Skill UI

A comprehensive guide for authors targeting the American Economic Review (AER). This skill helps authors assess whether their economics manuscript meets AER's high bar for general interest, methodological rigor, and structural presentation. It covers journal positioning, identification strategy, required modern inference techniques, and how to re-frame niche field papers for a broad disciplinary audience.

This guide provides a structured framework for authors to sharpen the narrative of their academic contribution, particularly for high-impact journals. It teaches the 'two-layer positioning': creating a broad-interest hook for general readers, and defining a precise marginal delta against 3-5 specific, current frontier papers. It transforms vague related-work sections into compelling, verifiable arguments.

This tool guides researchers through pressure-testing their economic research ideas against the standards of top-tier, general-interest journals (like QJE). It helps diagnose whether a study's 'big idea' and broad implications are compelling enough, ensuring the focus is on the general lesson rather than just the technical method or narrow finding. Ideal for structuring academic arguments and improving manuscript scope.