Use when building the theoretical argument of an American Journal of Sociology (AJS) manuscript into a portable, discipline-level contribution. AJS prizes theoretical ambition above a bare finding — explicit concepts, mechanisms, and scope conditions, in the idiom of the work (quantitative, comparative-historical, ethnographic, or formal). Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.
SkillScore79Maintained
Automatic
◆Research pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 19 of 24 test cases with the skill, and 9 of 24 without it.
Without skill38%
With skill79%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
The output includes the exact section header 【Concepts】.
The output includes the exact section header 【Portability】.
The response includes the exact section header 【Core claim】.
and 8 more in the full report
12 fixed7 passed either way3 still failing2 broke
Pass-rate lift
+42 pp
Tokens
+35%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-19%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v119 of 24 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 12 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 12
Prompt
I got reviewer feedback on my sociology manuscript stating that my empirical findings on workplace bargaining are strong, but the manuscript is theoretically thin and reads like descriptive data. I need help framing my findings into a robust sociological argument for submission to AJS. Please structure your output using brackets for each section: provide a single-sentence main thesis, defined key constructs, the underlying social mechanism, testable consequences for empirical design, boundary conditions where this applies, how researchers in other subfields can apply this framework, and the logical next step in research design.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
The response includes the exact section header 【Core claim】.
Missed
Passed
The response grounds the argument in a foundational sociological classic such as Weber, Durkheim, or Marx.
Missed
Passed
case-01 · 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.md98 linessingle file
Theory & Argument Building (ajs-theory-building)
AJS is, historically and today, the discipline's most theory-forward flagship — it was founded
(1895) to "build up a fund of social theory," and it still rewards a portable idea over a bare result.
A finding is not an AJS contribution until it is attached to an argument sociologists can carry to
other problems. This skill turns evidence into theory.
When to trigger
The empirics are strong but the "so what / why does the field care" is thin
A reader said the paper is "atheoretical," "ad hoc," "merely descriptive," or "just a finding"
You need explicit concepts, mechanisms, and scope conditions
Comparative-historical or ethnographic work whose theory is implicit and needs surfacing
Use when building the theoretical argument of a British Journal of Political Science (BJPS) manuscript into a contribution of general interest — whether the work is formal/game-theoretic, empirical with explicit mechanisms, interpretive, or normative. BJPS rewards a clear, portable argument over a bare finding. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.