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smr-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a project clears the Sociological Methods & Research (SMR) bar — a genuine methodological contribution (develop, evaluate, or critically assess a method), not an application dressed as method. Screens fit and scope; does not derive properties or design simulations.
Sociological-Methods-and-Research-Skills/skills/smr-topic-selection/SKILL.md
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# SMR Topic Selection
Use this first. SMR's single hardest gate is the difference between **a paper about a method** and
**a paper that uses a method**. Most desk rejections at this venue are scope failures: a competent
applied analysis with no methodological payoff for other researchers.
## The three SMR contribution modes
A submission must clearly be one (or more) of these — name yours before drafting:
- **Develop**: a new estimator, design, diagnostic, identification result, or computational tool that
did not exist or could not be used before. The deliverable is a *method other people can adopt*.
- **Evaluate**: a systematic Monte Carlo or analytical comparison that tells the field *when an
existing method works, fails, or should be replaced* — the "often trusted but never properly tested"