gcb-writing-style
Use when drafting or polishing the prose of a Global Change Biology (GCB) manuscript so it reads for a broad ecology / biogeochemistry / Earth-system audience within the journal's length and abstract limits. GCB rewards a clear mechanism, quantified results, and global-change significance. Guides style; it does not ghost-write the science.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill gcb-writing-style --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.
# Writing Style (gcb-writing-style) A GCB paper must read for a **broad global-change audience** — ecologists, biogeochemists, and Earth-system scientists who are not specialists in your system. Lead with the **mechanism** and the **global-change significance**, quantify everything, and stay within the length and abstract limits. Verify exact caps on the live guidelines page before submission. ## When to trigger - Drafting the abstract, introduction, or discussion - Cutting an over-length manuscript to the word ceiling - Making system-specific work legible to a general GCB reader - Final language polish before submission ## What GCB rewards 1. **Mechanism up front.** State the driver, the response, and the mechanism in the abstract and the first paragraphs — not buried in the discussion. 2. **Global-change significance early.** Say why this matters for understanding biological responses to global change, beyond a single site/species. 3. **Quantified claims.** Effect sizes with intervals and units in the abstract and results; avoid vague "increased significantly" without magnitude. 4. **Structured, disciplined abstract.** 300-word limit; state aim, approach, key quantitative result,
- When to trigger
- What GCB rewards
- Length & structure
- Sentence-level rewrites for a global-change audience
- Worked micro-example (illustrative)
- Reviewer pushback on prose and the fix
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the gcb-writing-style skill do?
Use when drafting or polishing the prose of a Global Change Biology (GCB) manuscript so it reads for a broad ecology / biogeochemistry / Earth-system audience within the journal's length and abstract limits. GCB rewards a clear mechanism, quantified results, and global-change significance. Guides style; it does not ghost-write the science.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill gcb-writing-style --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.