jcp-workflow

JCP Workflow Router (jcp-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It tells you which jcp- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP) — the official journal of the Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP), Division 23 of the American Psychological Association, published by Wiley (it moved from Elsevier; the resources/official-source-map.md still names the old publisher — 检索于 2026-06；以官网为准). JCP is the field's flagship for theory-driven, mostly experimental research on consumer judgment, decision-making, affect, motivation, identity, and persuasion. The contribution that gets a paper in is a novel psychological PROCESS — not a new effect, not a new context. A multi-study package that documents an effect, mediates it, and shows theory-predicted moderation is the modal accepted paper.

Operational tells that you are at JCP and not a sibling: the bar is a psychological mechanism (mediation/moderation-of-process), not theory-of-the-firm or strategy (that is JM), not interpretive/CCT meaning-making (that is JCR), and not a single flashy effect with no audience-specific implication (that is closer to Psychological Science). JCP runs double-blind review (待核实 — confirm on the Wiley author page), formats in APA Style (7th), and takes four manuscript types: Research Article (≤50 double-spaced pages incl. everything), Research Report (<4,000 words excl. abstract/refs/tables/figures), Conceptual Review, and Research Dialogue.

When to trigger

• The user asks "what should I do next?" on a consumer-psychology manuscript
• A draft has an effect but no process story, and the bottleneck is unclear
• Work is ping-ponging between theory, study design, mediation analysis, and the response letter
• A JCP decision letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode
• The team is comparing JCP with JCR, JM/JMR, Marketing Science, or Psychological Science

Routing table

Current symptom	Next skill
Phenomenon may be too applied / not process-focused / wrong outlet	jcp-topic-selection
There is an effect but no psychological mechanism / hypotheses are "A→B"	jcp-theory-development
Contribution vs. JCR / JMR / Psych Science is fuzzy or oversold	jcp-literature-positioning
Experimental design has confounds, weak manipulations, or no power plan	jcp-methods
Mediation/moderation analysis or measurement of the process needs work	jcp-data-analysis
The "what's new about the PROCESS" one-liner is not sharp	jcp-contribution-framing
Means tables / mediation figures are cluttered or asterisk-driven	jcp-tables-figures
Intro frames an effect not a mechanism; prose buries the contribution	jcp-writing-style
Ready to submit via ScholarOne; need a preflight + open-science package	jcp-submission
Want to understand AE/reviewer timeline, desk-reject odds, R&R norms	jcp-review-process
Received an R&R; need a response-letter and new-studies strategy	jcp-rebuttal

Default order

jcp-workflow → jcp-topic-selection → jcp-theory-development → jcp-literature-positioning → jcp-methods → jcp-data-analysis → jcp-contribution-framing → jcp-tables-figures → jcp-writing-style → jcp-submission → jcp-review-process → jcp-rebuttal

jcp-writing-style is a late polish; do not rewrite the intro before the process is theorized and the mediation/moderation evidence is stable. At JCP the intro must promise a mechanism, so it cannot settle until jcp-data-analysis has confirmed what the process evidence supports.

Routing by paper archetype

JCP papers cluster into a few shapes, and the binding constraint differs by shape. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.

Archetype	Likely first bottleneck	Enter at
New effect, no mechanism yet	naming and theorizing the process	jcp-theory-development
Robust effect, weak process evidence	manipulated mediator / moderation-of-process design	jcp-methods → jcp-data-analysis
Process clear, sibling overlap (looks like JCR/Psych Sci)	staking the consumer-psychology contribution	jcp-literature-positioning
Short, clean single-mechanism finding	fit to the Research Report (<4,000 word) format	jcp-topic-selection → jcp-submission
Confirmatory theory test, want pre-result review	Registered Report route (待核实)	jcp-methods

Worked routing example (illustrative)

A user says: "My three studies show that scarcity cues increase impulse purchases, but a reviewer wrote 'this is an effect in search of a process — why does scarcity do this?'" That is the single most common JCP pushback: a documented effect with no mechanism. Route to jcp-theory-development to name the mediator (e.g., scarcity → perceived competition → arousal → impulse), then to jcp-methods to add a study that manipulates the proposed mediator or shows the effect dies when the process is blocked, then to jcp-data-analysis to run the mediation/moderated-mediation properly. Only once the process number is stable do you return to jcp-contribution-framing and jcp-rebuttal.

Anti-patterns

• Treating JCP like JCR (it has no interpretive/CCT tradition — JCP is experimental-process)
• Treating JCP like JM/JMR (strategy/firm questions belong there, not here)
• Routing a single-effect paper straight to jcp-writing-style while the mechanism is still missing
• Polishing exhibits before the mediation/moderation evidence settles
• Quoting publisher/process facts from the stale source map without re-checking (it says Elsevier; JCP is now Wiley)

Output format

【Target】Journal of Consumer Psychology
【Archetype】new-effect / weak-process / sibling-overlap / research-report / registered-report
【Current bottleneck】fit / mechanism / positioning / design / process-evidence / exhibits / style / submission / revision
【Next skill】<one jcp-* skill>
【Reason】why this step is the binding constraint
【Source check】official facts verified or marked 待核实