jeem-topic-selection

Topic Selection (jeem-topic-selection)

When to trigger

• The paper is aimed at JEEM and you are not sure the environmental or resource mechanism is doing the work versus being a label on a generic applied-micro result
• A coauthor asks "is this JEEM, JAERE, JPubE, AEJ: Policy, or Ecological Economics?"
• The result is interesting but the policy or welfare stakes are not articulated
• The paper is a method/valuation exercise and you must show it speaks to a substantive environmental question, not just a technique

Data first or question first

Environmental economics is data-rich — satellite imagery, sensor networks, administrative permit registries, parcel records — and that abundance tempts a "we have a great dataset, what can we estimate?" approach. JEEM rewards the reverse: a sharp environmental-economic question that the data then answer. A novel dataset is an asset only if it identifies a welfare-relevant parameter the field wants; on its own it is a desk-reject risk ("interesting data, no contribution"). Before committing, write the one-sentence question and the regulator-usable number it targets, then ask whether the data identify it — not the other way around.

The JEEM fit test

JEEM is a field journal: the environmental, resource, or climate content is the point, and the economics must be credible. A paper passes the fit test only if the environmental mechanism is necessary to the contribution — remove it and the paper collapses. Run the question through these gates in order:

1. Is the object environmental/resource-economic? pollution & climate, energy, water, fisheries/forests/land, ecosystem services, environmental regulation & permits, or the nonmarket value of an environmental good. If the externality or resource is just a setting for a labor/IO/public-finance result, JEEM is the wrong field journal.
2. Is there a welfare or policy stake? JEEM rewards numbers a regulator could use — a marginal damage, a willingness-to-pay, a compliance cost, an abatement-cost curve, a resource rent. "X correlates with pollution" is not a JEEM contribution; "the marginal external cost of X is $Y, so the efficient tax is Z" is.
3. Does the method clear the bar for its branch? A causal claim needs a real design (not OLS + controls); a valuation needs a defensible preference-recovery argument; a theory paper needs a comparative static that bites.

Branch-specific scoping

Archetype	What makes it a JEEM paper	What makes it a desk-reject
Environmental-policy causal	a regulation/permit-market/standard generates clean variation; welfare or compliance-cost interpretation	reduced-form correlation with no design; environment is incidental
Revealed-preference valuation	hedonic/travel-cost recovers a WTP for a defined environmental amenity	a house-price regression with no amenity/welfare claim
Stated-preference valuation	CV/DCE elicits WTP for a policy-relevant good with credible survey design	a survey with no incentive compatibility or scope test
Resource/pollution theory	a model yields a testable or policy-relevant prediction about resource use or abatement	math with no environmental comparative static or empirical hook
Climate / damages	weather/climate variation maps to an economic outcome and adaptation margin	a climate-impacts paper with no economics (belongs in a science journal)

Sibling boundaries (be explicit in the paper)

• vs. JAERE — AERE's own journal and the closest substitute; JEEM is the older Elsevier flagship. Position on contribution, not prestige; do not claim "AERE official journal" status without checking current ownership (待核实).
• vs. AEJ: Economic Policy / JPubE — those reward the general policy/public-finance contribution; JEEM rewards the environmental mechanism and field audience.
• vs. Ecological Economics — that journal is pluralist/interdisciplinary; JEEM is neoclassical welfare economics.
• vs. Nature Climate Change — that is a science venue; JEEM needs the economics (preferences, welfare, optimization), not just an impact estimate.

Worked vignette (illustrative)

A team has clean administrative data on a firm subsidy and finds it raised employment. They want to submit to JEEM because the firms happen to be in renewable energy. Run the fit test: the object is a labor/IO subsidy effect, the welfare stake is jobs not an environmental externality, and the environmental mechanism is not load-bearing — strip out "renewable" and the paper is unchanged. Verdict: reroute to a public-finance or labor venue. Contrast a version that estimates how the subsidy changed abatement and emissions, recovers the implied cost per ton of CO2 abated, and compares it to the social cost of carbon — now the environmental mechanism carries the contribution and a regulator-usable number emerges. That version is a JEEM paper.

Short-paper route

JEEM accepts short papers / notes that make a contribution comparable to a full paper, with expedited review (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准; exact word ceiling 待核实). This route fits a sharp, single-result environmental contribution: a clean new estimate of one parameter, a decisive robustness correction to a published result, or a focused methodological note for valuation. If the contribution is one crisp number rather than a multi-part argument, scope it as a short paper rather than padding it to full length.

The desk-reject self-test

Before investing, simulate the editor's scope screen with three blunt questions. (1) If I deleted the word "environmental/climate/pollution" from the title and abstract, would the paper still make sense as a labor/IO/public-finance paper? If yes, the mechanism is not load-bearing — reroute. (2) Can I state a number a regulator could use (a damage, a WTP, an abatement cost, a quota)? If no, there is no welfare contribution yet. (3) Is there a recent JEEM or JAERE paper a referee would say I am merely re-running on new data? If yes, find what I fix. Passing all three is the minimum bar before topic selection is settled.

Checklist

• One sentence states the environmental/resource object and why it matters for policy or welfare
• Removing the environmental mechanism would collapse the contribution (it is load-bearing)
• The branch is named (policy-causal / RP valuation / SP valuation / theory / climate) and its method bar is met
• A regulator-usable parameter (damage, WTP, abatement cost, rent, elasticity) is the target, not a bare correlation
• The paper distinguishes itself from JAERE and from the general-interest / interdisciplinary siblings
• Short-paper route considered if the contribution is sharp but narrow (JEEM accepts short papers / notes)
• Process facts cited are in resources/official-source-map.md or marked 待核实

Anti-patterns

• "Environmental" as a setting, not a mechanism — a generic DiD that happens to use a green outcome
• Estimating an effect with no welfare interpretation and no number a policymaker could use
• Picking JEEM for prestige when the audience is really public finance or development
• A pure climate-science impact paper with no economic model of behavior or welfare
• Asserting JEEM is "the AERE official journal" without verifying current ownership (待核实)

Timeliness without chasing headlines

JEEM rewards questions that matter for current environmental policy — carbon pricing, air-quality regulation, water and fisheries management, climate adaptation, the energy transition — but it is a welfare-economics journal, not a news outlet. A topic earns durability when it pins down a parameter or mechanism that remains useful after the specific policy episode passes: the marginal damage of a pollutant, the WTP for an ecosystem service, the abatement-cost response to a price signal. Choose a question whose answer a regulator could cite in five years, not one that depends entirely on a fleeting policy debate. The best JEEM topics pair a salient policy context with a parameter of lasting interest.

Output format

【Journal】Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
【Skill】jeem-topic-selection
【Verdict】pass / revise / reroute
【Environmental mechanism】is it load-bearing? [Y/N] — one sentence
【Branch】policy-causal / RP-valuation / SP-valuation / theory / climate
【Policy-relevant target】damage / WTP / abatement cost / rent / elasticity
【Sibling boundary】why JEEM not JAERE / JPubE / Ecological Economics
【Source status】verified URL / 待核实 / not asserted
【Next skill】jeem-literature-positioning