JBES Workflow Router (jbes-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It does not replace any specialized skill. It tells you which jbes- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the Journal of Business & Economic Statistics.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as JBES — a methodological econometrics-and-statistics journal published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the American Statistical Association (ASA). JBES's defining demand is methods-with-empirics: a new or improved statistical/econometric method (machine-learning and data-science adaptations and computational improvements explicitly welcomed) that has clear empirical relevance and usually a substantive empirical application. Pure theory without empirical motivation, or pure applications without methodological novelty, are off-scope. The journal runs on a rotating Joint Editor model with no single Editor-in-Chief; current Joint Editors are Yingying Fan, Michael Kolesár, and Dacheng Xiu per the official T&F search snippet. Submission-only details still require opening the live T&F author instructions.

When to trigger

• The user asks "what should I do next?" on a methods manuscript
• The user hands over a draft and needs the current bottleneck diagnosed
• Work is ping-ponging between theory, simulations, the application, and writing
• A JBES decision letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode

Routing table

Default order

1. jbes-topic-selection — confirm method novelty + empirical relevance fit
2. jbes-literature-positioning — stake the method against prior art
3. jbes-contribution-framing — sharpen the one-sentence methodological contribution
4. jbes-identification-strategy — assumptions, asymptotics, Monte Carlo design
5. jbes-data-analysis — Monte Carlo evidence + the substantive application
6. jbes-tables-figures — make size/power/coverage legible
7. jbes-writing-style — polish prose, theorem statements, abstract (late stage)
8. jbes-replication-and-data-policy — assemble the reproducible supplement
9. jbes-review-process — understand the multi-Co-Editor review path
10. jbes-submission — preflight
11. jbes-rebuttal — after the R&R

jbes-writing-style is a late-stage polish. Do not rewrite the introduction before the theory and simulation evidence are settled.

Differences vs. economics / pure-statistics stacks

A pure economics finding with no methodological novelty fits a general-interest economics journal better; pure theorem-proving with no empirical motivation fits a theoretical statistics journal better. JBES sits in between, and because it is ASA-owned it follows ASA editorial/ethics and data-sharing policy rather than the AEA Data Editor / mandatory-pre-publication-replication regime. Operational tells you are at JBES: methods-with-empirics scope, multi-Co-Editor model, ASA supplementary-material expectation, Open Select hybrid OA, and a discussion-paper tradition.

Worked vignette: routing one manuscript end-to-end

A hypothetical JBES manuscript — a dependence-robust forecast-comparison test on FRED-MD inflation (path illustrative) — moves through the stack as follows. The author runs jbes-topic-selection (novelty + a real macro application → in-scope), then jbes-literature-positioning, then jbes-contribution-framing (a HAC-robust test fixing over-rejection). When the limiting null is the bottleneck, route to jbes-identification-strategy; when simulation and application are thin, jbes-data-analysis; then jbes-tables-figures, late-stage jbes-writing-style, the supplement, review, and submission. An R&R routes to jbes-rebuttal, which re-dispatches into the same skills.

Routing as a decision block

【Stage】topic / positioning / framing / method / evidence / exhibits / prose / supplement / submit / rebuttal
【Symptom】the current bottleneck in one phrase
【Route to】the single jbes-* skill that owns it
【Scope gate】novelty AND empirical relevance present? [Y/N] — if N, topic-selection first
【Live-T&F preflight needed】submission-only fact could change route? [Y/N]
【Next】the skill to invoke now

Calibration anchor (hedged): the spine is methods-with-empirics — a method with no application is desk-rejected, and exhibits wait until the asymptotics settle. Submission-specific rules are live-page preflight items.

Anti-patterns

• Do not skip jbes-topic-selection — a method with no empirical relevance is desk-rejected as off-scope
• Do not polish exhibits while the asymptotic theory is still unsettled
• Do not treat the empirical application as optional — at JBES it is part of scope
• Do not let jbes-rebuttal draft a response letter before the revised manuscript exists