jru-workflow

JRU Workflow Router (jru-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It tells you **which jru- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (JRU) — the field's leading specialized outlet for decision-making under risk and uncertainty. Founded in 1988 and edited since by W. Kip Viscusi (Vanderbilt), published by Springer (Springer Nature Link; ISSN 0895-5646 print / 1573-0476 electronic), JRU is the home journal of expected utility and its alternatives (prospect theory, rank-dependent utility, ambiguity / Knightian uncertainty), of risk-preference measurement, of the value of a statistical life (VSL), and of insurance, precaution, and intertemporal risk. It publishes decision theory, lab and field experiments, and empirical / structural estimation side by side.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as JRU. Operational tells that you are at JRU and not a sibling: the paper's object is a risk or uncertainty primitive — a utility/probability-weighting representation, an elicited risk or ambiguity parameter, a VSL, an insurance-demand elasticity — not a market design, a game-theoretic equilibrium, or a generic behavioral anomaly. Volatile process specifics (exact word/abstract limits, OA fees, board members) are marked (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准) or 待核实; never invent them.

When to trigger

• The user asks "what should I do next?" on a JRU-bound draft
• A draft needs its current bottleneck diagnosed (theory vs. elicitation vs. estimation)
• Work is ping-ponging between the decision model, the experiment, the empirics, and the response letter
• A JRU decision letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode

Routing table

| Current symptom | Next skill |

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

| Question feels like a generic anomaly, not a risk/uncertainty primitive | jru-topic-selection |

| Contribution vs. EU/PT/ambiguity literature is fuzzy or oversold | jru-literature-positioning |

| The decision-theoretic representation or axioms are loose | jru-theory-model |

| What identifies the risk/ambiguity parameter (elicitation or structural) is unclear | jru-identification |

| Results may be sensitive to spec, sample, incentive frame, or inference | jru-robustness |

| Exhibits bury the choice patterns / parameter estimates | jru-tables-figures |

| Prose buries the decision model; abstract/intro do not land | jru-writing-style |

| Experiment data, z-Tree/oTree code, or structural code need packaging | jru-replication-package |

| Want to anticipate the likely referee objections before submission | jru-referee-strategy |

| Ready to submit via Springer's portal; need a preflight | jru-submission |

| Received an R&R / reject-and-resubmit; need a response strategy | jru-rebuttal |

Default order

1. jru-topic-selection — lock a genuine risk/uncertainty primitive
2. jru-literature-positioning — stake the contribution vs. EU and its alternatives
3. jru-theory-model — get the decision-theoretic representation right
4. jru-identification — what elicits or estimates the parameter
5. jru-robustness — incentive-, spec-, and inference-robustness
6. jru-tables-figures — make choice patterns and estimates legible
7. jru-writing-style — make the idea land (abstract + intro last)
8. jru-replication-package — assemble experiment instructions + data + code
9. jru-referee-strategy — wargame the report before it arrives
10. jru-submission — Springer portal preflight
11. jru-rebuttal — after the decision letter

> jru-writing-style is a late-stage polish; do not rewrite the intro before the representation and the elicitation/estimation settle.

Anti-patterns

• Treating JRU as interchangeable with Experimental Economics (which is method-general — it cares whether the experiment is well-run, not whether the object is a risk primitive)
• Treating JRU as JEBO (broad behavioral / organizational) or Theory and Decision (pure axiomatics with no measurement)
• Polishing exhibits while the parameter estimates are still moving
• Letting an appendix carry the axiom or the incentive-compatibility argument the main text must establish

Routing by paper archetype

JRU spans four risk-and-uncertainty branches, and the binding constraint differs by branch. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.

| Archetype | Likely first bottleneck | Enter at |

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

| decision-theory / representation | axioms ↔ functional form ↔ behavioral content | jru-theory-model |

| lab/field experiment eliciting risk or ambiguity | incentive-compatible mechanism + estimand | jru-identification → jru-robustness |

| structural / empirical risk preferences (VSL, insurance) | what variation identifies the parameter | jru-identification |

| replication / methods comparison of elicitation devices | design + data + code transparency | jru-replication-package → jru-robustness |

Worked routing example (illustrative)

A user says: "We elicit ambiguity aversion with a matching-probabilities task and estimate an α-MEU model, but a referee says the elicitation is not incentive-compatible and the model is unfalsifiable." That is two distinct JRU pushbacks — the mechanism does not truthfully reveal the preference (owned by jru-identification) and the representation has no behavioral content (owned by jru-theory-model). Fix the representation first so the estimand is well-defined, then defend the mechanism; only once the headline ambiguity parameter is stable do you return to jru-tables-figures and jru-rebuttal.

Sibling-venue routing (when JRU may be the wrong home)

Part of routing is catching a paper that should not be at JRU at all. If the diagnosis below fits, the binding step is jru-topic-selection (to re-anchor) or a different venue entirely:

| Tell | Likely better home |

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

| The contribution is the experimental technique, not a risk primitive | Experimental Economics |

| Several behavioral findings, no single decision-theoretic claim | JEBO |

| Pure axiomatization with no measurable implication | Theory and Decision |

| A managerial decision tool rather than a positive risk claim | Management Science (decision analysis) |

If the primitive is the headline and the application is merely the setting, JRU is right — route into the chain at jru-topic-selection.

Minimal decision snippet

if decision_letter_arrived:        -> jru-rebuttal
elif ready_to_submit:              -> jru-submission
elif anticipating_referees:        -> jru-referee-strategy
elif exhibits_unclear:             -> jru-tables-figures
elif results_fragile:              -> jru-robustness
elif parameter_id_unclear:         -> jru-identification
elif representation_loose:         -> jru-theory-model
elif contribution_fuzzy:           -> jru-literature-positioning
else:                              -> jru-topic-selection