Reviewing process and submission requirements

The Editor will assign each submitted paper to a Coeditor, who will be responsible for evaluating the paper and ultimately making a decision on it (the Editor also acts as a Coeditor and handles some submissions). The Editor may reject a paper without review if it is a poor fit for the journal, or if the paper is unlikely to succeed in the review process. TE has an explicit policy to prevent conflicts of interest. See also our page on editorial standards for information on content, standards, the reviewing process, and turnaround times.

Submission requirements

To submit a paper, you must be a member of the Econometric Society and pay a submission fee. (Your coauthors, if any, need not be members.) If you are not currently a member, please go to the Econometric Society's membership page and purchase a membership.

A working paper version of the paper must be available on a public repository (e.g. a personal website or arXiv). Upon request, the editor may grant exceptions to this requirement.

Please ensure that your submission meets the following requirements.

Formatting and spacing.

Papers must be submitted as PDF files. The font size must be at least 12 points, the page size must be US letter, and each page must contain no more than 32 lines (with line spacing of at least 1.5). All margins must be at least 1.25in (3.2cm). Figures and tables should be embedded in the text where they are discussed, rather than being placed at the end of the manuscript. The list of references should appear after any appendices, at the very end of the paper. Bibliographic references should be in the author-year style.

One way to meet these requirements is to use the Econometric Society's LaTeX template. To get the template and the associated LaTeX class and configuration files, go to the Society's LaTeX support page and download the zip file using the button at the top of the page. (Alternatively, if you use Git you can clone the repository.) To prepare a paper for submission, use the draft option in te_template.tex. It is, however, not mandatory to use the journal's LaTeX class at the submission stage.

Supplementary appendices.

The use of online supplementary online appendices is discouraged. In particular, proofs should be part of the main text (including them in a regular appendix is fine). Please consult the editorial standards page for further details.

Paper length.

Length is a factor in our evaluation process. We strongly encourage authors to keep their submissions concise and focused on the main message and results. Avoid lengthy introductions and excessive extensions or "robustness checks" that do not add to the core results of the paper. For each section of your paper, consider whether you expect referees to read it carefully, or whether you simply want them to be aware of its content. If the latter, consider referencing a self-contained "working-paper version" that you make available in a public repository.

Theoretical Economics does not impose a hard constraint on the length of paper submissions, but lengthy submissions will often be returned to the authors for shortening before they are sent out to referees. If your paper is longer than 45 pages, please explain in the cover letter why you believe that the length is justified.

Submission to other venues.

Submissions must be unpublished, and cannot be under consideration for publication in another venue. An exception is made for extended abstracts in refereed conference proceedings. In such cases, the authors should inform the editors in their cover letter, and, if an extended abstract exists, it should be uploaded as a supplementary file.

Similarity check.

In an effort to prevent plagiarism, the Econometric Society subscribes to Similarity Check to screen its submissions. Submission to TE implies permission to check the submission electronically for plagiarism using the Similarity Check system.

Submission of revised papers

The resubmission of a manuscript is allowed when the Editor or Coeditor has made a "revise and resubmit" decision. The rejection of a manuscript is final. With a resubmission, please include a detailed explanation of how the new version of the paper addresses the comments and suggestions made by the editor and the referees.

Authors who are given the option to revise and resubmit a paper are expected to complete a revision within one year of being notified of the decision. A revised version submitted more than one year after the author is notified of the decision will normally be treated as a new submission, though the Coeditor handling the paper has the discretion to treat such a paper as a resubmission. If a paper is returned after two years, there will be no presumption that it will be sent to the original Coeditor (especially if the Coeditor has left the board).

Transfers from Econometrica

If you have a paper rejected by Econometrica, you may request a transfer to Theoretical Economics. This is entirely optional. If you opt for a transfer, the journal waives the submission fee and the Theoretical Economics editor sees the referee reports and cover letter; with the permission of the referees, the Theoretical Economics editor also sees the identity of the referees and their cover letters. The editorial process at Theoretical Economics is completely independent of that at Econometrica. Editors may go back to one or two of the previous referees, but will typically consult new ones too.

If you do request a transfer, please provide a cover letter describing how your submission differs from the paper reviewed by Econometrica. Please explain how you have responded to the major points raised by the referees (e.g. "we have made change X, we have not done change Y but could do so, while change Z is infeasible"). You should not feel obliged to implement all the suggestions made by the Econometrica referees, but should adopt suggestions that you think makes the paper better for Theoretical Economics. In particular, you should refrain from adding extensions that add to the length of the paper. If we use the same referees, your responses will be forwarded to them.

Submit the paper

To submit a paper, proceed to the paper submission page.