Literature Positioning (gec-literature-positioning)

GEC is interdisciplinary. A submission that engages only one literature (only climate science, or only one governance debate) reads as off-fit. This skill helps you locate the paper at the intersection of the literatures GEC readers expect and define the gap your contribution fills.

When to trigger

• Drafting or revising the introduction and the "gap" the paper fills
• A reviewer said the framing "misses a key literature" or is "too disciplinary"
• Reconciling a domain literature (e.g., land-use science) with a social-science literature (e.g., governance)
• Choosing which debates to foreground for a broad, policy-relevant audience

How GEC papers position themselves

1. Engage at least two literatures. Typically a domain literature (climate, water, land, food, oceans, biodiversity) plus a human-dimensions literature (vulnerability, governance, behavior, transitions, political ecology, environmental economics). Show how they meet on your question.
2. State the gap as a contribution, not a hole. "X is understudied" is weak; "the dominant framing of X cannot explain Y, and here is a framework / test that does" is strong.
3. Cite across communities. Engage the international, comparative, and policy literatures GEC draws on — not just your home subfield or your own region.
4. Set up the framework. Positioning should hand off cleanly to gec-conceptual-framework: the literature gap is what the framework is built to close.

Cross-literature framing

Anti-patterns

• A single-literature review that ignores the human-dimensions or domain side of the question
• Citing only your own group / one region / one disciplinary silo
• Framing the gap as mere absence ("no one has looked at …") with no conceptual stake
• A literature review disconnected from the framework and the eventual policy claim

Positioning objections GEC editors and referees raise

Because GEC sits at the intersection of environmental social science, governance, and a domain literature, the fastest desk-reject is a paper that engages only one of them. These are the framing objections and their fixes.

Worked micro-example (illustrative)

A land-use change paper is first framed as "filling a gap in remote-sensing estimates of deforestation in one basin."

• Off-fit framing: engages only the remote-sensing literature; the contribution is a better measurement of a biophysical process. A GEC editor screens it toward a land-science venue.
• GEC-fit reframing: positions the paper at the meeting of the land-change-science literature and the environmental-governance literature, arguing that prevailing governance accounts predict the wrong spatial pattern of clearing. The gap becomes a contested explanatory claim, not an empty cell on a map. Roughly 60% of the citations now span communities beyond the home subfield (illustrative).
• Payoff: the same data now answers a human-dimensions question — which institutions actually shape land-use drivers — that GEC readers care about.

Calibration anchors (hedged)

• Two-literature bar: a GEC introduction should make at least one domain and one human-dimensions literature meet on the question; a single-silo review reads as off-fit.
• Global-significance bar: the gap should matter beyond one region; a local-only "not yet studied here" rarely clears it.
• Confirm the journal's current scope and aims statement on its author guidelines before finalising the framing, as editorial emphasis shifts over time.

Output format

【Literatures engaged】domain + human-dimensions (name them)
【Intersection】where they meet on this question
【Gap as contribution】the framing your paper changes or the test it settles
【Cross-community cites】beyond home subfield / region? [Y/N]
【Next】gec-conceptual-framework

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — data sources and reference managers
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — GEC scope and interdisciplinary remit