Wp Topic Selection

Topic Selection & Fit (wp-topic-selection)

World Politics is a leading specialist in comparative politics and international relations. The bar is not "new to my country case" and not "of general interest to all of political science" — it is a substantive political question that travels across cases or systems and advances theoretical debate. Use this skill to pressure-test fit before you invest.

When to trigger

• Choosing among possible projects or framings for a World Politics submission
• A reviewer/colleague said the paper feels "too case-specific" or "just one country"
• Deciding between a research article and a review article
• Worried the topic may be out of scope (policy/opinion, theory-only, historical, journalistic)

The World Politics fit test

A strong research article usually clears all four:

1. Comparative or IR substance. The question concerns the central problems of comparative politics or international relations — regimes, institutions, conflict, cooperation, development, identity, political economy — not a discipline-agnostic methods demo and not pure IR theory alone.
2. It travels. The argument or mechanism applies beyond a single case: cross-national, cross-regional, or a theoretically motivated comparison. A lone case must be a case of something general (see wp-theory-building).
3. Theory + original empirics. It "poses important substantive questions, significantly advances theoretical debates, and presents original empirical research." A finding without theoretical payoff, or theory with no evidence, is off-fit.
4. In scope. Not an opinion or policy piece, not stand-alone political theory, not a historical article, not a current-affairs/journalistic narrative — these are explicit non-fits.

Research article vs. review article

• Research article — full original study (theory + empirics), ≤ 12,500 words including notes and references.
• Review article — analyzes and compares a set of thematically related books and advances how the field should pursue future work (distinct from a book review). Usually commissioned; pitch the editors before drafting (待核实 on current commissioning practice).

Differentiation (so you target the right venue)

Anti-patterns

• "It's never been studied in country X" as the whole contribution (single-case, doesn't travel)
• A method demonstration with no comparative/IR substantive payoff
• An opinion, policy, theory-only, historical, or journalistic piece (out of scope)
• Drafting an unsolicited review article without confirming the commissioning norm

Fit-objection patterns and the venue-specific fix

The earliest screen is fit, so the objections that kill a project here are about scope and travel — each with a reframe.

Calibration anchor: World Politics is a comparative-politics-and-IR specialist that prizes big theoretical questions and research design over narrow empirics, and it also runs analytical review essays. It is not a discipline-wide generalist and not IR-only — so a question with cross-case leverage on regimes, conflict, development, or institutions fits where a single-subfield novelty does not.

Worked micro-example (illustrative)

A scholar has rich data on one country's land-reform program. Two framings:

Off-fit:  "first quantitative study of country X's 1990s land reform" (single-case, doesn't travel)
On-fit:   "when does land reform defuse vs ignite rural conflict?" — country X as one case in a
          paired comparison, mechanism = redistribution-vs-expropriation credibility, testable
          across other reforming states
Type:     research article (a review article would instead synthesize related books + set an agenda)

The on-fit framing poses a substantive question that travels and carries theoretical payoff. (Scope norms can change; confirm against the current scope statement.)

Output format

【Question】one sentence
【Domain】comparative politics / IR / both
【Travels across cases?】how the argument generalizes [Y/N]
【Type】research article / review article
【In scope?】not opinion/policy/theory-only/historical/journalistic [Y/N]
【Fit verdict】strong / needs reframing / off-fit (why)
【Next】wp-literature-positioning

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — comparative + IR data sources
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — World Politics scope and article types

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills → World-Politics-Skills/skills/wp-topic-selection/SKILL.md