Jole workflow

JOLE Workflow Router (jole-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It does not replace any specialized skill. It tells you which jole- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the Journal of Labor Economics.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as JOLE — a general-interest, peer-reviewed quarterly in labor economics, published by the University of Chicago Press for the Society of Labor Economists (SOLE). JOLE takes both theoretical and applied/empirical labor work (wages and earnings, employment, human capital and education, labor supply and demand, family economics, discrimination, unions, migration, institutions and policy). Operational tells that you are at JOLE and not a sibling journal: Editor-in-Chief Peter Kuhn, a non-refundable submission fee ($100 SOLE members / $175 non-members since July 1, 2018; decisions withheld until paid), single-blind review via Editorial Manager (so the manuscript is NOT anonymized — a title page names all co-authors), a 100-word abstract, a ~20,000-word soft cap counting each full-page table/figure as 500 words, Chicago author-date references ordered in-text chronologically then alphabetically, and deposit to the JOLE Dataverse Repository under the AER data policy. Before upload, live-check the portal path, fee prompts, editor conflicts, and data-policy wording from the official source map.

When to trigger

• The user asks "what should I do next?"
• The user hands over a draft and needs the current bottleneck diagnosed
• Work is ping-ponging between empirics, framing, writing, and response letters
• A JOLE decision letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode

Routing table

Current symptom	Next skill
Question feels narrow / "so what for labor?" unclear	jole-topic-selection
Contribution relative to the labor literature is fuzzy or undersold	jole-literature-positioning
Empirics rest on OLS + controls; causal claim is undefended	jole-identification-strategy
Estimation, sample construction, or robustness needs labor norms	jole-data-analysis
The "what's new for labor economics" pitch is not framed	jole-contribution-framing
Exhibits are dense and blow the 500-words-per-page budget	jole-tables-figures
Prose buries the idea; 100-word abstract / intro do not land	jole-writing-style
Accepted-stage data/code deposit to the JOLE Dataverse	jole-replication-and-data-policy
Want to understand single-blind review, fee, and referee expectations	jole-review-process
Ready to submit via Editorial Manager; need a preflight checklist	jole-submission
Received an R&R; need a response-letter strategy	jole-rebuttal

Default order

1. jole-topic-selection — lock a labor question that matters broadly
2. jole-literature-positioning — stake the contribution against the labor frontier
3. jole-identification-strategy — make the causal design credible
4. jole-data-analysis — execute estimation and robustness to labor norms
5. jole-contribution-framing — articulate what is new for labor economics
6. jole-tables-figures — finalize exhibits within the word economy
7. jole-writing-style — polish prose, the 100-word abstract, author-date cites (last)
8. jole-replication-and-data-policy — assemble the JOLE Dataverse deposit
9. jole-review-process — understand the single-blind process and pre-empt referees
10. jole-submission — Editorial Manager preflight (fee, title page, non-anonymized)
11. jole-rebuttal — after the R&R

jole-writing-style is a late-stage polish. Do not rewrite the intro before identification is settled — the argument will change.

Routing ledger

Tick each gate in order; route to the first one left open. Keep the ledger with the draft so co-authors see the same bottleneck.

JOLE routing ledger
[ ] labor question of broad interest locked ....... jole-topic-selection
[ ] frontier staked vs. 2-3 closest papers ........ jole-literature-positioning
[ ] causal design defensible to a labor referee ... jole-identification-strategy
[ ] estimation + robustness meet labor norms ...... jole-data-analysis
[ ] "what is new for labor" pitch framed .......... jole-contribution-framing
[ ] exhibits fit the 500-words-per-page budget .... jole-tables-figures
[ ] 100-word abstract + intro land ................ jole-writing-style
[ ] JOLE Dataverse deposit assembled .............. jole-replication-and-data-policy
[ ] fee / single-blind expectations set ........... jole-review-process
[ ] Editorial Manager preflight complete .......... jole-submission
[ ] R&R response strategy (only after revision) ... jole-rebuttal

Decision shortcuts

• "I have data but no labor angle" → jole-topic-selection
• "I don't know who I'm building on in labor" → jole-literature-positioning
• "My DID is TWFE on staggered minimum-wage timing" → jole-identification-strategy
• "My AKM firm effects may have limited-mobility bias" → jole-data-analysis
• "My result has no clear lesson for labor" → jole-contribution-framing
• "My main table has 12 columns and eats my word count" → jole-tables-figures
• "My abstract is 220 words" → jole-writing-style
• "Editor wants data and code on the Dataverse" → jole-replication-and-data-policy
• "Do I pay the fee, and is it double-blind?" → jole-review-process
• "Submitting tomorrow on Editorial Manager" → jole-submission
• "Got the referee reports" → jole-rebuttal

Anti-patterns

• Do not anonymize the manuscript — JOLE is single-blind; that is jole-submission's job to enforce
• Do not let jole-tables-figures polish exhibits while identification is still shaky
• Do not skip jole-literature-positioning and jump to identification — referees judge the labor contribution first
• Do not let jole-rebuttal draft a response letter before the revised manuscript exists
• Do not forget the submission fee blocks the decision — budget for it (see jole-review-process)