expecon-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a question is a method-defined fit for an Experimental Economics (ExpEcon) manuscript and which treatment contrast to build it around. Frames the fit decision; it does not invent results or citations.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill expecon-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 (expecon-topic-selection) ## When to trigger - You have an interesting economic question but are unsure an experiment is the right tool — or whether *this* journal is the right home for it - The draft reads topic-first ("a paper about charitable giving") rather than method-first ("a design that isolates warm-glow from social-image motives") - You must decide *before* collecting data whether to pre-register, run a Registered Report, or pursue a replication - The paper could plausibly land at JEBO, GEB, AEJ: Micro, or JESA and you need to pick deliberately ## The fit decision: method first, topic second Experimental Economics is the **ESA method flagship**. The editors do not ask "is this topic important?" so much as "is this **the cleanest experiment** that could answer this question, and does the design *itself* teach the field something?" Three questions decide fit: 1. **Is the object causal and behavioral?** The unit of contribution is a **treatment effect produced by experimental control**, not an observed correlation or a calibrated structural object. If your answer lives in field-survey data, you are at an applied journal, not here. 2. **Is the design the con
- When to trigger
- The fit decision: method first, topic second
- Choosing the treatment contrast (this is where the paper is won)
- Sibling boundary — pick the right home deliberately
- Deciding the experiment type (it changes everything downstream)
- Checklist
- The "could you publish a clean null?" test
- Anti-patterns
- Worked vignette (illustrative)
- Output format
What does the expecon-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether a question is a method-defined fit for an Experimental Economics (ExpEcon) manuscript and which treatment contrast to build it around. Frames the fit decision; it does not invent results or citations.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill expecon-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 984 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.