From journal-of-economic-geography-skills
Sharpens a Journal of Economic Geography manuscript's contribution by positioning against both the geographical-economics and human-geography frontiers, and sibling journals.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/journal-of-economic-geography-skills:jegeo-literature-positioningThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
- The contribution sentence is vague ("we add to the agglomeration literature") or speaks to only one of JEG's two communities
JEG referees come from both sides of the bridge, so a one-sided literature review reads as not knowing the field. The contribution must be located against both frontiers:
The strongest JEG positioning shows the two literatures talking past each other on your question, and the paper as the place they meet.
| Move | Weak version | JEG-strong version |
|---|---|---|
| State the gap | "little work on X" | "geographical economics measures X but ignores the institutional mechanism EEG theorizes — neither has tested both jointly" |
| Name the frontier | a 2008 survey | the specific recent papers a referee will think of first, from both camps |
| Position the method | "we run a regression" | "we bring quantitative-spatial identification to a question only handled qualitatively (or vice versa)" |
| Claim the delta | "we add nuance" | one sentence naming the new thing we know about space and the economy |
You do not have to cite all of these, but a referee from each camp will notice if you seem unaware of their canon:
The tell of a one-community paper is a bibliography drawn almost entirely from one of these two lists. Aim for genuine coverage of both where the question touches them.
A paper measures how related-variety predicts regional industrial branching using patent data. The author positions it only against the evolutionary-economic-geography literature (Boschma, Frenken). An economist referee says the identification and the agglomeration mechanism are invisible; the contribution looks like one more relatedness regression. The positioning fix is not new data: it is reframing the contribution at the meeting point — relatedness (EEG) is shown to operate through a knowledge-spillover mechanism the quantitative-spatial literature can identify, and the paper brings causal spatial design to a claim EEG had only documented descriptively. Now both literatures appear, the gap is the place they had not met, and the delta — branching is causal, not just correlated with relatedness — is a sentence both camps can grip.
At JEG the method can itself be the bridge: bringing one community's tool to the other's question is a recognized contribution. Make it explicit when it applies — "the institutional account of cluster decline has been qualitative; we test it with a quantitative-spatial design," or "quantitative-spatial models assume frictionless relocation; we show, with case evidence, why institutions block it." Frame the methodological move as serving the substantive question, not as technique for its own sake, and the positioning lands with both camps at once.
【Journal】Journal of Economic Geography
【Skill】jegeo-literature-positioning
【Contribution】one sentence: new knowledge about space and the economy
【Geographical-economics frontier】papers engaged + delta
【Human/evolutionary-geography frontier】papers engaged + delta
【Gap is real because】open in both literatures, not just under-cited
【Sibling boundary】why JEG not JUE / RSUE / EG / JIE (reason, not assertion)
【Next skill】jegeo-identification
npx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin journal-of-economic-geography-skillsRoutes manuscript work for Journal of Economic Geography submissions by sequencing specialized skills: topic selection, literature positioning, identification, model design, robustness checks, and rebuttal.
Evaluates manuscript fit for the Journal of Economic Geography: assesses scope, interdisciplinary framing, method/evidence bar, and desk-reject risk for spatial-economics and economic-geography papers.
Positions a manuscript within the economic-growth literature for the Journal of Economic Growth (JEG), building the related-work spine and marginal-step argument across theory and empirics.