---
name: jde-review-process
description: Use when choosing a submission route or understanding how peer review works at the Journal of Development Economics (JDE) — the full-length, AER-Insights-style short-paper, and pre-results review (Registered Reports) tracks, single-anonymized review, timelines, and the submission cap. Explains the pipeline; it is not the final preflight.
---

# Review Process (jde-review-process)

## When to trigger

- You are deciding among the full-length, short-paper, and pre-results review routes
- You need realistic expectations about JDE review and timelines
- You have a prospective design and want it reviewed before results exist
- You want to confirm you are within the submission cap

## How JDE review works

JDE is the **leading field journal in development economics** (Elsevier), edited by Lead Editor **Andrew Foster** (since 2016), with **Dean Karlan** among the editors. Review is **single-anonymized** — referees know the author's identity; the author does not know the referees (待核实 on the live page; high-confidence). It is highly selective: ~**1,300 submissions a year**, only about **a quarter sent for review**, and an acceptance rate near **6-8%**. Submission is via **Editorial Manager**.

There is **no submission fee**. Open access is optional and paid only after acceptance (the APC figure is 待核实 — verify on the official open-access page).

**Submission cap:** under normal circumstances an author may **not submit more than three papers within any 12-month period**. Plan submissions accordingly.

## The three routes

### Full-length (standard)
The default track. No fixed length limit; an extensive online appendix is expected. Full single-anonymized review with multiple referees and R&R rounds.

### Short-paper (limited-revision) track
Modeled on **AER: Insights**: at most **6,000 words**, at most **5 exhibits** (tables or figures), and an online appendix of at most **20 pages** (the manuscript must be self-contained). Decisions are fast — generally within **4-6 weeks** — with a **single revision round** of **4 weeks**, and **resubmissions are not returned to referees**. Best for a sharp, self-contained result that does not need a long treatment.

### Pre-results review (Registered Reports)
A **permanent** track (piloted 2018-2019 with **BITSS**) for prospective empirical projects. You submit a **Stage 1 proposal** — background/motivation, hypotheses, study procedures, a statistical analysis plan, a **power analysis**, and pilot data if applicable, with a cover page carrying JEL codes and ethics/funding/conflict disclosures. The Stage 1 proposal **must not exceed 60 pages** and its **abstract is capped at 150 words**. If accepted **in principle before results are known**, you implement the study and submit the **Stage 2** manuscript. Published pre-results papers look like any other JDE article except for a footnote noting pre-results submission and the inclusion of the pre-specified plan in the supplementary online appendix. This route reduces publication bias and is well suited to RCTs and other prospective designs.

## Choosing a route

- Sharp single result, self-contained → **short-paper** track
- Prospective design, want the plan locked and de-risked → **pre-results review**
- Rich result needing full treatment, theory, or extensive empirics → **full-length**

## Route-choice decision table

| Your situation                                                  | Route          | Why                                                      |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|----------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| RCT not yet run; want the design locked and bias-proofed        | Pre-results    | Stage 1 accepted in principle before results exist       |
| One sharp result, ≤ 6,000 words, ≤ 5 exhibits, self-contained   | Short-paper    | Fast (~4–6 wk), single 4-wk revision, editor decides     |
| Rich design + theory + extensive heterogeneity and robustness   | Full-length    | No length cap; extensive online appendix expected        |
| Quasi-experiment already estimated, needs full empirical defense | Full-length    | Multiple referees, multiple R&R rounds                   |

## Worked routing example (illustrative)

Hypothetical: a team has designed but not yet fielded a cluster-randomized cash-transfer trial in a low-income setting and wants to de-risk it.

- **Right call:** Stage 1 pre-results submission — background, hypotheses, procedures, a statistical analysis plan, and a **power analysis** at the cluster level (e.g., 90 clusters powered to detect a 0.15 SD consumption effect, *illustrative*). If accepted in principle, results cannot sink the paper for being null.
- **Wrong call:** running the trial first, finding a null, then trying pre-results — that track is *prospective only*.

## Calibration anchors (hedged)

- Selectivity is high: ~1,300 submissions/year, about a quarter sent for review, ~6–8% accepted — high-confidence but **待核实** against the live Guide for Authors.
- Short-paper decisions generally land in **4–6 weeks**; the full-length pipeline runs months across rounds — plan the **three-per-12-months** cap around it.
- The development-policy-relevance bar is real: a technically clean paper with no first-order LMIC stake is a routine non-starter regardless of route.

## Anti-patterns

- Submitting a sprawling paper to the short-paper track (it caps words and exhibits)
- Treating pre-results review as a place to submit after you already have results
- Exceeding three submissions in a 12-month window
- Assuming double-blind anonymization — JDE review is single-anonymized

## Output format

```
【Route】full-length / short-paper / pre-results review
【Why this route】...
【Within 3-per-12-months cap?】[Y/N]
【Route-specific limits met】words/exhibits/pages as applicable
【Next step】jde-submission
```