jape-workflow

JAE Manuscript Workflow (jape-workflow)

When to trigger

• Starting a paper aimed at the Journal of Applied Econometrics and wanting the whole path mapped
• Deciding which JAE-specific skill to invoke next
• Sanity-checking that a project fits JAE's empirical, replicable scope

Orient first

JAE (Wiley, since 1986, Editor-in-Chief Barbara Rossi, 7 issues/year) publishes applied econometrics — techniques applied to real data, not pure theory. Its signature is reproducibility: accepted papers must deposit a complete set of non-confidential data (and typically code) in the JAE Data Archive (running since 1994, now hosted at ZBW). Plan that deposit from day one; it is not an afterthought.

Lifecycle → owning skill

1. Fit & framing — application on real data, not a theorem → jape-topic-selection, jape-contribution-framing
2. Positioning — applied-econometrics precedent + JAE corpus → jape-literature-positioning
3. Design — credible identification defended on real data → jape-identification-strategy
4. Analysis — reproducible estimation, robust inference → jape-data-analysis
5. Exhibits — within the 35-page limit; detail to the unlimited online appendix → jape-tables-figures
6. Writing — 100-word citation-free summary, six keywords, COI statement → jape-writing-style
7. Replication — plain ASCII/CSV + readme + programs → jape-replication-and-data-policy
8. Submit — Free Format via Editorial Express; ≤ 3 papers per author under review → jape-submission
9. Review — single-blind; Editor-in-Chief decides → jape-review-process
10. Revise — rebuttal to single-blind referees → jape-rebuttal

Anti-patterns

• Treating data deposit as a post-acceptance chore
• Sending a pure-theory paper to an applied journal
• Overflowing 35 pages instead of using the online appendix

Final-week gate

In the last week before submission, run the route in this order:

1. Reconfirm scope with jape-topic-selection: real-data application and replication path are still central.
2. Run jape-data-analysis: master script regenerates every article and appendix exhibit.
3. Run jape-tables-figures: article exhibits fit the 35-page limit and appendix material is staged.
4. Run jape-replication-and-data-policy: archive files, README, versions, and plain-text outputs match.
5. Run jape-writing-style and jape-submission: summary, keywords, declarations, and Editorial Express

materials are consistent.

Do not submit if the manuscript PDF and archive package disagree about a sample, variable, seed, or table

label. That mismatch is a substantive credibility problem, not a clerical issue.

Stage gates with archive checkpoints

The archive deposit is the thread that runs through every stage; verify it at each gate rather than once at the end:

| Gate | Pass condition | Archive checkpoint |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Project start | Real-data application with an econometric lesson | Data confirmed exportable to plain CSV/TXT, or documentable for access |

| First full draft | Estimand, design, inference all stated and tested | Master script regenerates every draft exhibit |

| Pre-submission | ≤35 pp text; summary ≤100 words, citation-free | Package cold-runs on a clean machine |

| Under review | — (wait; respect the 3-paper cap elsewhere) | Freeze the submitted package as a tagged version |

| Revision | Every referee point answered with evidence | Revised numbers and revised code committed together |

| Acceptance | Final exhibits match regenerated output digit-for-digit | Deposit to the ZBW-hosted archive with readme |

Failure modes by lifecycle stage

• Stage 1–2: committing to data that later proves undepositable and undescribable — the project dies at acceptance, the worst possible time.
• Stage 3–4: inference chosen by software default rather than data structure; a JAE referee pool of inference specialists will catch it.
• Stage 5–6: robustness crammed into the article instead of the unlimited appendix, blowing the 35-page limit.
• Stage 8–10: manuscript revised but package not — the mismatch surfaces when the archive deposit is checked against the published paper.

Worked routing decision (illustrative)

An author arrives with a finished panel-IV draft asking "what now?" Route: the draft is 39 pages → jape-tables-figures first (move two robustness grids to the appendix); the IV tables show no first-stage F → jape-data-analysis and jape-identification-strategy (effective F + Anderson–Rubin columns); data are a licensed commercial panel → jape-replication-and-data-policy (confidential-data readme + extraction code now, not after acceptance); only then jape-writing-style for the 100-word summary and jape-submission for Editorial Express. Three of the five stops exist only because the destination is JAE.

Output format

【Fit】applied on real data, replicable? [Y/N]
【Stage】lifecycle step (1–10)
【Gate】current stage's archive checkpoint passed? [Y/N]
【Next skill】which JAE skill now
【Archive】data/code on track for the Data Archive? [Y/N]

Supplementary resources

• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — official JAE URLs behind every fact
• [../../resources/external_tools.md](../../resources/external_tools.md) — reproducibility tooling