Skills Productivity Social Forces Manuscript Workflow Router

Social Forces Manuscript Workflow Router

v20260724
sf-workflow
This tool acts as an orchestrator for academic manuscripts targeting general social-science journals. It guides authors through the entire writing and revision lifecycle, ensuring the paper maintains a general audience focus and adheres to strict structural constraints, such as 10,000-word limits (including references) and 10 figure/table panels. It routes the user to the most necessary next skill, whether for initial topic selection, theoretical positioning, research design, or final rebuttal.
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Overview

Social Forces Workflow Router (sf-workflow)

The orchestrator for a Social Forces submission. Figure out the stage, then send the user to the matching skill. SF is a general social-science journal (centered on sociology, published by Oxford University Press for UNC Chapel Hill) with a reputation for methodological rigor. Two structural facts shape every routing decision: the 10,000-word cap includes the reference list, and exhibits are capped at 10 tables and figure panels.

When to trigger

  • Starting a new SF paper and unsure where to begin
  • Mid-project and unsure which skill applies next
  • Worried the paper reads as subfield-only rather than for a general social-science audience
  • Returning with a decision letter (route to sf-rebuttal)

First check: fit and format

Situation Route to
Unsure the question matters beyond your subfield sf-topic-selection
Strong subfield lit but no general-audience framing sf-literature-positioning
A finding without a portable argument sf-theory-building
Identification / case-selection / design worries sf-research-design
Over 10,000 words with references counted sf-writing-style (trim)
More than 10 tables and figure panels sf-tables-figures (cut/consolidate)

Routing map (stage → skill)

Idea / fit?                          → sf-topic-selection
Where does it sit in the field?      → sf-literature-positioning
What's the portable argument?        → sf-theory-building
Is the design defensible?            → sf-research-design
Are the analyses sound?              → sf-data-analysis
Are the exhibits within 10 panels?   → sf-tables-figures
Does it read for a general audience? → sf-writing-style
Data availability statement ready?   → sf-data-and-transparency
How will it be judged?               → sf-review-process
Ready to submit?                     → sf-submission
Got an R&R / decision?               → sf-rebuttal

Default order

topic-selection → literature-positioning → theory-building → research-design → data-analysis → tables-figures → writing-style → data-and-transparency → review-process → submission → rebuttal

Iterate: most SF papers loop theory ↔ design ↔ analysis several times, then spend real effort trimming prose (references count!) and exhibits (10-panel cap) before writing-style and submission.

Anti-patterns

  • Treating SF like a narrow subfield outlet — it judges work by general social-science significance
  • Forgetting that references count toward the 10,000-word cap until the final trim
  • Letting exhibits drift past 10 panels and discovering it at submission
  • Formatting to the ASA Style Guide or an AJS-style house format — SF uses Chicago 17th author-date

Symptom-to-route shortcuts

When a user arrives mid-stream with a complaint rather than a stage, route on the symptom:

User says Likely real problem Route to
"Reviewer called it descriptive" Missing portable argument sf-theory-building
"It's 1,500 words over" References counted late sf-writing-style
"Reviewer doubts the causal claim" Identification gap sf-research-design
"Feels too niche for SF" General-significance gap sf-topic-selection

Worked vignette (illustrative): a user brings a clean networks analysis but a referee wrote "elegant method, unclear social question." That is not a methods problem — route first to sf-topic-selection and sf-theory-building to surface the substantive payoff, then back to sf-tables-figures to ration the panels, only afterward to sf-submission.

Router pass for Social Forces

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the social mechanism, data scope, identification or interpretation, and contribution to a wider literature; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: social-science reviewers who want generalizable social-process evidence across sociology, demography, and policy-adjacent topics.

  • Do the pass: Run the pack as a sequence: fit gate, evidence gate, writing gate, source-map gate, and final output contract; stop when a gate lacks evidence.
  • 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 ASR/AJS for top sociology theory stakes, Demography for population process, JMF for family-specific claims; 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

【Stage】idea / positioning / theory / design / analysis / exhibits / writing / transparency / review / submit / rebut
【Fit】general social-science significance clear? [Y/N]
【Format risk】words (incl. refs) ≤ 10,000? panels ≤ 10? [Y/N]
【Route to】sf-<skill>
【Why】one line
【Then】the next skill after that

Supplementary resources

Info
Category Productivity
Name sf-workflow
Version v20260724
Size 5.8KB
Updated At 2026-07-29
Language