From jimf-skills
Decides whether a research question fits the Journal of International Money and Finance (JIMF) scope and frames it as international monetary/financial economics.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/jimf-skills:jimf-topic-selectionThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
- A finance/macro question is forming and you must decide whether JIMF is the right outlet vs. JIE, JME, JMCB, or JFE
JIMF publishes work where the international or cross-border dimension is load-bearing, not a robustness footnote. The litmus test: if you removed the open-economy element (the exchange rate, the cross-border flow, the foreign monetary shock, the sovereign external position), would the paper collapse or merely lose a section? If it merely loses a section, you have a domestic paper with international garnish — route it to JME/JMCB/JFE instead. JIMF's core objects are exchange-rate dynamics and pass-through, capital-flow drivers (push vs. pull) and the global financial cycle, cross-border banking and the international transmission of monetary policy, sovereign risk and external debt, currency crises, FX intervention and capital controls, and international asset pricing (UIP, carry, term premia).
| Candidate question | JIMF-fit verdict | Why / where else |
|---|---|---|
| Do Fed surprises move EM exchange rates and capital flows? | Strong fit | Spillovers are the international margin |
| Does a domestic macroprudential rule cut domestic credit? | Weak fit | JME/JMCB unless cross-border leakage is the point |
| Does exchange-rate pass-through into import prices vary by invoicing currency? | Strong fit | Core ERPT / dominant-currency question |
| Does a firm's leverage predict its stock returns (one country)? | Out of scope | JFE/RF — no international margin |
| Does the global financial cycle constrain monetary autonomy (trilemma)? | Strong fit | Canonical JIMF / open-economy macro-finance |
| Does sovereign CDS spread react to a foreign-currency debt rollover shock? | Strong fit | Sovereign risk + external position |
Topic selection is the first gate, and it is the cheapest place to prevent the most expensive failure: a fully executed paper that is desk-rejected on scope. If the international margin is not load-bearing, no amount of later identification or robustness work makes the paper a JIMF paper — it makes it a well-identified paper at the wrong journal. Settle fit here, then hand a paper whose international contribution is unmistakable to jimf-literature-positioning to stake it against the frontier. Do not skip this gate because the result is exciting; excitement about a domestic result is exactly what produces a misrouted submission.
A domestic finding can become a JIMF paper if the international margin is added as the question, not a robustness column. Three honest reframings: (a) cross-border transmission — does the domestic mechanism spill across borders, and through which channel (trade, bank, portfolio)? (b) cross-country comparison — does the mechanism's strength vary with an international institution (exchange-rate regime, capital-account openness, currency-denomination of debt)? (c) external-shock response — does the domestic object respond to a foreign shock (a Fed surprise, a global risk shift, a terms-of-trade move)? If none of these is the paper's actual question, the reframing is cosmetic and the paper belongs elsewhere.
JIMF publishes solid, well-identified field contributions, not only paradigm shifts — but a marginal extension of a famous cross-country regression will be triaged out. Calibrate: a new mechanism, a cleaner identification of a known effect, a new measurement that overturns an aggregate result, or credible external validity for a result that was estimated in one country/region all clear the bar. "First study of X for country Y," a longer sample of an existing regression, or a re-label of a domestic result do not.
A team has a clean result that domestic bank lending falls after a domestic policy tightening — a solid but domestic finding. Is there a JIMF paper in it? Apply the load-bearing test through the three reframings. (a) Transmission: does the lending contraction spill abroad through these banks' foreign branches or cross-border claims? If the foreign-claims response is the new result, that is a JIMF paper on the international bank-lending channel. (b) Comparison: does the contraction differ for banks more reliant on foreign (dollar) funding? That is a JIMF paper on the global-funding margin. (c) External shock: do these banks contract lending after a foreign (US) tightening, not just the domestic one? That is a JIMF spillover paper. If none of these is the actual question and the paper stays about the domestic rate, route it to JME/JMCB — the international content would be cosmetic.
resources/official-source-map.md or marked 待核实【Journal】Journal of International Money and Finance
【Skill】jimf-topic-selection
【Verdict】fit / reframe / reroute (JIE / JME / JMCB / JFE)
【International mechanism】<pass-through / spillover / push-pull / trilemma / sovereign / dominant currency>
【Load-bearing test】does removing the international margin collapse the paper? [Y/N]
【Lead audience】policy (CB/IMF/BIS) or academic international-finance
【Source status】verified URL / 待核实
【Next skill】jimf-literature-positioning
npx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin jimf-skillsEvaluates whether a research question fits IMF Economic Review's scope: international macro-finance with policy relevance for an IMF-program or global-institution audience.
Guides targeting or preparing a manuscript for the Journal of International Money and Finance (JIMF), covering topic fit, method and evidence bar, house style, and desk-reject risks.
Routes manuscript-stage decisions for Journal of International Money and Finance submissions, directing to the appropriate jimf-* sub-skill based on current bottleneck (scope, identification, exhibits, etc.).