Submission Preflight (jppm-submission)

When to trigger

• Submitting to JPP&M this week and running the last-mile checks
• Unsure how the 50-page all-inclusive cap counts your appendices
• Assembling the title page, main document, and web appendix into the required files
• Verifying anonymization, statements, and declarations before SageTrack upload

Process facts (checked 2026-07-16 on ama.org / SAGE; re-check volatile items on the official site)

• JPP&M is an American Marketing Association journal published by SAGE (pISSN 0743-9156, eISSN 1547-7207). Joint Editors in Chief Melissa Bublitz and Stacey Finkelstein began processing new submissions April 1, 2026, succeeding Jeremy Kees and Beth Vallen — re-verify the masthead on the AMA editors page before submitting.
• Portal: SageTrack (ScholarOne) at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ama_jppm.
• Length: maximum 50 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, inclusive of title, abstract, keywords, text, footnotes, references, tables, figures, and print appendices — enforced at all stages of review. Tables and references may be single-spaced per the AMA guidelines; web appendices sit outside the cap (re-check the current guidelines for what counts as a print vs. web appendix).
• Required pieces: an unstructured abstract of 200 words; at least 3 keywords; a Policy Contribution Statement (≤300 words) on the first page of the main document, excluded from the page cap.
• Review model: double-anonymized. Submit at least two files — (1) a title page with authors, affiliations, acknowledgments; (2) an anonymized main document. Refer to data sites generically ("a large public university," "a Fortune 500 retailer").
• Style: AMA journals house style for citations, references, headings, and exhibits (shared with JM/JMR) — confirm details on the AMA submission-guidelines page; fees/membership requirements, if any, should be checked on the portal at submission (re-check on the official site).

Templates: templates/checklist.md and templates/manuscript_template.md.

Preflight checklist

Files & length

• Title page (identifying info, acknowledgments, funding) as a separate file
• Main document anonymized; opens with the Policy Contribution Statement
• Page count ≤50 double-spaced pages counting everything printed except the statement
• Web appendix assembled separately for the overflow battery

Required statements & metadata

• Policy Contribution Statement ≤300 words with all three elements (conversation / advance / stakeholders)
• Abstract ≤200 words; ≥3 specific keywords after it
• IRB/ethics approval stated for human-subjects work, with extra care documented for vulnerable populations
• Funding, conflicts of interest, and any AI-use disclosure prepared per current AMA policy
• Data-availability plan ready (what can be shared; what is restricted and why)

Anonymization sweep

• No author names, affiliations, or thanks in the main document
• Self-citations phrased in third person; no "our prior work"
• File metadata (Author field, tracked changes, comments) scrubbed in every uploaded file
• Pre-registration links use anonymized view-only versions
• Institutions and field partners referred to generically

Fit signals the desk screen checks

• The statement and abstract independently convey a policy-first paper
• Implications name actors with authority to act
• Evaluation designs show their counterfactual in the abstract/statement, not page 30

Anti-patterns

• Counting on the web appendix to hide print-appendix material the guidelines count against the cap
• A Policy Contribution Statement that summarizes the abstract instead of answering its three questions
• Anonymizing the text but uploading files whose metadata names the authors
• Discovering at upload that the portal requires declarations you never drafted
• Submitting under the old editorial team's expectations without re-checking current policies

Output format

【Files】title page / anonymized main doc / web appendix — ready? [Y/N each]
【Length】≤50 pages all-inclusive at current stage? [Y/N + count]
【Statement】Policy Contribution Statement ≤300 words, 3 elements? [Y/N]
【Abstract & keywords】≤200 words + ≥3 keywords? [Y/N]
【Anonymization】text + metadata + links swept? [Y/N]
【Declarations】ethics, COI, funding, data availability? [Y/N]
【Portal】mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ama_jppm confirmed live? [Y / re-check]
【Next step】submit, then jppm-review-process