Agent skill

Qje Topic Selection

by franklee16 in franklee16/academic-research-skills

A skill your agent uses when scoping or pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit, the "big idea" bar, and breadth of the takeaway for…

No licenceAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Qje Topic Selection

skills CLI
$ npx skills add franklee16/academic-research-skills --skill qje-topic-selection -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install franklee16/academic-research-skills qje-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/franklee16/academic-research-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/Awesome-Journal-Skills-main/Quarterly-Journal-of-Economics-Skills/skills/qje-topic-selection .claude/skills/qje-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
qje-topic-selection
GitHub stars
223
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~1.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
608 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
1,616
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
None found

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when scoping or pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit, the "big idea" bar, and breadth of the takeaway for…

  • Works in 3 steps: The question filter — Would a smart… → The answer filter — Is the answer (not… → The breadth filter — Does the result…
  • Pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, The QJE bar: a big question…, Scope fit decision table and Sharpening the contribution, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Qje Topic Selection is an agent skill from franklee16/academic-research-skills. Use when scoping or pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit, the "big idea" bar, and breadth of the takeaway for QJE's general-interest readership. Diagnoses scope fit; it does not design the empirics.

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 Hypothesis generation. The repository describes itself as: Comprehensive collection of Claude Code skills for academic research in economics, finance, and social sciences.

When your agent uses it

  • Pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit
  • The big idea bar
  • Breadth of the takeaway for QJEs general-interest readership

Example prompts

  • “big idea”
  • “/qje-topic-selection”

Workflow steps

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

  1. The question filter — Would a smart economist outside your subfield want to know the answer? State the question in one sentence a labor…
  2. The answer filter — Is the answer (not the method) surprising, important, or settling of a long-standing debate? A precise estimate of…
  3. The breadth filter — Does the result generalize beyond the specific setting? QJE rewards a clean local result that teaches a general…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9a4b2db. 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

Qje Topic Selection loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 71 tokens; SKILL.md has 608 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~71
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

Without a licence we can't republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 608 words (~1,334 tokens).

“QJE is a general-interest journal covering all of economics, published by OUP and edited at Harvard since 1886 (the oldest English-language economics journal). Its comparative advantage is the compelling question + credible empirics + a conceptual takeaway with broad implications…”

— opening of SKILL.md by franklee16
name
qje-topic-selection

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

Just SKILL.md in Awesome-Journal-Skills-main/Quarterly-Journal-of-Economics-Skills/skills/qje-topic-selection of franklee16/academic-research-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9a4b2db

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in franklee16/academic-research-skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Qje 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.

Qje Topic Selection compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Qje Topic Selection this skillfranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Hypothesis Generationspacering-net/codeg3.8k15 repos~3.6kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Nature Paper CardYuan1z0825/nature-skills46k2 repos~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Hypothesis GenerationK-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-writer2.4k2 repos~3.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Good QuestionRimagination/good-question3051 repos~4.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Claim-Driven Experiment PlannerzjYao36/Auto-Research-Refine1287 repos~2.3kAutomated safety check: NotesNone

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Questions about Qje Topic Selection

What does Qje Topic Selection do?

A skill your agent uses when scoping or pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit, the "big idea" bar, and breadth of the takeaway for…. Qje Topic Selection is an agent skill from franklee16/academic-research-skills. Use when scoping or pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit, the "big idea" bar, and breadth of the takeaway for QJE's general-interest readership.

When should I use Qje Topic Selection?

Qje Topic Selection fits situations like: pressure-testing a research question for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) submission — checks fit; the big idea bar; breadth of the takeaway for QJEs general-interest readership.

How do I install Qje Topic Selection in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add franklee16/academic-research-skills --skill qje-topic-selection -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (Awesome-Journal-Skills-main/Quarterly-Journal-of-Economics-Skills/skills/qje-topic-selection in franklee16/academic-research-skills) into .claude/skills/qje-topic-selection in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Qje Topic Selection in Codex?

Run `npx skills add franklee16/academic-research-skills --skill qje-topic-selection -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (Awesome-Journal-Skills-main/Quarterly-Journal-of-Economics-Skills/skills/qje-topic-selection in franklee16/academic-research-skills) into .agents/skills/qje-topic-selection in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Qje 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 franklee16/academic-research-skills --skill qje-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/qje-topic-selection, .gemini/skills/qje-topic-selection, .github/skills/qje-topic-selection and .opencode/skills/qje-topic-selection in your project.

What does Qje Topic Selection need to run?

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

Does Qje 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 Qje 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 Qje Topic Selection use?

No licence was found for Qje Topic Selection or its repository. Without one, default copyright applies: ask the author before reusing or redistributing it.

How many tokens does Qje Topic Selection use?

About 1.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.3k 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 Qje Topic Selection?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Qje Topic Selection: Hypothesis Generation (spacering-net/codeg, 3.8k stars), Nature Paper Card (Yuan1z0825/nature-skills, 46k stars), Hypothesis Generation (K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-writer, 2.4k stars) and Good Question (Rimagination/good-question, 305 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Qje Topic Selection?

franklee16 (a GitHub user) maintains it in franklee16/academic-research-skills, which has 223 GitHub stars. The repository holds 1,616 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 18, 2026.

Source: franklee16/academic-research-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.