The Journal of International Commerce and Economics is an in-house publication of the U.S. International Trade Commission and is therefore unable to accept articles written by individuals not employed by the Commission. Articles co-authored with Commission staff, however, are welcome.
Step 1: As soon as you have an idea for a journal article, approach any member of the JICE Board and let them know of your interest. This will allow us to keep our article pipeline up-to-date and answer any questions you have about the submission process. As you develop your idea, keep in mind that the JICE is directed at a nontechnical readership, and that articles may be of varying length, from 3-4 pages to more than 30 pages, depending on the type of information (research note, longer research paper focused on a non-technical audience, expanded Executive Briefing on Trade).
Step 2: Once the article is written, please ensure that it is formatted properly (see formatting guidelines). When it is complete, it may be submitted directly to any Board member, and is then passed to the Managing Editor. With your submission, please either include the JICE submission form (.DOC) or indicate in your email the title of the article and whether it has previously been published or submitted to any other publication.
Step 3: The Managing Editor chooses an editor (Board member) to find a reviewer and otherwise shepherd the article through the review process. External reviewers may be either inside or outside the Commission. Only one external reviewer will be required for JICE articles. The external review process is double blind.
Step 4: The editor responsible for the article and the external reviewer both review the content of the article. They then communicate with respect to a decision on publication. The editor recommends a decision to the Board, which makes the publication decision. One of three decisions will be issued: approval for publication, revise and resubmit, or rejection.
Step 5: If there is a “revise and resubmit” decision, the editor will transmit his or her comments and the comments of the external reviewer to you, and will coordinate with you on resubmission of the article. The editor will work with you until the article is either accepted or rejected. The reviewer will only be asked to review the article once.
Step 6: Upon acceptance of the article by the Board, the Editor-in-Chief submits it to the Commissioners’ offices for negative clearance. The Board’s production manager will handle final editorial review and the process of posting the article to the JICE website. There will be no hard copy publication of the JICE.