jop-theory-building
Use when turning a The Journal of Politics (JOP) idea into a theoretically innovative argument — formal/game-theoretic, empirical, or normative. JOP explicitly prizes theoretical innovation across all subfields and counts pages, so the argument must be sharp, general, and economical. Builds the argument; it does not run analyses.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jop-theory-building --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.
# Theory & Argument Building (jop-theory-building) JOP advertises that it publishes **theoretically innovative** work and treats theory **broadly** — formal, empirical, interpretive, and normative all qualify. This skill turns your idea into an argument a general reader recognizes as new, and tight enough to fit the **page budget**. ## When to trigger - Moving from "interesting finding" to "argument that contributes" - Specifying mechanisms, assumptions, and observable implications - A reviewer said the theory is "thin," "post hoc," or "not novel" - Linking a formal model to its empirical or substantive test ## Build the argument (mode-aware) ### Empirical / mechanism-based - State the **mechanism**: what causes what, through what channel, under what scope conditions. - Derive **observable implications** that could be **wrong** — the argument must be falsifiable. - Separate predictions **unique to your account** from those shared with rivals (sets up `jop-research-design`). ### Formal / game-theoretic - State primitives, equilibrium concept, and the **comparative statics** that carry the substance. - Make the model **earn its place**: what does formalization reveal that prose could
- When to trigger
- Build the argument (mode-aware)
- Empirical / mechanism-based
- Formal / game-theoretic
- Normative / interpretive
- The JOP innovation test
- Worked micro-example (illustrative)
- Referee pushback patterns and the JOP fix
- Keep it economical (page budget)
- Anti-patterns
- Operating pass for Journal of Politics
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the jop-theory-building skill do?
Use when turning a The Journal of Politics (JOP) idea into a theoretically innovative argument — formal/game-theoretic, empirical, or normative. JOP explicitly prizes theoretical innovation across all subfields and counts pages, so the argument must be sharp, general, and economical. Builds the argument; it does not run analyses.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jop-theory-building --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.