io-research-design
Use when defending the research design of an International Organization (IO) manuscript on international-level questions — causal identification with dyadic/TSCS/network data, case selection and process tracing for international cases, survey/conjoint experiments on foreign-policy attitudes, or formal-empirical linkage. IO judges each IR tradition on its own terms and verifies results and proofs before final acceptance. Strengthens the design; it does not write code.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill io-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 (io-research-design) IO accepts quantitative, formal, and qualitative IR work but is demanding about each. The design must credibly connect the **IR theory** (`io-theory-building`) to evidence at or across the **international level**, and rule out the strongest rival international explanation. This skill is mode-aware: pick the section that matches your work. ## When to trigger - Specifying identification, case selection, or experimental design for an IR question - A reviewer questioned causal claims, the level of analysis, generalization, or a confound - Preparing a pre-analysis plan for a foreign-policy experiment - Justifying why the design adjudicates the rival IR account from `io-literature-positioning` ## Quantitative / causal inference (often dyadic, TSCS, or network) - **Get the level of analysis right.** State the unit (state-year, dyad-year, IGO, directed dyad, sub-state, transnational) and why it matches the theory. Many IR mistakes are unit/level mistakes. - **Identification first.** State the estimand and the assumptions that license a causal reading (ignorability, parallel trends, exclusion, continuity); defend them, don't assert them. - **IR-specifi
- When to trigger
- Quantitative / causal inference (often dyadic, TSCS, or network)
- Qualitative / case-based (international cases)
- Experiments (survey / conjoint / lab on foreign-policy attitudes)
- Formal-empirical linkage (a core IO design)
- The adjudication test (IO-specific)
- Worked design vignette (illustrative): a treaty-ratification design
- Identification-threat table (IR-specific confounds and the design answer)
- Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the io-research-design skill do?
Use when defending the research design of an International Organization (IO) manuscript on international-level questions — causal identification with dyadic/TSCS/network data, case selection and process tracing for international cases, survey/conjoint experiments on foreign-policy attitudes, or formal-empirical linkage. IO judges each IR tradition on its own terms and verifies results and proofs before final acceptance. Strengthens the design; it does not write code.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill io-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.