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Topic Selection & Fit (bjps-topic-selection) · brycewang-stanford | DecimalAI

researchby brycewang-stanford

Topic Selection & Fit (bjps-topic-selection)

brycewang-stanford/bjps-topic-selection

Source brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills ↗License MIT

Use when deciding whether a political-science project fits the British Journal of Political Science (BJPS) and which of its three formats to target. BJPS is a broad, internationally-oriented general journal, so the test is wide interest across subfields and beyond one national case, not subfield novelty alone. Helps frame the question; it does not collect data.

SkillScore86Maintained

Automatic

Research pack

Last verified 8/15/2026

What it changes

Passed 19 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 12 of 22 without it.

Without skill55%

With skill86%

Checks it passed that the model alone missed

The output specifies Letter under 【Format】
The output specifies strong under 【Fit verdict】
The output specifies test under 【Contribution type】

and 3 more in the full report

9 fixed10 passed either way1 still failing2 broke

Pass-rate lift: +32 pp
Tokens: +41%
Agent turns: 0%
Response time: -31%

Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v119 of 22 cases passed with skill

Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.

Use this skill

Save it into your project's skills folder. Claude Code picks it up in its next session.

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection/SKILL.md

Want it pinned and updatable? pip install "decimalai>=0.15", then decimalai skills add brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection, and start Claude Code with claude --plugin-dir "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.agents"

1 · One-time — install the CLI (docs ↗)

pip install "decimalai>=0.15"

2 · Get the skill — writes .agents/skills/brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection/ and pins it in .decimal/skills.lock

decimalai skills add brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection

No CLI? Get the same file — curl · raw file

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection/SKILL.md

Raw file: /s/brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection/SKILL.md ↗ · machine-readable summary at /s/brycewang-stanford-bjps-topic-selection.json ↗

Safety checks: 3 of 3 passed

Code scan CleanIntent PassedContent Clean

See it in action

One of 9 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.

1 of 9

Prompt

I am considering submitting my study on civil service reforms in Japan to BJPS, but my co-author thinks it might be rejected for being too regionally focused. Can you evaluate its journal suitability for me? Please format your analysis using these exact tags: 【Question】 (one sentence summary of my manuscript query) 【Wide interest】 (who outside Japanese politics or East Asia would care, and why) 【Contribution type】 (theoretical, empirical test, measurement, reconceptualization, or correction) 【Format】 (Research Article, Letter, or Comment) 【Fit verdict】 (strong, needs reframing, or off-fit) 【Next】 (recommended next step in the pipeline)

What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked	Without skill	With skill
The output specifies test under 【Contribution type】	Passed	Passed
The output specifies needs reframing with an explanation under 【Fit verdict】	Passed	Passed
The output specifies bjps-literature-positioning under 【Next】	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.md93 linessingle file

Topic Selection & Fit (bjps-topic-selection)

BJPS is a broadly based, general-interest political-science journal that "aims to cover developments across a wide range of countries and specialisms." The bar is not "new to my subfield" or "first study of country X" — it is "of wide interest to political scientists." Use this skill to pressure-test fit before you invest.

When to trigger

Choosing among possible projects or framings for a BJPS submission
A reviewer/colleague said the paper feels "too narrow," "single-country," or "subfield-only"
Deciding between a Research Article and a Letter
Considering a Comment on a published BJPS piece

The BJPS fit test

A strong BJPS paper usually clears all four:

Wide interest. A scholar in a different subfield or studying a different region should see why it matters. Frame the stakes for politics broadly — institutions, behaviour, representation, conflict, political economy, normative order.
A real contribution, not just a finding. It changes how the field thinks, measures, or argues — a new mechanism, a decisive test, a reconceptualization, a corrected record.
Credible on its own methodological terms. Quantitative, qualitative, formal, experimental, or interpretive — each is welcome, but each must be done rigorously (see bjps-research-design).
A clean, answerable scope. Sharp enough to answer convincingly within ~10,000 words (Article) or ~4,000 (Letter) (caps 待核实 — confirm on the live page).

Travel past your case and your subfield

Home base	Reach the general reader by…
Single-country case	drawing the general mechanism the case illustrates; speak to comparative theory others can use
One subfield (e.g., IR)	connecting to a broad phenomenon (cooperation, conflict, institutions) a comparativist or behaviouralist recognizes
Political behaviour / opinion	tie the micro result to representation, accountability, or institutional design
Political theory	show why the normative/conceptual stakes matter for empirical work or political life
Methodology	show what substantive question the method newly answers — not method for its own sake

BJPS is international by design: a US-only or single-country result that is framed as US-specific is off-fit; the same result framed as a test of a general mechanism can be a strong BJPS paper.

Track record

Benchmark

19 / 22

test cases passed, vs 12 / 22 without

Adoption

Users: 3
Times used: 68

Safety and source details

SkillSafety

✓ 3 of 3 passed

Code scan15 of 15 checks clean

0 critical · 0 warning · 0 info — scanner v4 — 8/3/2026

View 15 scanner checks

live_secretremote_code_executionreverse_shelldata_exfiltrationssrf_metadataagent_snoopinganti_refusaldestructive_commandsobfuscated_unicodeunicode_homoglyphopaque_blobsuspicious_urltool_overreachtrigger_abuseprompt_injection_phrasing

IntentSafe

LLM judge · does the skill do what it claims

ContentClean

LLM judge · policy & harmful-content review

Source

Imported

brycewang-stanford / awesome-journal-skills

British-Journal-of-Political-Science-Skills/skills/bjps-topic-selection/SKILL.md

View on GitHub ↗

License MITImported 8/3/2026Version v1

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See it in action

What's inside

Topic Selection & Fit (bjps-topic-selection)

When to trigger

The BJPS fit test

Travel past your case and your subfield

Track record

Benchmark

Adoption

SkillSafety

Source

Other skills for the same job

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