jhr-topic-selection
Use when checking whether a research question fits the Journal of Human Resources (JHR) — empirical microeconomics with a policy-relevant, causal emphasis — and to filter out off-scope "HR management" framings before paying the nonrefundable fee. A fit gate, not an idea generator.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jhr-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 & Scope Fit (jhr-topic-selection) ## When to trigger - You are choosing a target journal and JHR is a candidate - The paper's title or framing uses "human resources / HR" language - You want to confirm a policy-relevant micro question is in scope before submitting - Deciding whether a descriptive paper is JHR-worthy ## The single most important gate: scope JHR's **name is misleading.** It is a **leading empirical-microeconomics journal**, founded 1965 at the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty, and it **does NOT consider management or personnel ("HR management") research.** The nonrefundable **$175 fee is not refunded** for out-of-scope papers — so this check has real money attached. If your paper is about firm HR practices, recruitment systems, or organizational behavior, JHR is the wrong venue. ## What JHR actually wants Empirical microeconomics with a **public-policy** orientation, in one of its core fields: - **Labor economics** — employment, wages, labor supply, minimum wage, unions - **Economics of education** — attainment, returns to schooling, school/teacher effects - **Health economics** — insurance, health behaviors, birth/mortality outcomes - *
- When to trigger
- The single most important gate: scope
- What JHR actually wants
- Fit checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Borderline calls and how to make them
- Two-paper vignette
- Pre-commitment questions
- Output format
What does the jhr-topic-selection skill do?
Use when checking whether a research question fits the Journal of Human Resources (JHR) — empirical microeconomics with a policy-relevant, causal emphasis — and to filter out off-scope "HR management" framings before paying the nonrefundable fee. A fit gate, not an idea generator.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jhr-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.