ecj-submission

name	ecj-submission
description	Use when running the final pre-submission preflight for a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript via Editorial Express — single PDF format, author-date references, single-blind review, JEL codes and keywords, full-length vs. short-paper choice, submission-fee awareness, funding disclosure, and the RES/EJ data-and-code policy. Final mechanical gate; it does not improve the economic argument.

Submission Preflight (ecj-submission)

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — the last mechanical check before pressing submit
• Unsure what the Editorial Express portal requires as files and metadata
• Confirming format, references, review model, and data policy are EJ-correct
• Deciding finally between the full-length and short-paper routes

Process facts (verified 2026-06-20; re-confirm on the official OUP/RES pages)

• EJ (founded 1891, the Royal Economic Society's flagship, published by Oxford University Press; editor-in-chief Francesco Lippi) is submitted through the Editorial Express portal (editorialexpress.com), not ScholarOne. The submission must be a single PDF including appendices (but not the cover letter or past reports).
• Review model: single-blind — referee identities are kept from authors as far as possible, but authors are not anonymized, so do not strip your identity from the manuscript. This differs from a double-blind journal.
• Short-paper option: EJ encourages short papers in the AER:Insights style — roughly <6,000 words and ~5 exhibits; full-length articles may be longer. Choose the route deliberately.
• Metadata: JEL classification codes and keywords are entered in Editorial Express; provide title, abstract, authors, and affiliations.
• References: author-date style. The accepted-author guide gives EJ-style examples and asks for an alphabetized, then chronological, reference list; data and replication packages should be cited.
• Accepted-author production limits: short title 40 characters or fewer, abstract 100 words or fewer, and keywords 20 characters or fewer each. Treat these as production-stage limits and keep submission metadata comfortably within them unless the live portal says otherwise.
• Submission fee: RES charges for each new EJ submission: current listed fees (re-verified 2026-06-22; non-member rate updated effective 8 May 2026) are GBP 248 for non-members, GBP 50 for student / Tier A / unemployed members, and GBP 113 for Tier B-C-D members / Fellows, before 20% VAT. Resubmissions are not charged. Re-confirm the live RES fee table before paying.
• Funding: all sources of research funding must be acknowledged in the manuscript.
• Data & code: EJ runs pre-acceptance reproducibility checks (since July 2019) via the EJ Data Editor; the package is deposited to Zenodo at acceptance under the RES policy (DCAS-endorsed). Request any data exemption at first submission (see ecj-replication-package).

Pre-submission checklist

Format

• Manuscript is a single PDF including appendices (cover letter and past reports separate)
• Sections ordered logically (intro → model/theory → data → strategy → results → mechanisms/robustness → conclusion)
• Equations numbered and referenced as "equation (n)"
• Figures legible in grayscale; tables self-contained with full notes
• Online appendix material prepared (proofs, full robustness, descriptive tables)
• Short paper? within ~6,000 words / ~5 exhibits; full-length? exposition complete

References (house style)

• Author-date citations throughout — not numbered/bracket
• Reference list complete; alphabetized then chronological for each author
• Dataset and replication-package citations included where relevant
• Every in-text citation appears in the list; every list entry is cited

Review model & identity (EJ is single-blind)

• Confirm format target: full-length article or short paper (AER:Insights-style)
• Author identities are visible to referees, so no manuscript anonymization is required
• Title page with authors, affiliations, acknowledgments, and funding sources included
• Submission fee category known; payment path ready for a new submission

Data, code & policy

• RES/EJ data-and-code policy reviewed (DCAS, EJ Data Editor, Zenodo); package staged (see ecj-replication-package)
• Restricted/proprietary data: exemption requested at first submission
• Not under review elsewhere; no duplicate/overlapping submission

Exhibits & supplementary

• Main-text exhibits report economic magnitudes, not stars alone
• Online appendix complete and referenced from the main text
• Any restricted-data documentation prepared

Portal metadata (Editorial Express)

• Title and abstract entered; accepted-author abstract cap is 100 words
• JEL classification codes entered
• Keywords entered; accepted-author guide asks each keyword to be 20 characters or fewer
• All co-authors and affiliations correct; corresponding author set
• Suggested referees (and any opposed referees) prepared with brief justification
• One-page cover letter: question, contribution, fit with EJ's broad-interest mandate

Anti-patterns

• Wasting effort anonymizing the manuscript — EJ is single-blind, so author identity is expected
• Numbered citations left in from a different journal's template instead of author-date
• Submitting via ScholarOne by habit — EJ uses Editorial Express
• Padding a clean short result to full length instead of using the short-paper route (or vice versa)
• Forgetting to acknowledge funding sources, or omitting JEL codes/keywords in the portal
• Requesting a restricted-data exemption only at acceptance instead of at first submission

Output format

【Target】full-length article / short paper (AER:Insights-style)
【Format】single PDF incl. appendices, exhibits OK? [y/n]
【References】author-date; list alphabetical/chronological; data citations included? [y/n]
【Review model】single-blind — no anonymization needed [confirm]
【Metadata】JEL codes + keywords + <=100-word abstract ready? [y/n]
【Fee】new-submission fee category/payment ready, resubmission fee exempt if applicable? [y/n]
【Funding】acknowledged in manuscript? [y/n]
【Replication】DCAS package staged; exemption (if any) at first submission? [y/n]
【Next】await decision / on R&R → ecj-rebuttal

Bundled resources

• templates/checklist.md — 8-section pre-submission self-check across format, references, single-blind review, data policy, exhibits, and portal
• templates/manuscript_template.md — EJ manuscript skeleton (section order, author-date references, variable table)
• ../../resources/external_tools.md — economics data sources and Stata / R / Python packages for identification, structural estimation, and replication