wp-theory-building
Use when building the theoretical argument of a World Politics manuscript so it travels across cases. World Politics rewards arguments that significantly advance theoretical debates in comparative politics and international relations, with explicit mechanisms and scope conditions that generalize beyond one case. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill wp-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 (wp-theory-building) At World Politics a finding is not a contribution until it is attached to **theory the field can carry to other cases.** The journal asks articles to "significantly advance theoretical debates" — so this skill turns case evidence into a portable argument: explicit mechanisms, scope conditions, and observable implications that hold across comparative or IR settings. ## When to trigger - The empirics are strong but the "so what / why it travels" is thin - A reviewer said the paper is "atheoretical," "ad hoc," or "just a single-case story" - You need to state mechanisms, assumptions, and scope conditions explicitly - Formal modeling: deciding what to model for a comparative/IR puzzle ## Build the argument (by mode of work) ### Empirical paper with a theory 1. **Concept** — define the key constructs precisely (regime type, institution, alliance, identity); distinguish from neighbors and travel-test the concept across cases (avoid concept stretching). 2. **Mechanism** — the causal story: who does what, under what incentives/constraints, in what institutional or international setting. 3. **Observable implications** — what we should see if
- When to trigger
- Build the argument (by mode of work)
- Empirical paper with a theory
- Formal / game-theoretic paper
- The "travels" test (World Politics–specific)
- Anti-patterns
- Referee-pushback patterns and the venue-specific fix
- Worked micro-example (illustrative)
- Operating pass for World Politics
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the wp-theory-building skill do?
Use when building the theoretical argument of a World Politics manuscript so it travels across cases. World Politics rewards arguments that significantly advance theoretical debates in comparative politics and international relations, with explicit mechanisms and scope conditions that generalize beyond one case. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill wp-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.