Individual skill
jel-topic-selection
Use when judging whether a literature is a Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)-scale survey topic — mature, important, and genuinely in need of synthesis — rather than a narrow review. Decides fit and frames the survey's animating question; it does not gather or synthesize the literature (that is jel-literature-synthesis).
Journal-of-Economic-Literature-Skills/skills/jel-topic-selection/SKILL.md
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# Topic Selection for a JEL Survey (jel-topic-selection)
## When to trigger
- You have a candidate field and need to know if it is "JEL-shaped"
- A topic feels either too narrow (a single-question review) or too sprawling (a whole subfield)
- You are deciding between JEL and a sibling outlet (JEP, Annual Review of Economics, a field journal's review section)
- The literature is young/fast-moving and you suspect it is not yet mature enough to survey
## The four JEL-fit tests
A literature belongs in JEL when it passes all four. If it fails one, route accordingly.
1. **Maturity.** There is a *body* of research — multiple research lines, accumulated evidence, recognizable debates — not a handful of recent working papers. A field that is still being born produces a *premature* survey that will date in a year. (Fails → too young; wait, or pitch JEP instead.)