From fcr-skills
Pressure-tests whether an agronomy or crop-science project fits Field Crops Research's scope and selects the appropriate article type. Use when assessing project relevance or responding to scope-related reviewer feedback.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/fcr-skills:fcr-topic-selectionThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
FCR is a **field-agronomy** journal. The bar is not "a new result in my plot" — it is **"a field-based
FCR is a field-agronomy journal. The bar is not "a new result in my plot" — it is "a field-based insight of general relevance to field crops." Use this skill to pressure-test fit before you invest, because FCR's scope boundary is strict and a mismatch is a fast desk rejection.
| Angle | Make it FCR-worthy by… |
|---|---|
| Yield / yield gap | quantify the gap vs. potential/water-limited yield and what closes it |
| Crop physiology | connect a process (RUE, WUE, partitioning, phenology) to yield formation |
| Agronomy / management | show a management response that travels across environments, with G×E×M |
| Cropping systems | demonstrate system-level effects (rotation, intercrop, residue) over seasons |
| Crop modelling | calibrate/validate against field data and use the model to generalise beyond the sites |
Including yield data is encouraged — it ties the work to the biophysical processes FCR cares about.
The gate is strict, so the hard calls are the borderline ones. These rulings reflect FCR's stated exclusions; confirm the current scope wording against the journal's aims & scope, which can change.
| Borderline case | Likely call | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse mechanism + one supporting field season | In scope only if field results are the spine | controlled-environment cannot be main evidence |
| Maize agronomy, 2 seasons, 1 site | Borderline — add sites or a modelling generalisation | one location weakens multi-environment relevance |
| Potato tuber-quality trial | Likely out — horticultural framing | vegetable/horticultural species risk |
| Forage grass in a cropping rotation | In scope as a feed crop; natural grassland is out | cultivated vs. non-cultivated grassland |
| Crop model validated on others' field data | In scope if it generalises field results | modelling that extends field evidence is welcome |
Illustrative. A student has greenhouse data showing a root-architecture trait improves P uptake, plus 1 field season at 1 site (3.9 vs. 3.5 t ha⁻¹). As framed — "trait improves P uptake and yield" — it fails twice: the mechanism rests on controlled-environment pots, and the field evidence is a single site-year. The FCR-worthy reframe keeps the physiology as context and rebuilds the spine around the field: test the trait's yield and P-uptake response across 2 seasons × 4 environments on a soil-P gradient, so the claim becomes "the trait closes a P-limited yield gap across low-P environments."
【Question】one sentence
【Scope gate】field-based? ≥2 seasons/envs? field crop? more than local? [pass/fix each]
【Agronomic contribution】yield / physiology / management / systems / modelling
【Article type】Original Research / Short Communication / Review / Opinion / Loomis Review
【Fit verdict】strong / needs reframing / off-fit (why)
【Next】fcr-literature-positioning
../../resources/external_tools.md — agronomy data sources and crop models../../resources/official-source-map.md — FCR scope and the explicit exclusionsnpx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin fcr-skillsEvaluates manuscript fit for Field Crops Research journal, covering scope, evidence bar, and desk-reject heuristics for agronomy and crop-physiology papers.
Routes Field Crops Research (FCR) manuscript submissions to the appropriate sub-skill based on article type and lifecycle stage, with a scope gate for field-based multi-environment research.
Helps decide if a project fits the Agricultural Systems journal and which article type to target. Tests for systems-level questions with interactions, trade-offs, and integrated modeling.