jpam-topic-selection
GitHub用于评估研究选题是否契合JPAM期刊。通过检验政策明确性、因果识别可信度及跨学科影响力，判断选题是否具备决策相关性，并协助确定文章类型或建议投稿方向。
Trigger Scenarios
Install
npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jpam-topic-selection -g -y
SKILL.md
Frontmatter
{
"name": "jpam-topic-selection",
"description": "Use when judging whether a research idea fits the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) — a credibly evaluable policy or program question with a decision-relevant takeaway that reaches across economics, political science, and public management. Tests fit and sharpens the question; it does not design the study or run analysis."
}
Topic Selection & Fit (jpam-topic-selection)
JPAM publishes work that evaluates real policies and programs and informs a real decision. The fit bar is two-sided: the question must be causally answerable with a credible design and policy-relevant in a way an APPAM audience (economists, political scientists, public-management scholars, and practitioners) recognizes. A clever identification with no policy stake is off-fit; so is an urgent policy question with no path to a credible estimate.
When to trigger
- Choosing among ideas for a JPAM submission
- A reviewer or colleague said the paper is "interesting but not really policy"
- Deciding whether the work is a Feature Article or a shorter type (Policy Insights / Retrospective)
- Unsure whether JPAM or a field journal (economics / political science / public administration) is the home
The JPAM fit test
- Name the policy or program. What concrete intervention, rule, or reform is being evaluated? "The effect of X policy on Y outcome" — not "the determinants of Y."
- Name the decision. Who acts differently if the finding is true — a legislator, agency, program designer, funder? State the counterfactual policy choice.
- Name the credible design. Is there real exogenous variation (random assignment, an eligibility threshold, a staggered rollout, a policy discontinuity, a plausible instrument)? If not, the idea may not clear JPAM's identification bar.
- Name the cross-field stake. Why would a reader outside the home subfield (e.g., a political scientist if you are an economist) care? JPAM rewards questions that bridge disciplines.
- Name the magnitude that matters. What effect size would change the decision? This anchors power and later the cost-benefit framing.
Field coverage (any of these is in scope)
Education, health, labor & welfare, housing, crime & justice, environment & energy, immigration, social policy, public finance, program administration. Domestic and international policy are both in scope.
Article-type fit
| If the work is… | Type | Note |
|---|---|---|
| A full, credibly identified evaluation | Feature Research Article | the core of the journal |
| A short, timely, decision-relevant take | Policy Insights (≤ 3,000 words, not peer-reviewed) | confirm invitation/rules (检索于 2026-06) |
| A methods advance for policy analysts | Methods for Policy Analysis | route to jpam-research-design |
| A reflective look back at a policy/literature | Policy Retrospective | route to jpam-theory-building |
Checklist
- A specific policy/program named, not a vague correlate
- A concrete decision the evidence informs, with the policy counterfactual stated
- A credible source of identifying variation exists (not just controls)
- A cross-disciplinary stake an APPAM reader recognizes
- A decision-relevant magnitude defined up front
- Correct article type chosen; home-journal check vs. econ/PS/PA siblings done
Anti-patterns
- "Determinants of" descriptive work with no policy lever (off-fit for a Feature Article)
- A pure methods or pure theory paper with no policy application (likely a field-journal fit)
- Policy relevance asserted in the abstract but never tied to an actual decision or counterfactual
- Choosing JPAM because the econ field journals rejected it, with no policy reframing
- Treating "topical" as "policy-relevant" — timeliness is not the same as decision relevance
Worked micro-example (illustrative)
"The determinants of college enrollment" is off-fit — descriptive, no lever. Reframed as "Does a state's automatic-FAFSA-completion mandate raise enrollment among low-income students, and at what cost per additional enrollee?" it names a policy (the mandate), a decision (whether other states should adopt it), identifying variation (staggered state adoption → heterogeneity-robust DiD), a cross-field stake (mobility for economists, administrative-burden for public-management readers), and a magnitude that matters (an effect large enough to justify the administrative cost). That is a JPAM Feature Article. (Policy/numbers illustrative.)
Calibration anchors (hedged)
- "Timely" is not "decision-relevant" — a topic in the news still needs a concrete decision and a credible design to fit a Feature Article.
- If the only path is selection-on-observables, the idea may not clear JPAM's identification bar; look for exogenous variation before committing.
- When in doubt between JPAM and a field journal, ask which referee pool the contribution needs: if it needs a policy reader as much as a method reader, it is a JPAM paper.
Output format
【Policy / program】the intervention being evaluated
【Decision informed】who acts differently, and the counterfactual
【Identifying variation】RCT / DiD / RD / IV / synthetic control / none-yet
【Cross-field stake】why a reader outside the subfield cares
【Article type】Feature / Policy Insights / Methods / Retrospective
【Next】jpam-literature-positioning
Supplementary resources
../../resources/external_tools.md— policy data sources by field (education, health, labor, crime, housing)../../resources/exemplars/library.md— real JPAM papers by field × method to calibrate fit
Version History
- 1839142 Current 2026-07-05 13:53
