tar-topic-selection
Use when choosing or sharpening a research question for a The Accounting Review (TAR) manuscript — testing whether the question is contribution-driven, identifiable with accounting data, and a fit for TAR versus JAR/JAE or a specialist AAA section journal. Selects and scopes the question; it does not build the model (tar-theory-development) or design identification (tar-methods).
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill tar-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 & TAR Fit (tar-topic-selection) ## When to trigger - You have a dataset (Compustat/CRSP/Audit Analytics/EDGAR) and want a publishable accounting question - You have a regulatory or institutional shock and want to know what it can identify - You are unsure whether the question belongs at TAR, JAR/JAE, or a specialist journal - A colleague says "this is a finance paper, not an accounting paper" and you need to reposition ## The TAR fit test TAR is open to all rigorous methods across financial accounting, capital markets, auditing, management accounting, taxation, and accounting information systems. Its single overriding criterion is the **significance of the contribution to the accounting literature**. A good TAR question therefore must clear four gates: 1. **Accounting-centered.** The phenomenon turns on accounting information, measurement, disclosure, assurance, internal control, or taxation — not a generic finance or economics question that merely uses accounting data. If the dependent variable is a stock return, the *accounting* construct (earnings quality, disclosure, audit, tax) must be doing the theoretical work. 2. **Identifiable.** There is a credible path
- When to trigger
- The TAR fit test
- Where TAR sits versus neighbors
- Scoping the question
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the tar-topic-selection skill do?
Use when choosing or sharpening a research question for a The Accounting Review (TAR) manuscript — testing whether the question is contribution-driven, identifiable with accounting data, and a fit for TAR versus JAR/JAE or a specialist AAA section journal. Selects and scopes the question; it does not build the model (tar-theory-development) or design identification (tar-methods).
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill tar-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.