apsr-theory-building
Use when building the theoretical argument of an American Political Science Review (APSR) manuscript into a discipline-level contribution — whether the work is formal/game-theoretic, empirical with explicit mechanisms, interpretive, or normative. APSR rewards a clear, portable argument over a bare finding. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill apsr-theory-building --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.
# Theory & Argument Building (apsr-theory-building) At APSR a result is not a contribution until it is attached to an **argument the discipline can use elsewhere.** This skill turns findings into theory: explicit mechanisms, scope conditions, and observable implications, in the idiom appropriate to your kind of work. ## When to trigger - The empirics are strong but the "so what / why" is thin - A reviewer said the paper is "atheoretical," "ad hoc," or "just a finding" - You need to state mechanisms, assumptions, and scope conditions explicitly - Formal modeling: deciding what to model, what to assume, and what the model buys you ## Build the argument (by mode of work) ### Empirical paper with a theory 1. **Concept** — define the key constructs precisely; distinguish from neighbors. 2. **Mechanism** — the causal story: who does what, why, under what incentives/constraints. 3. **Observable implications** — what we should see if the mechanism operates (and what we should *not* see). These become the tests in `apsr-research-design`. 4. **Scope conditions** — where the argument holds and where it does not. Portability ≠ universality. ### Formal / game-theoretic paper - State the **subst
- When to trigger
- Build the argument (by mode of work)
- Empirical paper with a theory
- Formal / game-theoretic paper
- Interpretive / normative paper
- The "portability" test (APSR-specific)
- The contribution paragraph, anatomized
- Before → after: from finding to argument
- Decoding the "atheoretical" referee report
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the apsr-theory-building skill do?
Use when building the theoretical argument of an American Political Science Review (APSR) manuscript into a discipline-level contribution — whether the work is formal/game-theoretic, empirical with explicit mechanisms, interpretive, or normative. APSR rewards a clear, portable argument over a bare finding. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill apsr-theory-building --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.