cell-fit
Use when triaging a study before any writing — stress-tests whether it clears Cell's bar (a complete, mechanistic, hypothesis-driven story with multiple converging lines of evidence) or belongs at a sibling. Use this first to decide Cell vs Molecular Cell vs Cell Reports vs Cell Reports Medicine before investing in framing or figures.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill cell-fit --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.
# Scope & Significance Fit (cell-fit) ## Why this is skill #1 Cell triages **most submissions to rejection without external review**. The gate is not "is it correct" and not even "is it a striking result" — it is **"is this a complete, mechanistic story of broad importance to the life sciences."** A single beautiful observation with no mechanism is desk-rejected. Run this before investing in prose. ## When to trigger - Before drafting, to decide if Cell is even the right Cell Press venue. - When a co-author says "this is a Cell paper" and you need a sober second opinion. - When choosing between Cell, Molecular Cell, Cell Reports, Cell Reports Medicine, and Nature/Science. ## The "complete story" test Cell wants a hypothesis-driven narrative where **multiple independent lines of evidence converge on a mechanism** and a clear conceptual advance. Ask: - **Phenomenon:** is the central finding established robustly (not one assay)? - **Mechanism:** do you explain *how* it works at a molecular/cellular level — not just *that* it happens? - **Convergence:** do genetics + biochemistry + cell biology + (in vivo, where relevant) point the same way? - **Causality:** loss-of-function **and** ga
- Why this is skill #1
- When to trigger
- The "complete story" test
- Significance ladder (weak → strong)
- Fatal pre-review-reject triggers
- Venue routing within Cell Press and beyond
- Output format
- Anti-patterns
What does the cell-fit skill do?
Use when triaging a study before any writing — stress-tests whether it clears Cell's bar (a complete, mechanistic, hypothesis-driven story with multiple converging lines of evidence) or belongs at a sibling. Use this first to decide Cell vs Molecular Cell vs Cell Reports vs Cell Reports Medicine before investing in framing or figures.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill cell-fit --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.