jegeo-topic-selection
Use when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography. Tests two-community fit and scope; it does not invent evidence or citations.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jegeo-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 (jegeo-topic-selection) ## When to trigger - The core question is set but you are unsure it reads as *economic geography* rather than urban economics, trade, or generic applied micro - The paper has strong empirics but no obvious reason a geographer would care, or rich geography but nothing that engages the economics frontier - You suspect the question is really a Journal of Urban Economics or Regional Studies paper wearing a JEG cover letter - A coauthor asks whether the topic clears JEG's bar before months of data work ## The two-community test (the first gate) JEG's defining constraint is that it serves **geographical economics** (formal/quantitative NEG and quantitative-spatial models) AND **proper economic geography** (institutional, evolutionary, qualitative human geography), with an editorial board drawn roughly equally from both. The fastest way to lose at JEG is to write a paper only one community can love. Before anything else, force the question through both lenses: - **Economist's lens:** Is there a clear economic mechanism (agglomeration externality, knowledge spillover, trade cost, sorting, increasing returns) and a credible way to learn about it? Wo
- When to trigger
- The two-community test (the first gate)
- Which JEG conversation are you entering?
- Three questions that separate a JEG paper from a sibling paper
- Sizing the question to JEG
- Worked vignette (illustrative)
- Checklist
- Topics JEG actively wants vs. topics that drift away
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the jegeo-topic-selection skill do?
Use when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography. Tests two-community fit and scope; it does not invent evidence or citations.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jegeo-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.