wber-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a development-economics question fits The World Bank Economic Review (WBER) — and how to frame it so both halves of the WBER bar (credible empirics AND policy relevance) are visible. Locks the question and outlet; it does not run the analysis or write the prose.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill wber-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 (wber-topic-selection) ## When to trigger - You have a developing-country result but are unsure it is "general" enough for WBER - The work could plausibly go to JDE, World Development, the Research Observer, or WBER and the outlet is undecided - The paper reads like a single-program project report rather than evidence on a mechanism - A reviewer or coauthor says "interesting, but is this a *World Bank* paper?" - You are weighing a full-length article vs. a WBER short-format policy note ## The WBER two-part bar WBER's stated mission is to publish innovative theoretical and empirical research that **identifies, analyzes, measures, and evaluates** the macro- and micro-economic forces that promote or impede **economic development**. The selection test is a logical AND, not an OR: 1. **Credible empirics** — a design or measurement that a sophisticated applied economist trusts (this is the JDE-grade half). 2. **Development-policy relevance** — the result changes how a development practitioner, finance ministry, or World Bank task team would think or act. Importantly, "policy-relevant" does *not* mean "aligned with World Bank policy": editorial independence is explicit —
- When to trigger
- The WBER two-part bar
- Decision table by candidate paper
- How to sharpen the question
- Full-length vs. short-format
- Worked vignette (illustrative)
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- The desk-reject screen
- Output format
What does the wber-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether a development-economics question fits The World Bank Economic Review (WBER) — and how to frame it so both halves of the WBER bar (credible empirics AND policy relevance) are visible. Locks the question and outlet; it does not run the analysis or write the prose.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill wber-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.