jhr-submission

Submission Preflight (jhr-submission)

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last check before uploading to msubmit.net
• Unsure which declarations and footnotes JHR expects at initial submission
• Confirming the 40-page limit and single-anonymous formatting are met

Process facts (verified 2026-06-01; re-confirm on the live page)

• JHR is published by University of Wisconsin Press for the Board of Regents, housed at the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP); founded 1965; Editor Michael Lovenheim (Cornell, ILR School) since 2026-07-01, succeeding Anna Aizer (Brown). Re-verified 2026-09-14.
• Submit only via http://jhr.msubmit.net. Do NOT email the editor, coeditors, managing editor, or editorial office directly.
• Scope is the first gate. JHR is empirical microeconomics (labor, development, health, education, discrimination, retirement) with a policy bent and does NOT consider management/personnel ("HR") research. The fee is not refunded for out-of-scope papers.
• Nonrefundable submission fee: $175 on the live Authors page ($150 in the Sept-2024 policy PDF — verify which is current). No fee for invited revisions; economic-hardship exemption may be requested. The fee does not guarantee outside review.
• Length is page-based, not word-based: max 40 pages including references, tables, and figures at 12pt, 1.5-line spacing, 1-inch margins; up to 50 pages if double-spaced; footnotes may be smaller/single-spaced. Overflow goes to an Online Appendix (must not be excessive).
• Single-anonymous review: referees are anonymous, author names are not hidden — so do not waste effort anonymizing the body.

Preflight checklist

Scope & fit

• [ ] This is empirical microeconomics with a policy-relevant question, not HR-management/personnel work
• [ ] A clear causal or descriptive contribution to one of JHR's fields

Format & length

• [ ] <= 40 pages incl. references/tables/figures (12pt, 1.5-spacing); or <= 50 double-spaced
• [ ] Online Appendix holds overflow and is not bloated
• [ ] Tables/figures numbered, called out in order, with self-contained notes

Required front matter & footnotes

• [ ] Per-author Disclosure Statement up front (funding/support >= $10,000 over 3 yr, positions, relatives/partners, right-to-review, IRB status)
• [ ] Data-archive plan footnote with a persistent (DOI) link, or a waiver request made now (see jhr-replication-and-data-policy)
• [ ] Data Availability Statement drafted for the title page
• [ ] For RCTs: pre-analysis plan existence, registry, and deviations stated
• [ ] Author-order randomization "r" superscript used if applicable

Files for msubmit.net

• [ ] Main manuscript (within page limit) + Online Appendix
• [ ] Cover letter (question, design, headline result, policy relevance)
• [ ] Optional: prior journal's decision letter + referee reports to speed review

Worked page budget for the 40-page cap

Illustrative allocation for a design-based JHR manuscript at 12pt, 1.5-spacing

(adjust to the paper, but the proportions are the point):

| Section | Pages | Notes |

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

| Intro incl. reconciliation paragraph | 5 | Question, variation, magnitude, bridge to prior estimates |

| Institutional setting + data | 7 | Treatment definition, sample construction, linkage |

| Empirical strategy | 4 | Estimator, clustering, identifying assumption stated once |

| Results + design diagnostics | 11 | Roughly 5-7 exhibits: main table, event study or first stage, reconciliation |

| Heterogeneity + external validity | 4 | Only policy-mapped cuts |

| Conclusion + references | 6 | References count against the cap |

| Slack | 3 | R&R additions will need it |

A draft at 47 pages is not "close" — cut exhibits to the Online Appendix before

upload, since the cap includes tables, figures, and references.

Cover-letter skeleton

1. Question + JHR field (labor/education/health/development/discrimination/retirement)
2. Identifying variation in one sentence (rollout / cutoff / lottery / instrument)
3. Headline magnitude in policy units
4. One reconciliation sentence vs. the closest published estimate
5. Notes: archive-plan footnote or waiver; optional prior-journal reports attached

Anti-patterns

• Paying the nonrefundable fee on an out-of-scope HR-management paper
• Emailing the editor instead of using msubmit.net
• Blowing past 40 pages and dumping the excess into a bloated appendix
• Omitting the disclosure statement or the data-archive footnote (can reverse acceptance)
• Over-anonymizing the body for a single-anonymous journal

Output format

【Scope】empirical micro + policy, not HR-mgmt? [Y/N]
【Length】<=40pp (or <=50 double)? overflow in appendix? [Y/N]
【Fee】$175 nonrefundable acknowledged / hardship? [Y/N]
【Disclosure】per-author statement up front? [Y/N]
【Data】archive footnote + DAS (or waiver requested)? [Y/N]
【Files】manuscript / appendix / cover letter staged? [Y/N]
【Next step】await desk decision → jhr-rebuttal on R&R

Supplementary resources

• [templates/checklist.md](templates/checklist.md) — full pre-submission self-check
• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — official JHR URLs behind every fact