---
name: brycewang-stanford/ajps-topic-selection
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/brycewang-stanford-ajps-topic-selection@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: cd314af52964
---

# Topic Selection & Fit (ajps-topic-selection)

AJPS publishes across the discipline but most of its pages carry **rigorous empirical, experimental,
computational, or formal-empirical** work. The test is not "novel to my subfield" alone — it is a
**clear, well-identified contribution** that a broad political-science audience will cite. Use this
skill to pressure-test fit before you invest.

## When to trigger

- Choosing among possible projects or framings for an AJPS submission
- A colleague said the paper feels "descriptive," "thin on identification," or "too narrow"
- Deciding between a full **Article** and a **Research Note**
- Considering a **Correspondence** critique of a published AJPS finding

## The AJPS fit test

A strong AJPS paper usually clears all four:

1. **A sharp question with a generalizable answer.** Not "what happened in case X" but "what does X
   teach us about the general phenomenon (behavior, institutions, conflict, representation)?"
2. **Credible identification or inference.** AJPS reviewers expect the design to support the causal or
   inferential claim being made (see `ajps-research-design`) — empirics carry the paper.
3. **A real contribution, not a finding.** It moves a theory, a measure, or a method forward, or
   corrects the record — not "we ran the standard model on new data."
4. **Answerable within the cap.** Sharp enough to settle convincingly in <= 10,000 words (Article) or
   <= 4,000 (Research Note / Correspondence).

## Choosing the submission type

| You have... | Type | Note |
|-------------|------|------|
| A full original study | **Article** (<= 10,000 words) | the default research format |
| A **methodological** advance (incl. methodology in normative theory) | **Research Note** (<= 4,000) | reserved for methods + meta-analyses |
| A **meta-analysis** of an existing literature | **Research Note** (<= 4,000) | not a narrative review |
| A correction/critique of a paper **published in AJPS** | **Correspondence** (<= 4,000) | minor-error-only critiques risk desk rejection |

> Do not pad a small empirical result into a Research Note: the Note type at AJPS is **methodology and
> meta-analysis**, not a short empirical paper. A focused empirical study is still an Article.

## Anti-patterns

- "First to study X in country Y" as the entire contribution (descriptive, not generalizable)
- A clever identification strategy with no substantive political-science payoff
- A sprawling question that cannot be settled within the word cap
- Routing a short empirical study into the methodology-only Research Note type
- A Correspondence that flags only a trivial typo-level error (desk-rejection risk)


## Fit pass for American Journal of Political Science

Run this as a concrete capability pass. First lock the political theory, design leverage, measurement validity, and scope condition; then test whether the manuscript addresses political-science reviewers who expect tight theory, transparent design, and a contribution that travels across political settings.

- **Primary move:** Score fit, novelty, evidence readiness, and audience ownership; reject prestige-only targeting when a sibling venue owns the contribution more directly.
- **Decision ledger:** return `claim / evidence / blocker / next edit` rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
- **Sibling comparison:** compare against APSR for field-wide breadth, Journal of Politics for broader political-science audience, Political Analysis for methods-first work; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
- **Verification floor:** before submission-ready advice, re-open `resources/official-source-map.md` for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.

## Output format

```
【Question】one sentence
【Generalizable payoff】who beyond the case cites this, and why
【Contribution type】theory / identification / measurement / method / meta-analysis / corrected record
【Submission type】Article / Research Note / Correspondence
【Fit verdict】strong / needs reframing / off-fit (why)
【Next】ajps-literature-positioning
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — data sources by subfield
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — AJPS submission types and word caps