Submission Preflight for JAE (jape-submission)

When to trigger

• About to press submit on Editorial Express for a JAE paper
• Confirming which files and limits JAE expects at first submission
• Checking the fee/open-access situation and the per-author cap

Process facts (re-confirm volatile items on the official page)

• Published by John Wiley & Sons; submitted via Editorial Express at editorialexpress.com/jae; manuscripts handled in PDF.
• Free Format first submission: strict formatting is not required initially, and references may be in any consistent style.
• No submission fee. Hybrid open access is optional and triggers an Article Publication Charge only if you choose OA on acceptance (a Wiley APC; the exact ~USD 4,230 / GBP 2,800 / EUR 3,570 figure is 待核实 — the live funded-access page was bot-blocked). Non-OA publication is free.
• Cover letter optional. Categories: Research Articles and the dedicated Replication Articles track.
• Cap: no more than three papers from the same author under review at once.

Preflight checklist

• Single PDF uploaded to Editorial Express
• Main article within 35 pages; extended material in the online appendix (no cap)
• Summary ≤ 100 words, self-contained, no citations; ≤ six keywords; title without abbreviations
• References in one consistent style (Free Format)
• Conflict-of-interest statement present; acknowledgments do not thank reviewers
• No more than three of your papers under review at once
• Data exportable to plain ASCII/CSV + readme; programs staged for the JAE Data Archive

Editorial Express upload sequence

Stage the materials in the order the form consumes them, so nothing is improvised at the screen (exact fields may evolve — confirm on the live form):

1. Manuscript PDF — one file, fonts embedded, line/page numbers helpful for single-blind review (no anonymization needed; authors are known).
2. Track choice — Research Article vs. Replication Article; pick deliberately, the framing promises differ.
3. Summary + keywords — paste-ready: ≤100 words, citation-free, ≤6 keywords, title without abbreviations.
4. Online appendix — separate file(s), clearly labeled; this is where the unlimited robustness material lives.
5. Declarations — conflict-of-interest statement; note confidential/proprietary data here and in the paper.
6. Cover letter (optional) — only worth writing if it says something the PDF cannot (see skeleton below).

Last-mile desk-reject sweep

Five minutes before upload, check the failure modes specific to this venue: a summary that quietly cites a paper; a 38-page main text whose author assumed "about 35" was fine; a keywords list of nine; an acknowledgments section thanking anonymous referees from a prior round; data the paper admits can never be deposited or described for access; and a fourth paper still under review at JAE from the same author. Each is cheap to fix now and expensive after the editorial office notices.

Optional cover letter skeleton

Dear Editor,

We submit "[Title]" as a [Research Article / Replication Article].
Using [data: source, span, N], we [one-sentence finding with the
headline estimate]. The econometric lesson is [one sentence].
All data and programs are staged for the JAE Data Archive in
plain-text format; [none are / the following are] confidential,
with access documented in the readme.
This manuscript is not under review elsewhere; [k] ≤ 3 of our
papers are currently under review at JAE.

[Authors]

Keep it under a page; at this venue the letter's only real job is fit, track, and the replication commitment.

Worked preflight (illustrative)

A 41-page draft with 11 main-text exhibits: move three robustness tables and two figures to the appendix (now 34 pp, 6 exhibits), compress a 132-word abstract to 97 words by cutting two citation clauses and one methods sentence, export the final .dta files to CSV with a readme stub, and confirm only two other papers are under JAE review. Total cost: an afternoon. Skipping it risks an administrative bounce before any referee reads page one.

Output format

【PDF】single PDF via Editorial Express? [Y/N]
【Track】Research / Replication Article chosen deliberately? [Y/N]
【Limits】≤35pp; summary ≤100w no-cites; ≤6 keywords? [Y/N]
【Refs】one consistent style (Free Format)? [Y/N]
【Fee】no fee; OA optional (APC 待核实)? [Y/N]
【Pipeline】≤3 papers under review? [Y/N]

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — Editorial Express, Free Format, limits, fee/OA sources
• ../../resources/external_tools.md — staging the replication package