Have a look at this Q&A interview with Juuso Välimäki, Managing Editor of JEEA from 2015-2018. My favorite part is his discussion of what makes a paper "general interest":
A successful paper should have an impact on the way the profession views its subject matter. This is quite an easy task if the paper is the first written on a particular topic, and in this case the assessment is more on the generality and external validity of the findings. A paper on a well-explored topic should make us reconsider either the forces behind a result or the empirical support for the results. I should emphasize that overturning existing views is by no means the only way of achieving this. Finding corroborating evidence for existing hypothesis from new datasets and new empirical methods is also valuable.
Click on the link to see more.
Yes, use those guidelines to decide whether to send your manuscript to JEEA, but I think the advice is even more helpful for deciding which papers to work on in the first place. ***With an important caveat: That you're working on something. Too often I see students struggling to come up with an amazing paper topic and don't start working on anything until they're about to hit some binding department deadline. My advice: write down ideas. Lots of ideas. Even bad ideas. Talk to people about those ideas and maybe they can help turn them into good ideas. Once you have a list of potential ideas, use the guidelines about what makes a successful paper to choose which to pursue.
P.S.
I also really like the advice on how to write cover letters for journal submissions:
JV: When submitting my own papers, I have used the cover letter: “Please consider the attached manuscript YYY for publication in XXX”. For most cases, this is sufficient. If there are special circumstances relating to the data sources or issues of conflict with other simultaneous pieces of work in circulation, these should be explained in the cover letter.
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