Use when defending the research design of an Annals of the American Association of Geographers manuscript — spatial/quantitative analysis and GIScience, remote-sensing and physical-environmental methods, qualitative human-geography inference, or nature-society mixed methods. The Annals judges each tradition on its own terms. Strengthens the design; it does not write code.
SkillScore91Maintained
Automatic
◆Research pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 20 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 15 of 22 without it.
Without skill68%
With skill91%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
The response outputs 【Mode】 mixed.
The response outputs 【Mode】 qualitative.
The response sets 【Next】 to aaag-data-analysis.
and 10 more in the full report
7 fixed13 passed either way0 still failing2 broke
Pass-rate lift
+23 pp
Tokens
+22%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-23%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v120 of 22 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 7 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 7
Prompt
I am conducting a qualitative human geography project on water governance conflicts in three rural Andean communities based on semi-structured interviews and archival research. I want to ensure my case selection logic, reflexivity, and theoretical contribution are sound for an Annals submission. Please structure my methodology plan by listing the research mode, the core qualitative claim identified, a spatial integrity evaluation regarding case bounds and context, the rival adjudication sentence contrasting my explanation against alternative accounts, planned validity/robustness steps, and the next procedural phase.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
The response outputs 【Mode】 qualitative.
Missed
Passed
The response addresses case selection logic explicitly avoiding convenience as a justification.
Passed
Passed
The response incorporates positionality or reflexivity documentation.
Passed
Passed
The response sets 【Next】 to aaag-data-analysis.
Missed
Passed
case-03 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/15/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md88 linessingle file
Research Design (aaag-research-design)
The Annals spans four areas and accepts many methodologies, but is demanding about each. The design
must credibly connect the geographic argument (aaag-theory-building) to the evidence, and must take
space and scale seriously — spatial dependence, the MAUP, projection, and sampling are design
issues, not afterthoughts. This skill is mode-aware: pick the section that matches your work.
When to trigger
Specifying identification, sampling, case selection, or measurement
A reviewer questioned spatial autocorrelation, scale/MAUP, edge effects, validation, or a confound
Justifying why the design adjudicates the rival account from aaag-literature-positioning
Spatial / quantitative analysis & GIScience
Take space seriously. Test and model spatial dependence (Moran's I, spatial lag/error,
GWR/MGWR where heterogeneity is the point); state how the MAUP / scale could change conclusions.
Geography of the data. Document projection/CRS, areal units, edge effects, and the support of
measurements; spatial sampling and its biases.
Inference. Cluster or use spatial SEs at the right level; for spatial autocorrelation, report
diagnostics; for prediction, use spatially-aware cross-validation (blocked/spatial CV), not random folds.
Remote sensing / physical-environmental
Measurement validity. Sensor/resolution choices, atmospheric/geometric correction, and ground
truth; quantify accuracy (confusion matrix, kappa/F1, RMSE) with an independent validation sample.
Process linkage. Tie observed pattern to an earth-surface process and its scale; state the
uncertainty budget end to end.
Qualitative / human-geography
Case selection by design logic (typical, extreme, paired, regional contrast) — say what the case
is a case of. Convenience is not a rationale.
Positionality, reflexivity, and rigor appropriate to the method (ethnography, interviews,
archives, discourse/textual analysis); state how interpretations were checked.
Source/field transparency: plan how fieldnotes, interviews, and archives are documented and cited
(see aaag-transparency-and-data), including consent and geoprivacy.
Nature-society / mixed methods
Integrate, don't staple. Specify how the biophysical and social strands inform one another
(e.g., land-change observation + livelihood interviews), and how convergence/divergence is handled.
Use when defending the research design of an American Journal of Sociology (AJS) manuscript on its own methodological terms — quantitative, comparative-historical, ethnographic, network, or formal. AJS judges each kind of work by the standards of its tradition; the design must support the theoretical claim. Defends the design; it does not run the analysis.