jf-referee-strategy
Use when anticipating referee objections and selecting suggested/opposed reviewers before or during a The Journal of Finance (JF) submission. Plans for review; it does not write the rebuttal (use jf-rebuttal).
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jf-referee-strategy --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Referee Strategy (jf-referee-strategy) ## When to trigger - Before submitting: anticipating the objections a JF referee will raise - The portal asks for suggested / opposed reviewers - A conflict of interest among editors, AEs, or referees needs flagging ## How JF review works (plan around it) JF, the AFA flagship, runs a demanding multi-round process: a handling **editor** (currently **Antoinette Schoar (MIT)**, with co-editors and 50+ Associate Editors — verify the masthead) screens first, then assigns typically **2–3 referees**. The reality is severe — **~33–45% desk-rejected, ~5% accepted** (afajof.org editor reports, accessed 2026-05-30). Most papers die at desk review, so the first job is surviving the editor, not the referees. ### JF-specific channels - A **cover letter is normally unnecessary** at JF — use one **only** to flag a conflict of interest (referees/AEs/editors who should be excluded) or to request a code-sharing exemption. Do not pad it (see `jf-submission`). - Suggested/opposed reviewers, if the portal asks, should be specific and justified. ## Anticipating objections (pre-empt in the paper) | Likely referee objection | Where to neutralize it | |--------------
- When to trigger
- How JF review works (plan around it)
- JF-specific channels
- Anticipating objections (pre-empt in the paper)
- Reading the AFA screening funnel
- Desk-reject patterns at a top-3 finance journal
- Worked vignette — pre-empting the panel on an anomaly paper
- Referee-pushback patterns and the JF-specific fix
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the jf-referee-strategy skill do?
Use when anticipating referee objections and selecting suggested/opposed reviewers before or during a The Journal of Finance (JF) submission. Plans for review; it does not write the rebuttal (use jf-rebuttal).
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jf-referee-strategy --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.