psci-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether an empirical psychology project fits Psychological Science and which manuscript type to target. The journal favors concise, high-impact, well-powered work whose claims are robust and broadly relevant. Frames the question; it does not collect data.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill psci-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 & Fit (psci-topic-selection) Psychological Science publishes **concise, high-impact empirical** psychology. The bar is a finding that is **important, robust, and broadly relevant** — and that can be argued in a **very tight** format. Use this skill to pressure-test fit before investing. ## When to trigger - Choosing among possible projects or framings for Psychological Science - A reader said the work feels "incremental," "underpowered," or "too niche" - Deciding between a **Research Article** and a **Registered Report** - A replication or extension you want to place (it must fit an Article or RR, not a retired Short Report) ## The fit test A strong Psychological Science paper usually clears all four: 1. **Impact + breadth.** It changes how psychologists understand a phenomenon and is relevant beyond one narrow paradigm. State why a psychologist in another area should care. 2. **Robustness.** Adequately powered, with a credible design and analysis; the result should not hinge on researcher degrees of freedom (see `psci-study-design`, `psci-data-analysis`). 3. **Open-science ready.** You can share data and materials (or justify a documented exemption) and, ideally,
- When to trigger
- The fit test
- Manuscript type
- Fit scoring — worked example (illustrative)
- Manuscript-type decision rules
- Reviewer / editor pushback at the fit stage
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the psci-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether an empirical psychology project fits Psychological Science and which manuscript type to target. The journal favors concise, high-impact, well-powered work whose claims are robust and broadly relevant. Frames the question; it does not collect data.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill psci-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 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.