rje-workflow

RJE Workflow Router (rje-workflow)

When to trigger

• You are starting or mid-way through an RJE manuscript and want to know the next step
• You are unsure whether your applied-micro / IO project is an RJE fit at all
• You need to map a reviewer request back to the right specialist skill

What RJE is (so the route is correct)

The RAND Journal of Economics (RJE), formerly the Bell Journal of Economics, is owned and sponsored by the RAND Corporation (Santa Monica) and published in partnership with Wiley. Its scope is deliberately narrow: applied microeconomics centered on industrial organization — regulated industries, antitrust/competition, regulation, market structure, firm strategy, and the economic analysis of organizations. It is widely regarded as the field's flagship IO journal. Both theoretical and empirical work is welcomed. This is not a general-interest or macro outlet, so route accordingly.

The route

rje-topic-selection          (Is this an IO question RJE wants?)
        ▼
rje-contribution-framing     (What is the one-sentence contribution?)
        ▼
rje-literature-positioning   (Stake it against the IO frontier)
        ▼
rje-identification-strategy  (Structural or reduced-form design)
        ▼
rje-data-analysis            (Estimate, diagnose, robustness)
        ▼
rje-tables-figures           (Exhibits under the RJE Style Guide)
        ▼
rje-writing-style            (House usage + author-date polish)
        ▼
rje-replication-and-data-policy (Package + supporting-info handling)
        ▼
rje-review-process           (Understand the editor screen + referees)
        ▼
rje-submission               (Page caps, abstract, fee, portal preflight)
        ▼
rje-rebuttal                 (Respond to the two referees + Editor)

How to pick

• No clear IO angle yet → rje-topic-selection
• Have results, fuzzy on the "so what" → rje-contribution-framing
• Design is the bottleneck → rje-identification-strategy
• About to press submit → rje-submission (page caps are hard)
• Got an R&R from the handling Editor → rje-rebuttal

Symptom-to-skill dispatch table

When a task or reviewer remark arrives mid-project, match the symptom to the specialist skill rather than guessing the stage.

Symptom or request	Route to	Why
"Is this even an IO question for RJE?"	rje-topic-selection	Scope is deliberately narrow; screen fit first
"The intro reads like a methods exercise"	rje-contribution-framing	Make the IO advance legible by page 1
"Referee says we miss the frontier"	rje-literature-positioning	Stake against the right IO strand
"Price is treated as exogenous"	rje-identification-strategy	Endogeneity is the central structural threat
"Counterfactual looks fragile"	rje-data-analysis	Bound it; validate against an episode
"Tables blow the 40-page cap"	rje-tables-figures	Triage exhibits to the appendix
"Subsections are numbered 2.1, 2.2"	rje-writing-style	RJE leaves subsections unnumbered
"What do we deposit for replication?"	rje-replication-and-data-policy	RJE hosts nothing; supporting info discouraged
"What happens after submit?"	rje-review-process	Editor screen then two anonymous referees
"Final checks before upload"	rje-submission	Page caps, abstract, fee, portal
"We got an R&R"	rje-rebuttal	Editor's letter is binding; respect caps

Worked routing vignette

Suppose a collaborator says: "Our hospital-merger article got an R&R; one referee disputes the bargaining model's identification and the Editor wants the welfare number bounded — and we are over the page cap." Route in order:

• Editor's binding ask (bound the welfare number) and identification dispute → rje-rebuttal to plan the response, drawing on rje-identification-strategy for the bargaining-identification defense and rje-data-analysis for the bounded counterfactual.
• Over the page cap → rje-tables-figures and rje-submission to triage exhibits into the appendix before resubmission.
• House-style drift in the revision → rje-writing-style for a final pass.

The router's job is to sequence these, not to perform any one of them.

Lifecycle calibration anchors

• The lifecycle is roughly linear early (topic → framing → positioning → design → analysis → exhibits → style) but loops once an R&R arrives: rebuttal pulls back into identification, analysis, and exhibits before resubmission.
• The two hard external gates are the editor screen (clear it with a legible IO hook and page-cap discipline) and the two-referee read (clear it with credible identification and bounded counterfactuals).
• Treat these stages as a default ordering, not a rigid pipeline; an applied-theory IO article may compress the empirical skills and lean on framing, positioning, and writing-style. Confirm any process specifics against the journal's current author guidelines.

Output format

【Stage】topic / framing / design / analysis / exhibits / style / package / submission / rebuttal
【RJE fit risk】on-scope IO? [Y/N/uncertain]
【Next skill】rje-...
【Why】one line