Submission Preflight (qe-submission)

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last check before pressing submit on the ES portal
• Unsure which files and fees the ES online submission expects
• Confirming the format rules (PDF, 12pt, spacing, line limit) and house style are QE-compliant
• Deciding whether to use the Econometrica-transfer route

Process facts (source map refreshed 2026-06-20; re-confirm on the official ES pages)

• QE is the Econometric Society's empirically/computationally oriented general-interest journal; content is hosted on Wiley Online Library (Online ISSN 1759-7331). Submission is through the ES Online Submission portal (ES e-publications), as PDF; the form currently allows two attachments (combine extras into one .zip).
• Membership gate: at least one author must be a current Econometric Society member to submit (join/renew via the ES register page).
• Submission fee: US$100 regular member / US$50 student member, paid by credit card at submission. Waived for Econometrica transfers and invited resubmissions (membership still required). Residents of World Bank low-income countries are exempt. Papers rejected without review are not refunded.
• Econometrica-transfer option: a paper previously rejected by Econometrica may be submitted to QE with the option to transfer the coeditor's decision letter, referee reports, and cover letters. QE's process is fully independent; the transfer waives the submission fee (other publication fees still apply); a transferred paper needs a cover letter explaining how it differs and how referee comments were addressed.
• Public posting: authors must post the manuscript on a publicly available website (institutional repository or personal site) before and during review (editor exceptions possible) — review is effectively non-anonymous on the author side.

Preflight checklist

Format & style

• One PDF; font ≥12 point; 1.5 or double spacing throughout (including references and appendices)
• Margins ≥1.25 inches on all sides; ≤32 lines per page; pages numbered
• Figures and tables placed in-text on the relevant page (not collected at the end)
• References at the very end, after any appendices
• Abstract ≤150 words; title page has keywords and complete affiliations (JEL optional)
• Supplemental Appendix (if any) ≤25 pages, and not used for proofs of key results — the main paper is self-contained
• No asterisks or boldface for statistical significance; report SEs and confidence/coverage sets
• No certified random author ordering (circled-r); author contributions may go in a footnote
• LaTeX template recommended (not required); QE house style is applied by the copyeditor at acceptance — the submitted PDF need not pre-conform

Files & fees for the ES portal

• Main manuscript PDF (exhibits embedded in-text); extra files combined into one .zip
• Membership confirmed for ≥1 author; submission fee ready (or transfer route chosen)
• Manuscript posted to a public website (link ready)
• Experimental papers: instructions/survey transcripts included; own-data studies pre-registered (effective Jan 1, 2026)

Declarations

• Disclosure statement (ES policy; US$10,000 interested-party threshold; funding sources)
• Multi-author responsibility statement prepared (required for accepted papers, effective Jan 2026)
• Confirmed the paper is not under review elsewhere; AI is not listed as an author

Anti-patterns

• Submitting without an ES member among the authors (hard gate)
• Asterisks/boldface for significance, or figures/tables dumped at the end
• Forgetting to post the manuscript publicly during review
• Treating the post-proof publication fee as if it were a submission-time APC
• Using the Econometrica-transfer route without a cover letter addressing prior reports

Output format

【PDF format】≥12pt / 1.5 spacing / ≤32 lines / margins ≥1.25in? [Y/N]
【Exhibits】in-text, no significance asterisks? [Y/N]
【Abstract】≤150 words + keywords + affiliations? [Y/N]
【Membership + fee】ES member among authors; fee ready or transfer chosen? [Y/N]
【Public posting】manuscript link live? [Y/N]
【Declarations】disclosure / responsibility statement prepared? [Y/N]
【Next step】submit via ES portal → qe-review-process for what to expect

Supplementary resources

• templates/checklist.md — 8-section pre-submission self-check
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official ES URLs behind every fact