Submission Preflight (jde-submission)

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last check before pressing submit on Editorial Manager
• Unsure which files and metadata Editorial Manager expects
• Confirming the chosen route's limits (full-length / short-paper / pre-results) are met
• Checking the replication package, declarations, and language consistency

Process facts (verified 2026-06-20; editors + fees re-verified 2026-06-22; re-confirm volatile items on the official page)

• JDE is published by Elsevier and submitted through Editorial Manager. It is the leading field journal in development economics, edited by Editors-in-Chief A. Foster (Brown) and K. Macours (Paris School of Economics) — re-verified 2026-06-22; re-confirm on the ScienceDirect editorial-board page before naming them in a cover letter.
• Review is single-anonymized (referees know the author; the author does not know referees). Do not anonymize the manuscript as if it were double-blind unless the current guidance changes.
• A USD 50 non-refundable submission fee applies to original manuscripts. Open access is optional and charged only after acceptance; the current APC is USD 4,760 excluding taxes.
• Submission cap: no more than three papers per author within any 12-month period.
• Replication readiness: data, programs, and computational details can be requested at the review stage, so the package must be ready at submission (see jde-replication-and-data-policy).
• Language: the manuscript must be in either American or British English, not a combination. References may be in any consistent style at submission (JDE applies its style at the proof stage), with author-date citations.

Route-specific limits

• Full-length: no fixed length limit; extensive online appendix expected.
• Short-paper (limited-revision): ≤ 6,000 words, ≤ 5 exhibits, online appendix ≤ 20 pages, self-contained.
• Pre-results review (Stage 1): proposal ≤ 60 pages, abstract ≤ 150 words, cover page with JEL codes, hypotheses, statistical analysis plan, power analysis, and ethics/funding/conflict disclosures.

Preflight checklist

Route & format

• Route chosen (full-length / short-paper / pre-results) and its caps met
• References in a consistent author-date style (house style applied at proof stage)
• Tables/figures numbered, called out in order, with self-contained notes
• Online appendix attached (extensive for full-length; ≤ 20 pp for short-paper)

Language & declarations

• One consistent English variant (US or UK), not mixed
• Conflict-of-interest, funding, and ethics/IRB disclosures prepared
• Confirmed the paper is not under review elsewhere
• Within the three-per-12-months submission cap
• USD 50 submission fee budgeted and payment screen re-checked

Replication & files

• Replication package submission-ready (master script + README + pinned versions + seeds)
• Restricted-data access path documented if data cannot be shared
• Cover letter (concise: development question, design, headline result, route)
• Mendeley Data / repository deposit staged for the accepted stage, or restriction explanation ready

Content sanity

• Abstract states the finding with a magnitude in welfare units (see jde-writing-style)
• Identification diagnostics complete (see jde-identification-strategy, jde-data-analysis)
• No over-claiming beyond what the design supports

Desk-screen failure modes (what gets a JDE paper bounced before review)

Worked preflight vignette (illustrative)

Hypothetical: a cluster-randomized health-information experiment, sharp single result, draft at 5,400 words with 4 exhibits.

• Route: fits the short-paper track — under both the 6,000-word and 5-exhibit caps, self-contained, online appendix at ~14 pages (under the 20-page cap, illustrative).
• Preflight hits: the manuscript was anonymized as if double-blind — un-anonymize, since review is single-anonymized; the cover letter omitted the USD 50 fee budget — add it before filing.
• Go/no-go: replication package regenerates all 4 exhibits from run_all; COI/IRB disclosures attached; within the 3-per-12-months cap → cleared to submit.

Anti-patterns

• Anonymizing as double-blind when JDE review is single-anonymized
• Sending a long paper to the short-paper track (it caps words and exhibits)
• Submitting without a review-ready replication package (it can be requested during review)
• Mixing US and UK English; forgetting the USD 50 submission fee
• Exceeding the three-submissions-per-12-months cap

Output format

【Route】full-length / short-paper / pre-results (caps met? Y/N)
【Review model】single-anonymized — manuscript handled accordingly? [Y/N]
【Language】consistent US or UK English? [Y/N]
【Replication package】review-ready? [Y/N]
【Declarations】COI / funding / ethics prepared? [Y/N]
【Fee】USD 50 submission fee ready? [Y/N]
【Submission cap】within 3-per-12-months? [Y/N]
【Next step】await decision → jde-rebuttal on R&R

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — data sources and Stata/R/Python packages for development empirical work
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official JDE URLs behind every fact in this pack