spq-topic-selection

Topic Selection & Fit (spq-topic-selection)

SPQ is the flagship of sociological social psychology. The bar is not "novel to psychology" and not "important to macro sociology" — it is "does this advance our understanding of how social structure and process connect to the individual?" Use this skill to pressure-test fit before you invest.

When to trigger

• Choosing among possible projects or framings for an SPQ submission
• A reviewer/colleague said the paper feels "too psychological" or "too macro" for SPQ
• Deciding between a full Article and a Note
• Locating your project within a tradition (symbolic interaction / SSP / group processes / identity / affect)

The SPQ fit test

A strong SPQ paper usually clears all four:

1. The structure–individual link is central. The paper explains how social structure, position, or interaction shapes (or is shaped by) the self, identity, emotion, cognition, or behavior. That link is the contribution, not background.
2. A social-psychological mechanism, not just an association. Status, expectation states, identity verification, sentiment/affect, meaning negotiation, social comparison — name the process.
3. Credible on its own methodological terms. Experiment, survey/secondary analysis, or observation/ethnography — each is welcome but must be done rigorously (see spq-research-design).
4. A clean, answerable scope. Sharp enough to answer convincingly within ~10,000 words (Article) or ~5,000 (Note).

Tradition framing (locate your paper)

Tradition	Center the contribution on…
Symbolic interaction	how meaning, self, and the interaction order are constructed and managed
Social structure & personality	how structural position (class, race, gender, networks) shapes self, well-being, attitudes
Group processes	status, expectation states, exchange, legitimacy, justice in interaction settings
Identity theory	identity salience, prominence, verification, and their structural antecedents
Affect / emotion	sentiments, impression formation, emotion management, and their social organization

Article vs. Note

• Article — full study, developed theory and evidence, ≤ 10,000 words (all parts, excl. supplementary materials).
• Note — one crisp contribution (a decisive experiment, a focused replication/extension, a measurement advance), ≤ 5,000 words. Faster to read; do not pad it toward Article length.

Anti-patterns

• A psychology study of individual cognition with social structure only as a backdrop (fits JPSP/Psych Science, not SPQ)
• A macro stratification or demography paper with no social-psychological mechanism (fits ASR/AJS, not SPQ)
• "It hasn't been tested in this population" as the whole contribution
• A sprawling question that cannot be answered within the length cap

Fit pass for Social Psychology Quarterly

Run this as a concrete capability pass. First lock the social-psychological process, measurement, design, and boundary condition across groups or contexts; then test whether the manuscript addresses social-psychology reviewers who expect interaction, identity, group process, or status mechanisms grounded in sociological theory.

• Primary move: Score fit, novelty, evidence readiness, and audience ownership; reject prestige-only targeting when a sibling venue owns the contribution more directly.
• Decision ledger: return claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
• Sibling comparison: compare against JPSP for psychology breadth, ASR/AJS for sociology theory stakes, Social Forces for broader empirical sociology; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
• Verification floor: before submission-ready advice, re-open resources/official-source-map.md for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.

Output format

【Question】one sentence
【Structure–individual link】what connects to the self / interaction / group, and how
【Tradition】symbolic interaction / SSP / group processes / identity / affect
【Mechanism】the social-psychological process at work
【Type】Article (≤10,000) / Note (≤5,000)
【Fit verdict】strong / needs reframing / off-fit (too psychological / too macro — why)
【Next】spq-literature-positioning

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — data sources by tradition
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — SPQ scope and article types