aeri-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a project is the ONE crisp, important, well-identified insight that an American Economic Review: Insights (AER: Insights) short-format manuscript requires, rather than a multi-result paper for AER or a field paper for the AEJ family. Tests single-insight fit; it does not run the analysis.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill aeri-topic-selection --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.
# Topic Selection — Single-Insight Fit (aeri-topic-selection) ## When to trigger - A project has a strong main result but also two or three secondary results - Unsure whether to send to AER: Insights, AER, or an AEJ field journal - The draft is creeping past the word cap because there is more than one idea - A result feels surprising and clean but you are unsure it is "important enough" ## The AER: Insights bar: one idea, AER-level importance, short AER: Insights publishes **short, self-contained papers built around a single important, well-executed idea**. The decision is not "is this good?" but "**is there exactly ONE crisp, surprising, well-identified insight that can stand alone in a short paper at AER-level importance?**" Three filters: 1. **Single-insight test.** State the paper in **one sentence** with one headline object (one estimate, one theorem, one fact, one method-changes-the-answer result). If you need "and" to describe the contribution, you likely have an AER paper or two AER: Insights papers, not one. 2. **Importance test.** The single insight must clear **AER-level general interest** — a non-specialist economist should care. AER: Insights is *short*, not *minor*; a
- When to trigger
- The AER: Insights bar: one idea, AER-level importance, short
- Where it goes if it is NOT AER: Insights
- Sharpening a candidate into a single insight
- Common AER: Insights archetypes (and what makes each "one insight")
- Worked vignette (illustrative)
- Going-or-not-going decision
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the aeri-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether a project is the ONE crisp, important, well-identified insight that an American Economic Review: Insights (AER: Insights) short-format manuscript requires, rather than a multi-result paper for AER or a field paper for the AEJ family. Tests single-insight fit; it does not run the analysis.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill aeri-topic-selection --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.