brycewang-stanford ES&T Workflow Router (est-workflow)
The orchestrator for an ES&T submission. Figure out the stage and the article type, then send the user to the matching skill. ES&T is a multidisciplinary environmental science and engineering journal — the router's first job is to make sure the paper carries clear environmental significance, not just a clean lab result.
When to trigger
- Starting a new ES&T paper and unsure where to begin
- Mid-project and unsure which skill applies next
- Deciding which article type fits, or whether to send urgent results to ES&T Letters
- Returning with a decision letter (route to
est-revision-and-rebuttal)
First question: which article type?
| Situation | Type | Route to |
|---|---|---|
| Full original study | Research Article (~7,000 words; 待核实) | normal pipeline below |
| Urgent, high-impact result, short | ES&T Letters (Letter ≤3,000 words; separate journal) | tighten scope; est-submission |
| Comprehensive synthesis of a field | Critical Review (~10,000 words; 待核实) | est-literature-positioning + est-writing-style |
| Forward-looking opinion/synthesis | Perspective (~4,000 words; 待核实) | est-literature-positioning |
| Magazine-style accessible piece | Feature (~5,000 words; 待核实) | est-writing-style |
| Science–policy interface analysis | Policy Analysis (~7,000 words; 待核实) | est-topic-selection + est-writing-style |
Word caps are volatile and figures/tables may count as word-equivalents — confirm on the live guidelines page (see 待核实 in
resources/official-source-map.md).
Routing map (stage → skill)
Idea / environmental significance? → est-topic-selection
Where does it sit in the field? → est-literature-positioning
Is the study design defensible? → est-study-design
Are the analyses + QA/QC sound? → est-data-analysis
Are the exhibits + TOC art clear? → est-figures-and-tables
SI, data deposit, reproducibility? → est-reporting-and-reproducibility
Does it read in ACS style? → est-writing-style
Cover letter to the editor? → est-cover-letter
How will it be judged? → est-review-process
Ready to submit? → est-submission
Got a decision / revision? → est-revision-and-rebuttal
Default order
topic-selection → literature-positioning → study-design → data-analysis → figures-and-tables → reporting-and-reproducibility → writing-style → cover-letter → review-process → submission → revision-and-rebuttal
Iterate: most papers loop design ↔ analysis ↔ QA/QC several times before writing-style.
Symptom → skill quick-routing
When a user arrives mid-stream with a specific complaint, route by symptom rather than walking the whole pipeline. Each symptom carries the ES&T-specific failure mode it signals:
| User says | Underlying ES&T risk | Route to |
|---|---|---|
| "Is this significant enough?" | desk-decline on significance | est-topic-selection |
| "A reviewer said it's not novel" | incremental-occurrence framing | est-literature-positioning |
| "Reviewer wants more controls/QA-QC" | analytical-rigor gap | est-study-design, est-data-analysis |
| "Mass balance doesn't close" | unaccounted-fraction objection | est-data-analysis |
| "Do I need a TOC graphic?" | incomplete-submission gate | est-figures-and-tables |
| "Where do I deposit the data?" | data-availability mandate | est-reporting-and-reproducibility |
| "Got a major revision" | response-letter strategy | est-revision-and-rebuttal |
Worked micro-example (illustrative — routing a PFAS-fate manuscript)
A user starts: "I have river PFAS data showing a precursor converting to PFHxA — where do I begin?" The router's pass (illustrative):
- Significance check →
est-topic-selection: reframe from occurrence to "surveys under-count persistent burden," confirming Research-Article fit. - Positioning →
est-literature-positioning: engage the fate, analytical, and tox literatures so novelty is mechanistic, not "another dataset." - Design/analysis loop →
est-study-design↔est-data-analysis: lock the abiotic control, mass balance, and QA/QC; handle the censored values with ROS. - Exhibits + SI →
est-figures-and-tables,est-reporting-and-reproducibility: build a concept TOC graphic and deposit data/spectra/code. - Write → cover → submit →
est-writing-style→est-cover-letter→est-submission.
The router's standing job: surface the environmental-significance and QA/QC gates early, because those are what the desk editor and the ~three reviewers weigh first.
Anti-patterns
- Treating ES&T like a pure-chemistry or pure-engineering journal — the paper must show environmental relevance
- A clean method with no demonstrated significance for a real environmental system
- Choosing ES&T Letters for non-urgent work, or ES&T for a result better suited to a specialist venue
- Leaving the TOC graphic, SI, and data deposit to the last day
Output format
【Stage】idea / positioning / design / analysis / exhibits / reproducibility / writing / cover-letter / review / submit / revise
【Type】Research Article / Critical Review / Feature / Perspective / Policy Analysis / ES&T Letters
【Route to】est-<skill>
【Why】one line
【Then】the next skill after that
Supplementary resources
../../resources/external_tools.md— environmental data, instruments, and software by sub-area../../resources/official-source-map.md— official ES&T URLs behind every fact in this pack