Topic Selection & Venue Fit (mksc-topic-selection)
When to trigger
- You have a marketing phenomenon (pricing, advertising/digital, branding, channels/retail, platforms, analytics) but no modeling angle
- You are unsure whether the question is "important" by Marketing Science standards
- You have a finding but it is a reduced-form correlation with no model
- You cannot decide between Marketing Science, JCR, JMR, or Management Science
The two-part fit test
Marketing Science publishes "articles that answer important research questions in marketing using mathematical modeling." A topic must pass both gates:
- Substantive importance. A real marketing decision or market phenomenon — how firms price, advertise, design assortments, or how consumers and markets respond — that managers or the field care about.
- Modelability. It can be framed as an analytical (game-theoretic) model of strategic interaction, OR a structural econometric model of demand/supply that is estimable and yields counterfactuals. If neither fits, MKSC is likely the wrong venue.
A strong MKSC topic usually implies a counterfactual or policy question — "what happens to prices, share, or welfare if the firm/platform changes X?" — that only a model can answer.
Pick the genre the question implies
- Analytical when the insight is about strategic interaction and you want clean comparative statics (channel conflict, competitive pricing, information/targeting design).
- Structural when you need quantitative magnitudes and counterfactuals from data (demand estimation, dynamic discrete choice, auctions, search).
- A Frontiers topic is timely and high-impact with one dominant contribution dimension — scope it to a 6,000-word total story.
Venue contrast
- JCR — consumer-psychology theory and experiments with no formal model. If that is your paper, target JCR.
- JMR — broader, methods-forward marketing (modeling or behavioral); MKSC is narrower on the modeling core.
- Management Science — general management science; if the contribution is not specifically a marketing decision, it may belong there.
Checklist
Anti-patterns
- A correlation in search of a story, with no model.
- A pure consumer-psychology effect dressed up as quantitative marketing.
- "Important to a manager" but no tractable model — or an elegant model answering no real marketing question.
Fit pass for Marketing Science
Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the demand/supply mechanism, fit evidence, and counterfactual decision margin; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: quantitative marketing reviewers who read the model through the managerial counterfactual it makes possible.
- Do the pass: Score the manuscript on venue fit, novelty, evidence readiness, and audience ownership; reject a prestige-only target when a sibling venue owns the contribution more directly.
- Return a ledger: give
claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
- Sibling guard: compare against Journal of Marketing Research for empirical marketing breadth, Management Science for wider OR/MS reach, Quantitative Marketing and Economics for specialist modeling; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
- Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's
resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.
Output format
【Question】one-sentence marketing question
【Importance】why the field/manager cares
【Modelability】analytical / structural / unclear; counterfactual payoff
【Genre】analytical / structural / Frontiers
【Venue】Marketing Science vs JCR/JMR/MgmtSci — fit verdict
【Next step】mksc-theory-development
Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills → Marketing-Science-Skills/skills/mksc-topic-selection/SKILL.md
1---2name: mksc-topic-selection3description: Use when choosing or sharpening the research question for a Marketing Science manuscript — testing whether a marketing problem is important AND admits a formal model (structural or analytical), and whether Marketing Science (not JCR/JMR/Management Science) is the right venue.4---567# Topic Selection & Venue Fit (mksc-topic-selection)89## When to trigger1011- You have a marketing phenomenon (pricing, advertising/digital, branding, channels/retail, platforms, analytics) but no modeling angle12- You are unsure whether the question is "important" by Marketing Science standards13- You have a finding but it is a reduced-form correlation with no model14- You cannot decide between Marketing Science, JCR, JMR, or Management Science1516## The two-part fit test1718Marketing Science publishes "articles that answer **important research questions in marketing using mathematical modeling**." A topic must pass both gates:19201. **Substantive importance.** A real marketing decision or market phenomenon — how firms price, advertise, design assortments, or how consumers and markets respond — that managers or the field care about.212. **Modelability.** It can be framed as an analytical (game-theoretic) model of strategic interaction, OR a structural econometric model of demand/supply that is estimable and yields counterfactuals. If neither fits, MKSC is likely the wrong venue.2223A strong MKSC topic usually implies a **counterfactual or policy question** — "what happens to prices, share, or welfare if the firm/platform changes X?" — that only a model can answer.2425## Pick the genre the question implies2627- **Analytical** when the insight is about strategic interaction and you want clean comparative statics (channel conflict, competitive pricing, information/targeting design).28- **Structural** when you need quantitative magnitudes and counterfactuals from data (demand estimation, dynamic discrete choice, auctions, search).29- A **Frontiers** topic is timely and high-impact with one dominant contribution dimension — scope it to a 6,000-word total story.3031## Venue contrast3233- **JCR** — consumer-psychology theory and experiments with no formal model. If that is your paper, target JCR.34- **JMR** — broader, methods-forward marketing (modeling or behavioral); MKSC is narrower on the modeling core.35- **Management Science** — general management science; if the contribution is not specifically a marketing decision, it may belong there.3637## Checklist3839- [ ] Question is an important marketing decision/market phenomenon, in one sentence40- [ ] It admits a formal model (analytical or structural), not just a regression41- [ ] There is a clear counterfactual/policy payoff a model can deliver42- [ ] Genre (analytical / structural / Frontiers) chosen deliberately43- [ ] Venue confirmed vs. JCR / JMR / Management Science4445## Anti-patterns4647- A correlation in search of a story, with no model.48- A pure consumer-psychology effect dressed up as quantitative marketing.49- "Important to a manager" but no tractable model — or an elegant model answering no real marketing question.505152## Fit pass for Marketing Science5354Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the demand/supply mechanism, fit evidence, and counterfactual decision margin; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: quantitative marketing reviewers who read the model through the managerial counterfactual it makes possible.5556- **Do the pass:** Score the manuscript on venue fit, novelty, evidence readiness, and audience ownership; reject a prestige-only target when a sibling venue owns the contribution more directly.57- **Return a ledger:** give `claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location` rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.58- **Sibling guard:** compare against Journal of Marketing Research for empirical marketing breadth, Management Science for wider OR/MS reach, Quantitative Marketing and Economics for specialist modeling; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.59- **Stop condition:** do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's `resources/official-source-map.md` has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.6061## Output format6263```64【Question】one-sentence marketing question65【Importance】why the field/manager cares66【Modelability】analytical / structural / unclear; counterfactual payoff67【Genre】analytical / structural / Frontiers68【Venue】Marketing Science vs JCR/JMR/MgmtSci — fit verdict69【Next step】mksc-theory-development70```7172---7374**Source:** [`brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills`](https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) → `Marketing-Science-Skills/skills/mksc-topic-selection/SKILL.md`
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