Journal of Monetary Economics Submission Guide

Source: JME on Elsevier, Clarivate JCR 2024, accessed April 2026.

This is the JME-specific structural detail authors most often miss:

The journal regularly publishes papers from the Carnegie-Rochester-NYU Conference Series on Public Policy, a long-running macroeconomic policy conference. Papers presented at the conferences can be routed for publication in the JME conference volume.

The strategic implication: authors interested in the conference pathway should track the Carnegie-Rochester-NYU calendar and submit to the conference, not directly to JME for that pathway. Regular JME submissions go through Editorial Manager.

Three operational signals govern editorial assessment:

1. Macro/monetary substance. JME requires substantive macro contribution. Pure-finance or pure-applied-econ work without macro framing fits other venues.

2. Methodological rigor. Whether theoretical, empirical, or quantitative-DSGE, methods must be top-tier.

3. Policy or theoretical relevance. JME's tradition favors papers with policy or substantive theoretical implications.

Recent JME issues span:

• Monetary policy and central bank communication

• Inflation dynamics and inflation expectations

• Fiscal-monetary interactions

• Heterogeneous-agent macro and HANK models

• International macroeconomics and exchange rates

• Macro-financial linkages and macroprudential policy

• Labor-market macroeconomics

• Quantitative DSGE and structural macro

For specific recent papers and DOIs, see JME on Elsevier. Representative recent papers:

• 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2023.103456

• 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103789

• 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103892

• Initial decision: typically 6-10 weeks

• First decision after review: typically 12-16 weeks

• Revision rounds: typically 2-3 major revisions to acceptance

• Time to publication after acceptance: months (online first available)

This page handles the public submission rules; the draft still needs a journal-specific fit check. The review tells you whether your paper clears the Journal of Monetary Economics fit check before upload, especially around macro framing thin, wrong macro venue chosen, and methodological execution doesn't clear top-tier bar. Paid Manusights reviews include a 60-day money-back guarantee, and we do not train models on submitted manuscripts.

Three patterns generate the most consistent rejections.

Macro framing thin

JME requires macro substance. Pure-finance or applied-micro work without macro framing faces redirection. The fix is to articulate the macro contribution.

Check macro framing thin before submitting to Journal of Monetary Economics →

Wrong macro venue chosen

JME competes with AEJ:Macro, JMCB, RED, and Big Five. The fix is to read recent papers from each and route based on contribution type.

Check wrong macro venue chosen before submitting to Journal of Monetary Economics →

Methodological execution doesn't clear top-tier bar

Theoretical, empirical, or quantitative methods all require top-tier execution. The fix is rigorous execution before submission. A JME manuscript readiness check can identify whether macro framing, methodological rigor, and policy/theoretical relevance align before submission.

Check methodological execution doesn't clear top tier bar before submitting to Journal of Monetary Economics →

JME requires these at first submission:

• main manuscript file in double-spaced 12-point type with 1-inch margins (files automatically converted to PDF for peer review)

• cover letter establishing the macroeconomic / monetary research contribution

• abstract under 100 words (must NOT start with "This paper" or "We" per JME style)

• author byline with full names, affiliations, and ORCID iDs

• author CRediT contribution statement

• competing-interests declaration

• ethics statement (where applicable)

• data and code availability statements with deposit references for any empirical or computational work

• submission-fee payment at the appropriate tier ($350 standard / $200 PhD student / $0 returned for accepted papers)

• suggested reviewers with institutional affiliations

• $5,500 USD APC for the Elsevier gold open-access option (2026; subscription publication has no APC; many institutional Elsevier transformative agreements cover the fee)

• declaration of generative AI use in the writing process per Elsevier policy

• for accepted papers: 40-page maximum (text, references, footnotes), 10-table-and-figure maximum, JME style compliance

• for revised submissions, point-by-point reviewer response with explicit acknowledgment of the "up or out" first-revision decision pattern

For JME submissions, the most common artifact-related issue is abstracts starting with "This paper" or "We" (a JME style rule that the editorial office enforces strictly). Authors who do not adjust the abstract opening face routine technical-screen returns for resubmission with a compliant opening, which delays the editorial assignment by 1-2 weeks. The simpler fix: lead the abstract with the substantive macro finding (e.g., "Monetary policy transmission via X channel...") rather than meta-language about the paper itself.

Run a Journal of Monetary Economics pre-submission readiness check before clicking submit to verify the package meets the journal's macro-substance-with-rigorous-methods bar.

JME manuscripts move through a four-stage editorial timeline shaped by the submission-fee structure and the "up or out" first-revision decision pattern. The editorial triage pattern at JME favors submissions where the cover letter names a failure pattern in current monetary or macro research that the manuscript addresses. Editors routinely reject pure-finance or applied-micro submissions without macro framing and consistently screen for cover letters that demonstrate awareness of the journal's recent editorial culture around policy-relevant macroeconomic substance.

Day 0 to 5: Editorial Manager intake and editorial-office technical check

The Elsevier platform performs format and declaration checks (double-spacing, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, 100-word abstract without forbidden openings, submission-fee payment, declarations). Submissions with non-compliant abstract openings are returned at this stage.

Day 5 to 28: Editor desk-screen

An Editor (matched to monetary theory, monetary policy, macro-finance, business cycle theory and quantitative macro, growth and development, or labor and macro) reviews scope fit and the macro-substance bar.

Week 4 to 16: External peer review

Manuscripts that pass desk-screen go to 1-3 referees. The journal aims for swift manuscript turnaround consistent with the submission-fee model.

Week 16 to 20: Decision and "up or out" first revision

First decisions arrive at the 3-4 month median. The first revision is the critical decision point: revised manuscripts must be either rejected or accepted subject to a specified plan of further revisions. This decisive pattern avoids the protracted multi-round revisions common at less-disciplined macro journals.

• Is Journal of Monetary Economics a good journal?

• American Economic Review Submission Guide

• Journal of Political Economy Submission Guide

Before the reviewer-invitation stage, read the Journal of Monetary Economics package against the same risks this guide flags in the Manusights section. The practical question is whether the abstract, cover letter, figures or tables, methods, reporting statements, supplementary files, and references all make the journal choice obvious.

• If the abstract still points toward macro framing thin, revise the central claim before upload.

• If the evidence package leaves wrong macro venue chosen, strengthen the methods, controls, figures, or supplementary material rather than expecting reviewers to infer it.

• If the cover letter cannot resolve methodological execution doesn't clear top-tier bar, compare the target journal against the adjacent venues named above before submitting.

Last verified: April 2026 against JME editorial pages.