jcp-topic-selection
GitHub辅助判断消费者现象是否契合JCP期刊定位及确定稿件类型。核心在于评估贡献是否为消费情境下的心理机制，并区分JCP与JCR、JM等兄弟期刊的边界，避免选题偏离或格式不当。
Trigger Scenarios
Install
npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jcp-topic-selection -g -y
SKILL.md
Frontmatter
{
"name": "jcp-topic-selection",
"description": "Use when deciding whether a consumer phenomenon belongs at the Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP) versus a sibling, and which JCP manuscript type fits, before theory and studies are locked. Sets scope and outlet fit; it does not build the mechanism (jcp-theory-development)."
}
Topic Selection (jcp-topic-selection)
When to trigger
- You have a consumer phenomenon and are unsure it is psychological-process enough for JCP
- The finding feels real but you cannot say what about the mind of the consumer is new
- You are choosing between JCP, JCR, JMR, Marketing Science, or Psychological Science
- The result is small and clean and might be a Research Report rather than a full article
- A coauthor wants to add field data / strategy framing that may push the paper out of JCP's lane
What JCP actually wants
JCP publishes theory-driven research on the psychology of consumers — how people form judgments, make decisions, feel, get motivated, construct identity, and respond to persuasion in consumption contexts. The decisive question at topic-selection is not "is this about consumers?" but "is the contribution a psychological process that operates in a consumption setting?" A topic fits JCP when (a) there is a consumer-relevant outcome, (b) there is a plausible mental mechanism behind it, and (c) the mechanism is testable with controlled (mostly experimental) methods. Topics that fail (a) are general psychology; topics that fail (b) are effect-hunting; topics that fail (c) belong in a modeling or interpretive outlet.
Outlet fit: which sibling, and why not
| If the core contribution is… | Aim at | Why not JCP |
|---|---|---|
| A consumer psychological process, tested experimentally | JCP | — |
| Broad consumer theory incl. interpretive / CCT meaning-making | JCR | JCP has no interpretive tradition; it is experimental-process |
| A marketing-strategy / firm-decision question | Journal of Marketing | JCP is about the consumer's mind, not managerial action |
| A new measure / method / model for marketing data | JMR / Marketing Science | JCP rewards process insight, not methodological tooling |
| A general psychological effect with no consumption stake | Psychological Science / JPSP / JEP | JCP needs a consumer phenomenon and audience |
The JCP–JCR boundary is the one teams get wrong most. Both run behavioral experiments; the tell is that JCR also embraces interpretive/CCT work and frames contributions as advancing broad theory of consumption, while JCP is tightly psychological-mechanism in its center of gravity. If your paper's contribution sentence is "we identify the mental process by which X shapes consumer Y," it is a JCP paper.
Choosing the manuscript type (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准)
- Research Article — full multi-study package; ≤50 double-spaced pages including abstract, references, tables, and figures.
- Research Report — a tight, important finding; <4,000 words excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures. Use when one mechanism is cleanly demonstrated and a 50-page treatment would pad it.
- Conceptual Review — integrative review building new theory; ≤50 pages.
- Research Dialogue — exchange/commentary format. Pick the type before writing: a Research Report cannot carry four studies and a Research Article should not be one study stretched thin.
Checklist
- The contribution is a psychological process, not just a new effect or a new context
- There is a consumer-relevant outcome AND a plausible mental mechanism AND a way to test it experimentally
- You can say in one sentence why this is JCP and not JCR / JMR / Psych Science
- The manuscript type (Article / Report / Review / Dialogue) matches the size of the contribution
- The phenomenon is theoretically interesting, not only practically useful
- You are not importing strategy or interpretive framing that pulls the paper out of JCP's lane
Anti-patterns
- Context-as-contribution: "we study this effect in a new product category" with no new process
- General-psych smuggling: a cognition/emotion effect with a thin consumer veneer
- Wrong-type sizing: a one-study finding submitted as a 50-page article, or four studies crammed into a Research Report
- Strategy drift: framing the paper around what the firm should do rather than what the consumer's mind does
- Sibling blur: pitching to JCP a paper whose real contribution is interpretive (JCR) or methodological (JMR)
Output format
【Phenomenon】one-line consumer phenomenon
【Process candidate】the mental mechanism that would be the contribution
【Outlet verdict】JCP / reroute to JCR / JM / JMR / Psych Science (+ reason)
【Manuscript type】Research Article / Research Report / Conceptual Review / Research Dialogue
【Why not the closest sibling】one sentence
【Next skill】jcp-theory-development
Version History
- 1839142 Current 2026-07-05 13:29
