en-journal-workflow

English econ / business journal workflow (en-journal-workflow)

Purpose

This is the routing skill. It does not replace a single-journal profile; it first

classifies the manuscript by **discipline, contribution type, method shape, and

audience**, then routes into the matching per-journal skill for fit and re-framing.

Resources to Load When Needed

• If the venue is unclear, read ../../resources/worked-examples/venue-routing.md

before choosing a target.

• If two sibling fields look plausible, read

../../resources/exemplars/selection-patterns.md.

• Before submission-ready advice, use ../../resources/official-source-map.md

to open the current official author instructions for the chosen journal.

Ask four things first

1. Contribution type: new identification / causal effect, new theory or model,

new measurement or method, new fact/anomaly, or integrative review?

1. Method shape: reduced-form causal, structural, pure theory/proof,

econometric method, lab/field experiment, survey/SEM, qualitative/inductive,

optimization/analytics, or design-science?

1. Discipline audience: general economics, a specific econ field, finance,

accounting, strategy/OB/management, marketing, operations, or information systems?

1. Submission goal: swing for a top-5 / top-3 / elite-list venue, or optimize

topic–venue fit and review odds at a strong field journal?

Quick routing

| Manuscript signature | Prefer skill |

|---|---|

| General-interest econ, top-5 ambition | american-economic-review / quarterly-journal-of-economics / journal-of-political-economy |

| Theorem / new estimator with proofs | econometrica / journal-of-economic-theory / econometric-theory |

| Strong applied micro, narrower than top-5 | aej-applied-economics / review-of-economics-and-statistics / journal-of-human-resources |

| Macro / growth / dynamics | aej-macroeconomics / journal-of-monetary-economics / review-of-economic-dynamics / journal-of-economic-growth |

| Micro theory / mechanism / games | aej-microeconomics / journal-of-economic-theory / games-and-economic-behavior |

| Policy-facing applied economics | aej-economic-policy / journal-of-public-economics / economic-policy |

| Trade / open economy / development | journal-of-international-economics / journal-of-development-economics / world-development |

| Econometric methods / applied econometrics | journal-of-econometrics / journal-of-applied-econometrics / journal-of-business-and-economic-statistics / quantitative-economics |

| Field econ (labor/health/urban/enviro/law) | journal-of-labor-economics / journal-of-health-economics / journal-of-urban-economics / journal-of-environmental-economics-and-management / journal-of-law-and-economics |

| Finance, top-3 ambition | journal-of-finance / journal-of-financial-economics / review-of-financial-studies |

| Finance, elite field | review-of-finance / journal-of-financial-and-quantitative-analysis / journal-of-financial-intermediation / journal-of-corporate-finance |

| Banking / markets / international finance | journal-of-banking-and-finance / journal-of-financial-markets / journal-of-international-money-and-finance / journal-of-empirical-finance |

| Management theory (no data) | academy-of-management-review / academy-of-management-annals |

| Management empirics, theory-driven | academy-of-management-journal / journal-of-management-en / journal-of-management-studies |

| Strategy / firm performance | strategic-management-journal / organization-science |

| Org theory / sociology of orgs / qualitative | organization-studies / human-relations / administrative-science-quarterly |

| HRM / international business / innovation | human-resource-management / journal-of-international-business-studies / research-policy |

| Entrepreneurship | journal-of-business-venturing / entrepreneurship-theory-and-practice |

| Marketing modeling vs. behavior | marketing-science / journal-of-marketing-research vs journal-of-consumer-research / journal-of-consumer-psychology |

| Marketing strategy / broad | journal-of-marketing / journal-of-the-academy-of-marketing-science |

| Accounting (archival/analytical/markets) | the-accounting-review / journal-of-accounting-research / journal-of-accounting-and-economics / review-of-accounting-studies |

| Accounting (interpretive/critical) | accounting-organizations-and-society / contemporary-accounting-research |

| OM / OR / analytics | management-science / operations-research / manufacturing-and-service-operations-management / production-and-operations-management / journal-of-operations-management |

| Information systems | mis-quarterly / information-systems-research / journal-of-management-information-systems / journal-of-the-association-for-information-systems / informs-journal-on-computing |

Sibling-Journal Disambiguation

| Confusable targets | Decision rule |

|---|---|

| AER/QJE/JPE vs field journals | Use a top-5 only when the paper changes a broad economics conversation; strong identification alone is not enough. |

| JF/JFE/RFS vs finance field journals | Decide whether the contribution is asset pricing, corporate finance, intermediation, microstructure, or international finance before choosing prestige tier. |

| AMR vs AMJ vs ASQ | AMR is theory-only; AMJ is empirical theory-building; ASQ expects organization-theory depth and often sociological leverage. |

| JM vs JMR vs Marketing Science | JM is strategy/managerial broad contribution; JMR is empirical/methodological marketing research; Marketing Science expects modeling, optimization, or quantitative marketing depth. |

| MISQ/ISR vs CS venues | Use IS journals only when the information-systems theory or organizational technology contribution is central; route pure algorithms to CS/AI. |

Decision rules

• Correlation without identification or mechanism: fix the contribution before

swinging for a top-5/top-3 venue.

• "First to study X in context Y" is not a contribution at elite venues — name

the conceptual or methodological advance, or route to a field journal.

• A new factor / anomaly without multiple-testing and out-of-sample discipline is

not a finance top-3 paper.

• Management empirics with no theoretical contribution belong below AMJ/AMR, or

need reframing.

• A modeling/optimization paper with no managerial-theory payoff routes to

OM/OR/IS analytics venues, not to AMJ.

• Always enter the single-journal skill's official-submission checklist before

submitting; never rely on a stale template.

Output format

[Top journal skill] <skill-name>
[Alt 1] <skill-name> (reason)
[Alt 2] <skill-name> (reason)
[Do not submit to] <journal> (one-line mismatch reason)
[Biggest current gap] topic / theory / identification / mechanism / formatting / official requirements
[Next step] invoke <skill-name> for single-venue fit and re-framing