ier-literature-positioning
Use when staking an International Economic Review (IER) manuscript's contribution against the frontier and against sibling journals (Econometrica/QE, the top-5, field journals). Sharpens the gap and the delta; it does not invent citations.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ier-literature-positioning --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.
# Literature Positioning (ier-literature-positioning) ## When to trigger - The intro lists prior work but never says what *this* paper adds that none of them did - A coauthor cannot state, in one sentence, the delta over the single closest paper - The draft reads like a strong field-journal paper and you need the general-interest claim to be legible - You are unsure how to position against the obvious sibling (Econometrica/QE) so the desk editor sees why it is here, not there ## The IER positioning logic At IER the contribution is almost always **methodological or model-level generality**, so positioning is not "we study X in a new setting" — it is "the existing tool/result fails or is silent *here*, and ours is the first that is both correct and general." Build the position in three layers, from frontier down to the load-bearing delta: 1. **Frontier statement.** Name the 3–6 papers that define the current best answer. For a structural paper, name the canonical model you generalize or discipline; for a method paper, name the incumbent estimator; for theory, name the result you sharpen or overturn. 2. **The gap that matters.** State precisely what the frontier cannot do — a knife-ed
- When to trigger
- The IER positioning logic
- Drawing the sibling boundaries (this is where IER papers get mis-filed)
- Worked example (illustrative)
- Common positioning failure and its fix
- Positioning by branch (the gap looks different in each)
- Checklist
- Positioning a theory result that "feels" already known
- Anti-patterns
- Referee pushback mapped to the positioning fix
- Output format
What does the ier-literature-positioning skill do?
Use when staking an International Economic Review (IER) manuscript's contribution against the frontier and against sibling journals (Econometrica/QE, the top-5, field journals). Sharpens the gap and the delta; it does not invent citations.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ier-literature-positioning --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.