A skill your agent uses when running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest, identification, and mechanism objections a demanding…

MITAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Ecj Referee Strategy

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ecj-referee-strategy -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills ecj-referee-strategy --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/The-Economic-Journal-Skills/skills/ecj-referee-strategy .claude/skills/ecj-referee-strategy && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
ecj-referee-strategy
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
595 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2,387
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest, identification, and mechanism objections a demanding…

  • Works in 7 steps: "Too narrow / not of broad interest." —… → "Where is the economics?" — A… → "Your mechanism vs. the obvious… → …
  • Running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, How EJ referees read, The objection taxonomy… and Pre-mortem procedure, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Ecj Referee Strategy is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest, identification, and mechanism objections a demanding general-interest referee will raise. Builds the threat list and pre-empts it; it does not write the R&R response (see ecj-rebuttal).

Its SKILL.md is about 1.3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Research & Science, covering Peer review. The repository describes itself as: Journal-specific Claude Code/Codex skill packs covering mainstream journals — AER, QJE, Nature, Cell, 管理世界, 经济研究 & 200+ more — your fast track to getting published. | 覆盖主流期刊的… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest
  • Mechanism objections a demanding general-interest referee will raise

Example prompts

  • “/ecj-referee-strategy”

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. "Too narrow / not of broad interest." — A result only one subfield would read. Pre-empt: ecj-topic-selection / ecj-literature-positioning…
  2. "Where is the economics?" — A reduced-form result with no model/mechanism. Pre-empt: ecj-theory-model — state the mechanism and the…
  3. "Your mechanism vs. the obvious alternative." — A rival economic story produces the same sign. Pre-empt: ecj-robustness — a discriminating…
  4. "Selection / endogeneity / weak design." — Treatment or sample is endogenous; TWFE on staggered timing. Pre-empt: ecj-identification…
  5. "What identifies the parameter?" (structural) — Pre-empt: explicit "what identifies what" + untargeted-moment validation.
  6. "Over-claimed generality." — the headline asserts external validity the design cannot support. Pre-empt: bound the claim to what the…
  7. "Hard to read / exposition." — a generalist gets lost. Pre-empt: ecj-writing-style — clear exposition is part of the EJ bar, not optional…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 932eb23. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Ecj Referee Strategy loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 82 tokens; SKILL.md has 595 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~82
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills at commit 932eb23, republished under its MIT licence (© brycewang-stanford). 595 words, ~1,252 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/ecj-referee-strategy/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
ecj-referee-strategy
description
Use when running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest, identification, and mechanism objections a demanding general-interest referee will raise. Builds the threat list and pre-empts it; it does not write the R&R response (see ecj-rebuttal).

Referee Strategy & Pre-Mortem (ecj-referee-strategy)

When to trigger

  • Identification, model, and robustness are in place and you want to harden the paper before submitting
  • You want to anticipate the report rather than react to it
  • You sense a likely objection but have not addressed it in the text
  • You are choosing how to frame the contribution to survive a demanding general-interest referee

How EJ referees read

EJ referees read the paper as an economic argument for a broad audience and probe two things: is it credible, and is it of broad interest to economists at large? The prototypical EJ referee asks "so what — why should the wider profession care?" as hard as "is this identified?". They are unimpressed by a clean coefficient with no economic meaning or no general relevance, and they will name the alternative mechanism or the over-claimed generality. EJ review is single-blind (referees know who you are; you do not know them; verified 2026-06-20), so do not anonymize. Anticipating these objections is worth more than any extra robustness table, because a single unanswered first-order objection — especially "this is too narrow for EJ" — sinks the paper.

The objection taxonomy (pre-empt each in the text)

  1. "Too narrow / not of broad interest." — A result only one subfield would read. Pre-empt: ecj-topic-selection / ecj-literature-positioning — argue the general lesson and external relevance explicitly.
  2. "Where is the economics?" — A reduced-form result with no model/mechanism. Pre-empt: ecj-theory-model — state the mechanism and the prediction it tests.
  3. "Your mechanism vs. the obvious alternative." — A rival economic story produces the same sign. Pre-empt: ecj-robustness — a discriminating test.
  4. "Selection / endogeneity / weak design." — Treatment or sample is endogenous; TWFE on staggered timing. Pre-empt: ecj-identification — defend the assumption, show falsification, use a modern estimator.
  5. "What identifies the parameter?" (structural) — Pre-empt: explicit "what identifies what" + untargeted-moment validation.
  6. "Over-claimed generality." — the headline asserts external validity the design cannot support. Pre-empt: bound the claim to what the evidence licenses (ecj-robustness).
  7. "Hard to read / exposition." — a generalist gets lost. Pre-empt: ecj-writing-style — clear exposition is part of the EJ bar, not optional polish.
Show full SKILL.md (252 more words)Show less

Pre-mortem procedure

  • Write the referee report you fear, in their voice, listing the three objections most likely to trigger a reject.
  • For each, decide: fixable in text now (do it), needs new analysis (do it or scope it), or a genuine limitation (state it honestly and bound its damage).
  • Identify the one first-order objection that would sink the paper — at EJ this is frequently "too narrow" or "no mechanism" — and make sure the manuscript answers it before a referee has to ask.
  • Suggesting referees / handling COIs: name scholars who know the literature and would engage fairly; note conflicts honestly — the single-blind portal will flag obvious co-author/advisor ties.

Checklist

  • "Too narrow for EJ" pre-empted with an explicit broad-interest / general-lesson argument
  • "Where is the economics?" answered by an explicit mechanism/model
  • The leading rival mechanism named and tested against
  • Selection/endogeneity threat defended with a falsification test; modern estimator where needed
  • (Structural) parameter identification made transparent
  • Generality claims bounded to what the evidence supports
  • Exposition checked so a generalist can follow the argument
  • The single most dangerous objection identified and pre-empted in the text

Anti-patterns

  • Submitting a narrow result and hoping the referee overlooks the broad-interest bar
  • Anonymizing for a single-blind journal, or suggesting referees with a conflict the portal will catch
  • A robustness section that never tests the leading rival mechanism
  • Assuming broad importance instead of demonstrating it
  • Hiding a known limitation rather than bounding it (referees find it anyway)
  • Treating exposition as cosmetic when at EJ it is part of the decision

Output format

【Feared report】the 3 objections most likely to trigger reject
【First-order threat】the single objection that would sink it (often "too narrow" / "no mechanism")
【Pre-empt plan】per objection: fix-in-text / new-analysis / state-as-limitation
【Broad-interest + rival-mechanism status】addressed? [y/n]
【Exposition pass】a generalist can follow it? [y/n]
【Next】ecj-submission

© brycewang-stanford, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in The-Economic-Journal-Skills/skills/ecj-referee-strategy of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

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Questions about Ecj Referee Strategy

What does Ecj Referee Strategy do?

A skill your agent uses when running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest, identification, and mechanism objections a demanding…. Ecj Referee Strategy is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest, identification, and mechanism objections a demanding general-interest referee will raise.

When should I use Ecj Referee Strategy?

Ecj Referee Strategy fits situations like: running a pre-submission pre-mortem on a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript to anticipate the broad-interest; mechanism objections a demanding general-interest referee will raise.

How do I install Ecj Referee Strategy in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ecj-referee-strategy -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (The-Economic-Journal-Skills/skills/ecj-referee-strategy in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .claude/skills/ecj-referee-strategy in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Ecj Referee Strategy in Codex?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ecj-referee-strategy -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (The-Economic-Journal-Skills/skills/ecj-referee-strategy in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .agents/skills/ecj-referee-strategy in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Ecj Referee Strategy in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ecj-referee-strategy -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/ecj-referee-strategy, .gemini/skills/ecj-referee-strategy, .github/skills/ecj-referee-strategy and .opencode/skills/ecj-referee-strategy in your project.

What does Ecj Referee Strategy need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Ecj Referee Strategy is instructions for the agent only.

Does Ecj Referee Strategy access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Ecj Referee Strategy safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Ecj Referee Strategy use?

Ecj Referee Strategy is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Ecj Referee Strategy use?

About 1.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Ecj Referee Strategy?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Ecj Referee Strategy: Peer Review (spacering-net/codeg, 3.9k stars), Scholar Evaluation (spacering-net/codeg, 3.9k stars), Academic Paper Writing Pipeline (Imbad0202/academic-research-skills, 51k stars) and Academic Paper Reviewer (Imbad0202/academic-research-skills, 51k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Ecj Referee Strategy?

brycewang-stanford (a GitHub user) maintains it in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, which has 1,231 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2,387 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.