Submission-Readiness Self-Check (rt-submission-readiness)

The mechanical/structural go/no-go that catches avoidable desk rejects before you hit submit. Full rubric: shared-resources/submission-readiness/readiness-checklist.md. It is the outward-facing analogue of the repo's internal tools/quality_scorecard.py.

When to trigger

• The draft is "done" and the author is about to submit to a named venue.
• Before paying a submission fee / starting the portal.
• After rt-journal-match selects the target and after rt-execution-bridge has run any empirical checks the paper depends on.

Inputs to load

1. The manuscript or submission packet, including front matter, main text, exhibits, appendix, data/code statement, and cover letter if drafted.
2. The target journal pack's README.md, relevant skills, and resources/official-source-map.md.
3. Any executed analysis artifacts from rt-execution-bridge: result handles, audit gaps, robustness outputs, and replication/package notes.

What it does

Reads the target pack's skills + resources/official-source-map.md, inspects the actual manuscript (cite §/table for every flag), and scores nine dimensions PASS / FLAG / FAIL:

1. Fit & general interest · 2. Contribution clarity · 3. Identification / method ·
2. Robustness & inference · 5. Exhibits self-contained · 6. Exposition (magnitude up front) · 7. Venue mechanics (page limit / anonymization / fee / cover letter) · 8. Data & code / reproducibility · 9. Pre-empted referee objections.

Go/no-go: any FAIL on Fit, Identification, or Venue-mechanics is a no-go (the classic desk-reject triggers).

Decision contract

For UNKNOWN, name the missing evidence and the smallest artifact needed to resolve it. Do not silently upgrade UNKNOWN to PASS.

Hard rules

1. Read the manuscript; cite locations — no status without a §/table/page reference.
2. Venue facts live from the source-map, never from memory.
3. No false green — unverifiable dimension → UNKNOWN, not PASS.
4. Map every FAIL/FLAG to the owning skill (and its execution bridge) so the author knows exactly where to fix it.
5. Separate mechanics from judgment — this skill catches preventable desk-reject risk; use rt-simulated-referee for the substantive probability of surviving peer review.

Output format

【Venue】… (bar: pack skills + source-map, read live)
【Scorecard】1 Fit … PASS/FLAG/FAIL — note (§ cited) · … (dims 2–9)
【Go / No-go】GO / NO-GO — deciding dimension(s)
【Blocking gaps (FAIL)】ranked; each with the fix + owning skill
【Will-be-pushed (FLAG)】referee-anticipation list
【Unknowns】missing evidence required before a green light
【Desk-reject risk】low / medium / high — why

Next: if readiness passes, rt-simulated-referee for the substantive adversarial review.