aer-consistency

# AER Consistency ## Overview Referees and editors run cheap integrity checks before engaging with ideas: does the abstract's number appear in the tables? Do the Ns add up? Does "Table 4" exist? Does every citation resolve? A single mismatch reframes the entire report from "is this right?" to "what else is wrong?" — and for AI-assisted manuscripts these mismatches are the **modal failure**, because text and tables are often generated in separate passes. This skill is the full-manuscript integrity audit. It is mechanical by design: every check below has a yes/no answer obtained by comparing two artifacts, not by judgment. Run it after every revision round, not only before first submission. ## When to Use - The body sections and exhibits exist and the manuscript is being assembled - After an R&R revision, when numbers and exhibit ordering changed - Before `aer-referee-sim` (so the simulated referees attack substance, not typos) and before `aer-submission` - Any time results were re-run — even "tiny" re-runs desynchronize text ## Audit 1 — The Headline-Number Register Build a register of every number that appears more than once in the manuscript, then verify each row against its single source of truth (the table or the replication output): ```text NUMBER SOURCE ABSTRACT INTRO RESULTS CONCL MATCH 4.2 log points Tab 3 col 4 yes yes yes yes OK s.e. 1.1 Tab 3 col 4 yes no yes no OK $84 bi...