Submission Preflight (jhr-submission)
When to trigger
- "Submitting tomorrow" — last check before uploading to msubmit.net
- Unsure which declarations and footnotes JHR expects at initial submission
- Confirming the 40-page limit and single-anonymous formatting are met
Process facts (verified 2026-06-01; re-confirm on the live page)
- JHR is published by University of Wisconsin Press for the Board of Regents, housed at the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP); founded 1965; Editor Anna Aizer (Brown) now, Michael Lovenheim (Cornell) from 2026-07-01.
- Submit only via http://jhr.msubmit.net. Do NOT email the editor, coeditors, managing editor, or editorial office directly.
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Scope is the first gate. JHR is empirical microeconomics (labor, development, health, education, discrimination, retirement) with a policy bent and does NOT consider management/personnel ("HR") research. The fee is not refunded for out-of-scope papers.
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Nonrefundable submission fee: $175 on the live Authors page ($150 in the Sept-2024 policy PDF — verify which is current). No fee for invited revisions; economic-hardship exemption may be requested. The fee does not guarantee outside review.
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Length is page-based, not word-based: max 40 pages including references, tables, and figures at 12pt, 1.5-line spacing, 1-inch margins; up to 50 pages if double-spaced; footnotes may be smaller/single-spaced. Overflow goes to an Online Appendix (must not be excessive).
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Single-anonymous review: referees are anonymous, author names are not hidden — so do not waste effort anonymizing the body.
Preflight checklist
Scope & fit
Format & length
Required front matter & footnotes
Files for msubmit.net
Worked page budget for the 40-page cap
Illustrative allocation for a design-based JHR manuscript at 12pt, 1.5-spacing
(adjust to the paper, but the proportions are the point):
| Section |
Pages |
Notes |
| Intro incl. reconciliation paragraph |
5 |
Question, variation, magnitude, bridge to prior estimates |
| Institutional setting + data |
7 |
Treatment definition, sample construction, linkage |
| Empirical strategy |
4 |
Estimator, clustering, identifying assumption stated once |
| Results + design diagnostics |
11 |
Roughly 5-7 exhibits: main table, event study or first stage, reconciliation |
| Heterogeneity + external validity |
4 |
Only policy-mapped cuts |
| Conclusion + references |
6 |
References count against the cap |
| Slack |
3 |
R&R additions will need it |
A draft at 47 pages is not "close" — cut exhibits to the Online Appendix before
upload, since the cap includes tables, figures, and references.
Cover-letter skeleton
1. Question + JHR field (labor/education/health/development/discrimination/retirement)
2. Identifying variation in one sentence (rollout / cutoff / lottery / instrument)
3. Headline magnitude in policy units
4. One reconciliation sentence vs. the closest published estimate
5. Notes: archive-plan footnote or waiver; optional prior-journal reports attached
Anti-patterns
- Paying the nonrefundable fee on an out-of-scope HR-management paper
- Emailing the editor instead of using msubmit.net
- Blowing past 40 pages and dumping the excess into a bloated appendix
- Omitting the disclosure statement or the data-archive footnote (can reverse acceptance)
- Over-anonymizing the body for a single-anonymous journal
Output format
【Scope】empirical micro + policy, not HR-mgmt? [Y/N]
【Length】<=40pp (or <=50 double)? overflow in appendix? [Y/N]
【Fee】$175 nonrefundable acknowledged / hardship? [Y/N]
【Disclosure】per-author statement up front? [Y/N]
【Data】archive footnote + DAS (or waiver requested)? [Y/N]
【Files】manuscript / appendix / cover letter staged? [Y/N]
【Next step】await desk decision → jhr-rebuttal on R&R
Supplementary resources
