# Jimf Topic Selection > Use when deciding whether a question belongs at the Journal of International Money and Finance (JIMF) and how to frame it as international monetary/financial economics. Tests scope and the international margin; it does not invent evidence, exemplars, or citations. - Skill: `thedixitjain/jimf-topic-selection` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add thedixitjain/jimf-topic-selection` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/thedixitjain/jimf-topic-selection/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: thedixitjain (https://skillmd.com/u/thedixitjain) - Updated: 2026-09-08 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/thedixitjain/jimf-topic-selection --- # Topic Selection (jimf-topic-selection) ## When to trigger - A finance/macro question is forming and you must decide whether JIMF is the right outlet vs. JIE, JME, JMCB, or JFE - The paper has a result but the **international/open-economy margin** is implicit or decorative - A referee or coauthor says "this is interesting, but is it *international money and finance*?" - You need a domestic result repackaged for an international audience — and want to know if that repackaging is real or cosmetic ## The JIMF "does it belong here?" test JIMF publishes work where the **international or cross-border dimension is load-bearing**, not a robustness footnote. The litmus test: if you removed the open-economy element (the exchange rate, the cross-border flow, the foreign monetary shock, the sovereign external position), would the paper collapse or merely lose a section? If it merely loses a section, you have a domestic paper with international garnish — route it to JME/JMCB/JFE instead. JIMF's core objects are exchange-rate dynamics and pass-through, capital-flow drivers (push vs. pull) and the global financial cycle, cross-border banking and the international transmission of monetary policy, sovereign risk and external debt, currency crises, FX intervention and capital controls, and international asset pricing (UIP, carry, term premia). | Candidate question | JIMF-fit verdict | Why / where else | |--------------------|------------------|------------------| | Do Fed surprises move EM exchange rates and capital flows? | Strong fit | Spillovers are the international margin | | Does a domestic macroprudential rule cut domestic credit? | Weak fit | JME/JMCB unless cross-border leakage is the point | | Does exchange-rate pass-through into import prices vary by invoicing currency? | Strong fit | Core ERPT / dominant-currency question | | Does a firm's leverage predict its stock returns (one country)? | Out of scope | JFE/RF — no international margin | | Does the global financial cycle constrain monetary autonomy (trilemma)? | Strong fit | Canonical JIMF / open-economy macro-finance | | Does sovereign CDS spread react to a foreign-currency debt rollover shock? | Strong fit | Sovereign risk + external position | ## Where this sits in the workflow Topic selection is the first gate, and it is the cheapest place to prevent the most expensive failure: a fully executed paper that is desk-rejected on scope. If the international margin is not load-bearing, no amount of later identification or robustness work makes the paper a JIMF paper — it makes it a well-identified paper at the wrong journal. Settle fit here, then hand a paper whose international contribution is unmistakable to `jimf-literature-positioning` to stake it against the frontier. Do not skip this gate because the result is exciting; excitement about a domestic result is exactly what produces a misrouted submission. ## How to frame the question for JIMF 1. **Name the international mechanism in the title or first sentence** — pass-through, spillover, push/pull, leakage, trilemma, dominant currency. The mechanism, not the data source, signals fit. 2. **State the unit of identifying variation** that is international: a foreign monetary surprise, a cross-country regime difference, a capital-control change, an exchange-rate regime switch. 3. **Decide the audience segment**: a central-bank/IMF/BIS policy reader (wants external validity and policy relevance) vs. an international-finance academic (wants the asset-pricing or identification innovation). JIMF serves both; say which you lead with. 4. **Pre-empt the desk-reject**: editors triage papers whose international content is thin or whose contribution is a marginal extension of a known cross-country regression. Make the new object explicit. ## Reframing a domestic result for JIMF (when it is honest) A domestic finding can become a JIMF paper if the international margin is *added as the question, not a robustness column*. Three honest reframings: (a) **cross-border transmission** — does the domestic mechanism spill across borders, and through which channel (trade, bank, portfolio)? (b) **cross-country comparison** — does the mechanism's strength vary with an international institution (exchange-rate regime, capital-account openness, currency-denomination of debt)? (c) **external-shock response** — does the domestic object respond to a *foreign* shock (a Fed surprise, a global risk shift, a terms-of-trade move)? If none of these is the paper's actual question, the reframing is cosmetic and the paper belongs elsewhere. ## Sizing the contribution JIMF publishes solid, well-identified field contributions, not only paradigm shifts — but a marginal extension of a famous cross-country regression will be triaged out. Calibrate: a new mechanism, a cleaner identification of a known effect, a new measurement that overturns an aggregate result, or credible external validity for a result that was estimated in one country/region all clear the bar. "First study of X for country Y," a longer sample of an existing regression, or a re-label of a domestic result do not. ## Worked vignette (illustrative) A team has a clean result that domestic bank lending falls after a domestic policy tightening — a solid but domestic finding. Is there a JIMF paper in it? Apply the load-bearing test through the three reframings. (a) Transmission: does the lending contraction spill abroad through these banks' foreign branches or cross-border claims? If the foreign-claims response is the new result, that is a JIMF paper on the international bank-lending channel. (b) Comparison: does the contraction differ for banks more reliant on foreign (dollar) funding? That is a JIMF paper on the global-funding margin. (c) External shock: do these banks contract lending after a *foreign* (US) tightening, not just the domestic one? That is a JIMF spillover paper. If none of these is the actual question and the paper stays about the domestic rate, route it to JME/JMCB — the international content would be cosmetic. ## Referee pushback mapped to the topic fix - *"This is interesting but not international finance."* → Make the international mechanism the question (transmission / comparison / external-shock), not a section. - *"This is a JME/JMCB paper."* → If the binding variation is domestic monetary policy, accept the reroute; if it is cross-border, foreground that margin. - *"The contribution is incremental."* → Identify a new object (mechanism, measure, design) or hold the paper until there is one. - *"This is really a real-trade / real-exchange-rate paper."* → If there is no monetary or financial channel, it is a JIE paper; add the financial margin or reroute. ## Checklist - [ ] Removing the international margin would collapse the paper, not just trim it - [ ] The international mechanism is named (pass-through / spillover / push-pull / trilemma / dominant currency / sovereign external risk) - [ ] The identifying variation is itself international (foreign shock, cross-country contrast, regime/control change) - [ ] The paper is distinguished from JIE (real trade/macro), JME/JMCB (domestic money), and JFE (no international margin) - [ ] The contribution is a new object or design, not a marginal control added to a known regression - [ ] If reframed from a domestic result, the reframing is the question (transmission/comparison/external-shock), not cosmetic - [ ] The lead audience (policy vs. academic) is chosen and the framing serves it - [ ] Fit is settled here before executing the paper — the cheapest place to avoid a scope desk-reject - [ ] The new object (mechanism, measure, or design) is statable in one sentence - [ ] Process facts (editor, APC, blinding) cited from `resources/official-source-map.md` or marked 待核实 ## Anti-patterns - A domestic study with one "we also add a foreign variable" robustness column dressed as international finance - Pitching the data ("we have new FX tick data") instead of the question (what international mechanism it identifies) - Confusing JIMF with JIE: a real-trade or real-exchange-rate-fundamentals paper with no monetary/financial channel belongs at JIE - Re-running a textbook cross-country growth/credit regression with one more year of data and calling it a contribution - Inventing exemplar JIMF papers or editor names to justify fit instead of marking uncertainty ## Output format ```text 【Journal】Journal of International Money and Finance 【Skill】jimf-topic-selection 【Verdict】fit / reframe / reroute (JIE / JME / JMCB / JFE) 【International mechanism】 【Load-bearing test】does removing the international margin collapse the paper? [Y/N] 【Lead audience】policy (CB/IMF/BIS) or academic international-finance 【Source status】verified URL / 待核实 【Next skill】jimf-literature-positioning ``` --- **Source:** [`brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills`](https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) → `Journal-of-International-Money-and-Finance-Skills/skills/jimf-topic-selection/SKILL.md`