialmanager.com/eec) → expecon-rebuttal after decision

Supplementary resources

• templates/checklist.md — submission self-check
• templates/manuscript_template.md — lightweight manuscript scaffold
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official URLs and volatile facts