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

Default order

1. jpube-topic-selection — lock the public-economics question + policy stakes
2. jpube-contribution-framing — frame the government-role contribution
3. jpube-literature-positioning — stake it against the public-finance frontier
4. jpube-identification-strategy — make the quasi-experimental design credible
5. jpube-data-analysis — administrative-data handling, elasticities, robustness
6. jpube-tables-figures — finalize figure-forward exhibits
7. jpube-writing-style — land the policy lesson (250-word abstract last)
8. jpube-replication-and-data-policy — Elsevier Option C research-data route
9. jpube-review-process — understand the single-anonymized timeline
10. jpube-submission — Editorial Manager preflight + fee
11. jpube-rebuttal — after the R&R

jpube-writing-style is 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.

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-rebuttal draft a letter before the revised manuscript exists, and do not waste the single allowed appeal on a weak case