From joc-skills
Strengthens the research design of a Journal of Communication (JoC) manuscript across experimental, survey, content analysis, computational, and qualitative traditions.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/joc-skills:joc-research-designThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
JoC accepts many methodologies but is demanding about each. The design must credibly connect the
JoC accepts many methodologies but is demanding about each. The design must credibly connect the
argument (joc-theory-building) to evidence. This skill is mode-aware: pick the section that matches
your work and defend it against the strongest alternative explanation.
joc-literature-positioningFor the single strongest rival explanation, write one sentence: "If the rival were true rather than my argument, the data would look like ___; instead they look like ___." If you cannot, the design does not yet identify the contribution.
JoC referees at the ICA flagship rarely reject on a single statistic; they reject when the design cannot bear the theoretical weight the paper puts on it. The recurring objections and their venue-specific repairs:
| Reviewer objection | Why it lands at JoC | Design-stage fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Single-message confound" | one stimulus cannot separate the message feature from the specific text | sample multiple messages per condition; treat message as a random factor; report a stimulus-sampling check |
| "Measurement validity of message features" | a hand-coded or model-coded "frame" may not be the construct claimed | pre-validate the feature against human gold-standard coding; report construct validity, not just reliability |
| "Effect without mechanism" | a main effect alone does not advance communication theory | design the mediator/moderator measurement in before collection; pre-specify the indirect-effect test |
| "Exposure is assumed, not measured" | self-reported "saw the news" is a weak proxy | build a behavioral or attention-anchored exposure measure |
| "Cross-sectional process claim" | mediation on one wave cannot license a causal story | move the mediator to an experiment or panel, or hedge the claim |
A planned study claims that gain- vs. loss-framed vaccine messages change intention via perceived risk. A JoC-defensible design: 2 (frame) × 3 (message exemplars per frame) factorial so the frame effect is estimated across six distinct texts, not one — defeating the single-message confound. Target N ≈ 900 (illustrative; size to the registered MDE), preregister the mediation path frame → perceived risk → intention with bootstrap CIs, and add an attention check plus a behavioral exposure proxy. The adjudication sentence writes itself: if the rival "any health message moves intention" were true, the gain/loss contrast would be null while overall intention rose; instead the contrast is non-null and runs through perceived risk — advancing framing theory rather than re-documenting a persuasion effect.
【Mode】experiment / survey / content-analysis / computational / qualitative
【Estimand or claim】what is being identified/shown
【Key assumption(s)】and how each is defended (incl. reliability/validity)
【Rival ruled out】the adjudication sentence
【Robustness/sensitivity】planned checks
【Next】joc-data-analysis
../../resources/external_tools.md — design, reliability, and text-as-data packages (R/SPSS/Mplus/Python) and CAQDAS for qualitative work../../resources/official-source-map.md — preregistration and Open Science Badge notesnpx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin joc-skillsDefends the research design of quantitative Communication Research manuscripts, covering experiments, panel surveys, and content analysis with intercoder reliability.
Defends research design for APSR manuscripts: causal identification, case selection, process tracing, experimental design, and formal-empirical linkage.
Defends the research design of Social Psychology Quarterly manuscripts across experimental, survey, and observational traditions, focusing on the structure–individual link.