From sociological-methods-and-research-skills
Guides building a real-data empirical illustration for an SMR methods paper that shows the method changes a substantive conclusion. Designs side-by-side incumbent vs. new method comparisons.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/sociological-methods-and-research-skills:smr-empirical-illustrationThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Use this to make the real-data section earn its place. SMR expects a methods paper to show that the
Use this to make the real-data section earn its place. SMR expects a methods paper to show that the method matters substantively — that using it instead of the incumbent leads to a different, better-justified conclusion about the social world. A throwaway "we also applied it to some data" section is a reviewer flag.
The illustration's job is to demonstrate consequence:
smr-derivation-and-properties and the regime
identified in smr-simulation-studies: the data should sit in the regime where the incumbent is
known to fail.smr-software-and-reproducibility). If data are restricted,
plan the availability statement now.| Element | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Side-by-side incumbent vs. new method | Show the divergence concretely |
| The substantive conclusion under each | Make the stake visible |
| A diagnostic that the data are in the failure regime | Justify why the new method is needed here |
| Uncertainty for both methods | Avoid replacing one overconfident answer with another |
| Link to released code/data | Satisfy reproducibility expectations |
The danger runs both ways. Too thin and it is decorative; too thick and the paper becomes a
substantive study that belongs in ASR/AJS (the failure flagged in smr-topic-selection). Calibrate:
the illustration should be deep enough to show the method changes the answer, and no deeper. The unit
of analysis is the method's behavior on real data, not a full substantive argument with its own
literature.
[Illustration status] consequential / decorative / not ready
[Dataset + regime] <data : why it sits in the failure regime>
[Divergence] <incumbent conclusion vs. new-method conclusion>
[Substantive stake] <who would have been wrong, about what>
[Reproducibility] data/code accessible? restricted-data plan?
[Next SMR skill] smr-tables-figures
npx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin sociological-methods-and-research-skillsRoutes SMR (Sociological Methods & Research) manuscript tasks to specialized skills for method-contribution fit, derivation, simulation, illustration, software release, submission, and rebuttal.
Guides analysis and reporting for ASR manuscripts to meet masked review standards across quantitative, demographic, comparative-historical, and computational sociology.
Provides guidance for planning and auditing data analysis in American Journal of Sociology manuscripts, covering uncertainty, robustness, and triangulation across quantitative and qualitative methods.