Occasionally an author will conclude that the referee erred in reviewing his paper. To resolve these disputes, the JFE follows the following procedure.

• A letter detailing the issues in dispute is sent by the author to the editorial office and forwarded to the anonymous referee.
• The referee is asked to respond to the editor saying whether he agrees or disagrees with the issues raised by the author.
• If the author and referee have agreed to disagree, the author can initiate the following dispute procedure:
  1. Pay the dispute fee (send $1,500 to jfinecon@gmail.com using either PayPal or Zelle).

  2. The editor will send the paper to another referee, along with all of the relevant correspondence from the first review, including the correspondence between the author and the first referee. The dispute referee will review the version of the paper that was originally submitted, not one that was revised in response to the first referee's report.

The second referee's report will lead to one of the following outcomes:

1. If paper is published in its current form, the JFE will refund the full submission fees [the original submission fee plus the dispute fee].

2. If the JFE decides not to publish the paper, but the second referee convinces the editor that the first referee erred in a significant way, the JFE will refund the incremental dispute fee.

3. If the second referee agrees with the first referee, the paper is rejected, no submission fees will be refunded, and the rejection decision is final.

We hope that both authors and referees understand the desirability of having authors share the burden of disputes. Our intent is to resolve disputes efficiently and fairly, and to rectify mistakes through our refund policy.