demog-research-design
Use when defending the research design of a Demography (PAA / Duke University Press) manuscript — choosing among demographic methods (life tables, decomposition, event-history/survival, age-period-cohort, multistate, microsimulation, projections) and, where the question is causal, defending identification. Demography judges each method on its own terms. Strengthens the design; it does not write code.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill demog-research-design --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.
# Research Design (demog-research-design) Demography accepts a wide variety of methodological approaches but is demanding about each. The design must credibly connect the argument (`demog-theory-building`) to the demographic evidence. This skill is method-aware: pick the section that matches your question and defend it against the strongest rival explanation. ## When to trigger - Choosing the demographic method that actually answers the question - A reviewer questioned the rate construction, the identification, or the projection assumptions - Specifying an age-period-cohort, multistate, or microsimulation design - Justifying why your design adjudicates the rival account from `demog-literature-positioning` ## Match the method to the question - **Life tables** — for survival, life expectancy, and exposure: period vs. cohort, abridged vs. complete; multiple-decrement (cause-specific) and multistate (healthy/disabled) where relevant. - **Decomposition** — to attribute a difference or change in a rate to components: Kitagawa (rate vs. composition), Arriaga (age contributions to e0), Horiuchi continuous, Das Gupta (multi-factor). Say exactly **what each component means**. - **Event-histo
- When to trigger
- Match the method to the question
- When the question is causal
- The adjudication test (Demography-specific)
- Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the demog-research-design skill do?
Use when defending the research design of a Demography (PAA / Duke University Press) manuscript — choosing among demographic methods (life tables, decomposition, event-history/survival, age-period-cohort, multistate, microsimulation, projections) and, where the question is causal, defending identification. Demography judges each method on its own terms. Strengthens the design; it does not write code.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill demog-research-design --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.