A skill your agent uses when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography.

MITAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Jegeo Topic Selection

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jegeo-topic-selection -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills jegeo-topic-selection --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/Journal-of-Economic-Geography-Skills/skills/jegeo-topic-selection .claude/skills/jegeo-topic-selection && 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
jegeo-topic-selection
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~2.1k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,084 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2,387
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography.

  • Works in 3 steps: Would the answer change if you ignored… → Can both an economist and a geographer… → Is there a mechanism, or only a pattern?…
  • Tasks that involve Hypothesis generation
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, The two-community test (the…, Which JEG conversation are you… and Three questions that separate…, plus 6 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Jegeo Topic Selection is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography. Tests two-community fit and scope; it does not invent evidence or citations.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.1k 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 Hypothesis generation and Citation management. 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

  • Tasks that involve Hypothesis generation
  • Tasks that involve Citation management

Example prompts

  • “/jegeo-topic-selection”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Would the answer change if you ignored space entirely? If no, geography is decorative and the paper belongs elsewhere. If yes — because…
  2. Can both an economist and a geographer name what they would learn? If only one can, you have a one-community paper that will draw a…
  3. Is there a mechanism, or only a pattern? "Activity concentrates here" is a pattern; "activity concentrates here because knowledge…

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

Jegeo Topic Selection loads about 2.1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 68 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,084 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~68
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.1k

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). 1,084 words, ~2,071 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/jegeo-topic-selection/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
jegeo-topic-selection
description
Use when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography. Tests two-community fit and scope; it does not invent evidence or citations.

Topic Selection (jegeo-topic-selection)

When to trigger

  • The core question is set but you are unsure it reads as economic geography rather than urban economics, trade, or generic applied micro
  • The paper has strong empirics but no obvious reason a geographer would care, or rich geography but nothing that engages the economics frontier
  • You suspect the question is really a Journal of Urban Economics or Regional Studies paper wearing a JEG cover letter
  • A coauthor asks whether the topic clears JEG's bar before months of data work

The two-community test (the first gate)

JEG's defining constraint is that it serves geographical economics (formal/quantitative NEG and quantitative-spatial models) AND proper economic geography (institutional, evolutionary, qualitative human geography), with an editorial board drawn roughly equally from both. The fastest way to lose at JEG is to write a paper only one community can love. Before anything else, force the question through both lenses:

  • Economist's lens: Is there a clear economic mechanism (agglomeration externality, knowledge spillover, trade cost, sorting, increasing returns) and a credible way to learn about it? Would a quantitative spatial economist see a real question, not a regional case report?
  • Geographer's lens: Does place do real work — is the spatial structure (scale, proximity, networks, path dependence, institutions) constitutive of the answer, or just a fixed effect? Would a human geographer see space as analytically central, not decorative?

A JEG topic passes when both answers are yes. If only the economist's lens lights up, the paper drifts to JUE/RSUE; if only the geographer's lens does, it drifts to Economic Geography or Regional Studies.

Which JEG conversation are you entering?

Topic familyWhat makes it a JEG questionWhere it slips out of scope
Agglomeration / clustersspatial externality measured at a defensible scale, with a mechanismbecomes a pure firm-productivity paper (JUE)
Regional development / divergencewhy places diverge, with institutions or path dependencebecomes macro growth with no geography
Place-based policyspatial treatment + spillovers to untreated placesbecomes a generic program evaluation
Innovation / knowledge spilloversgeography of knowledge flow (patents, mobility, networks)becomes innovation econ with space as a control
Trade & GVCs in spacehow the geography of production reshapes regionsbecomes international trade (JIE)
Evolutionary / institutional EGbranching, relatedness, lock-in, regional resiliencebecomes a descriptive case with no generalizable claim

Three questions that separate a JEG paper from a sibling paper

Run a candidate topic through these before committing data effort:

  1. Would the answer change if you ignored space entirely? If no, geography is decorative and the paper belongs elsewhere. If yes — because proximity, scale, networks, or regional institutions alter the result — it is a JEG question.
  2. Can both an economist and a geographer name what they would learn? If only one can, you have a one-community paper that will draw a hostile second referee.
  3. Is there a mechanism, or only a pattern? "Activity concentrates here" is a pattern; "activity concentrates here because knowledge externalities decay sharply with distance" is the mechanism JEG rewards.

A topic that survives all three is rare and worth the investment; one that fails any of them should be reframed now, not after the empirics are built.

Sizing the question to JEG

  • The empirical/spatial frontier is genuinely moved, not merely extended to one more country or city — but JEG does reward a clean, well-identified spatial result with a sharp mechanism over grand-but-vague theory.
  • The unit and scale of analysis (region, commuting zone, NUTS-2/3, grid cell, firm-location) are chosen for substantive spatial reasons, and you can name why that scale and not another.
  • There is a one-sentence answer to "what do we now know about space and the economy that we did not before?"
  • The shorter Emerging Voices format exists for tighter contributions (≈5,000 words, few exhibits) — note if the question fits that lane (检索于 2026-06;以官网为准).
Show full SKILL.md (453 more words)Show less

Worked vignette (illustrative)

A team has firm-level data showing that startups near universities grow faster, and plans to send it to JEG "because it is about location." Run the two-lens test. Economist's lens: the mechanism (university knowledge spillover) is real and learnable, but the design is "near = dummy," so it currently reads as applied micro with a spatial control — drifting to JUE. Geographer's lens: place is not yet constitutive; nothing about the spatial structure of the knowledge (distance decay, network ties, regional absorptive capacity) is in the question. The topic becomes a JEG question only when reframed so geography does work: how does the spatial reach of university knowledge depend on regional institutional thickness, and at what scale does the spillover die? Now both lenses light up, and the unit (commuting zone, with distance rings) is chosen for a substantive reason.

Checklist

  • The question passes both the economist's and the geographer's lens, stated explicitly
  • Place/spatial structure is constitutive of the answer, not a nuisance fixed effect
  • The mechanism is nameable in one sentence (what spatial economic force is at work)
  • Unit and spatial scale are justified substantively, not by data convenience
  • You can say in one line why this is JEG and not JUE, RSUE, JIE, or Economic Geography
  • The contribution is to economic geography, not just "applied X with a map"
  • A geographer and an economist would both see a real, open question — not only one of them

Topics JEG actively wants vs. topics that drift away

JEG actively rewardsDrifts to a sibling
agglomeration economies measured with a defended scale and mechanismfirm-productivity estimation with a city dummy (JUE)
place-based policy with cross-region spilloversa generic program evaluation that happens to have regions
the geography of knowledge flows (mobility, patents, networks)innovation economics with space as a control
how trade/GVCs reshape the location of activity within regionsaggregate bilateral trade flows (JIE)
evolutionary/institutional accounts with a claim that travelsa single-region descriptive narrative (Regional Studies)
quantitative-spatial models with a told economic-geography storyspatial-econometric machinery with no interpretation (RSUE)

Use this as a fit screen before you commit: if your one-line topic lands in the right column, reframe so geography and mechanism do real work, or send it to the sibling it actually fits.

Anti-patterns

  • A formal model with no geographic mechanism, or a case study with no engagement with the quantitative frontier — the one-community trap
  • "Applied micro with a spatial fixed effect" dressed as economic geography
  • Choosing the spatial scale because the data came at that scale, then never defending it
  • A regional case with no claim that travels beyond the one region
  • Pitching a JIE trade paper or a JUE urban paper at JEG because it mentions geography

Output format

text
【Journal】Journal of Economic Geography
【Skill】jegeo-topic-selection
【Question】one sentence; what we learn about space and the economy
【Economist's lens】mechanism + how we learn about it
【Geographer's lens】why place is constitutive (scale/proximity/networks/institutions)
【Two-community verdict】passes both / one-community risk → fix
【Why JEG not sibling】vs JUE / RSUE / JIE / Economic Geography
【Format】full article / Emerging Voices
【Next skill】jegeo-literature-positioning

© 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 Journal-of-Economic-Geography-Skills/skills/jegeo-topic-selection of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

Compare with similar skills

Jegeo Topic Selection next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Jegeo Topic Selection compared with similar skills
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Jegeo Topic Selection this skillbrycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills1.2k—~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
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Research Proposalluwill/research-skills860—~4.5kAutomated safety check: NotesNone
Paper NavigatorEvoScientist/EvoSkills478—~6.3kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
Paper NavigatorAI4Scientist/nano-scientist128—~7.7kAutomated safety check: NotesNone
Research Defense Radarfranklee16/academic-research-skills223—~4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Jegeo Topic Selection

What does Jegeo Topic Selection do?

A skill your agent uses when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography. Jegeo Topic Selection is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Journal of Economic Geography (JEG) manuscript so it genuinely bridges geographical economics and human geography.

When should I use Jegeo Topic Selection?

Jegeo Topic Selection fits situations like: tasks that involve Hypothesis generation; tasks that involve Citation management.

How do I install Jegeo Topic Selection in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Jegeo Topic Selection in Codex?

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

Can I use Jegeo Topic Selection 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 jegeo-topic-selection -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/jegeo-topic-selection, .gemini/skills/jegeo-topic-selection, .github/skills/jegeo-topic-selection and .opencode/skills/jegeo-topic-selection in your project.

What does Jegeo Topic Selection need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Jegeo Topic Selection is instructions for the agent only.

Does Jegeo Topic Selection 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 Jegeo Topic Selection 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 Jegeo Topic Selection use?

Jegeo Topic Selection 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 Jegeo Topic Selection use?

About 2.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.3k 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 Jegeo Topic Selection?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Jegeo Topic Selection: Research Survey (EvoScientist/EvoSkills, 478 stars), Research Proposal (luwill/research-skills, 860 stars), Paper Navigator (EvoScientist/EvoSkills, 478 stars) and Paper Navigator (AI4Scientist/nano-scientist, 128 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Jegeo Topic Selection?

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.