Curranthro workflow

CA Workflow Router (curranthro-workflow)

The orchestrator for a Current Anthropology submission. Figure out the stage, the subfield, and the article type, then send the user to the matching skill. CA is the transnational, all-fields journal published by the University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and its defining feature is the CA✩ Treatment: an accepted Major Article is circulated to invited commentators whose signed Comments are published alongside it, followed by the author's Reply. The router's first job is to make sure the work is built to survive and reward that public, multi-voice scrutiny.

When to trigger

• Starting a new CA paper and unsure where to begin
• Mid-project and unsure which skill applies next
• Deciding which article type fits (Major Article vs. Report vs. Forum vs. Discussion/Comment)
• Returning with a decision letter or with published Comments to reply to (route to curranthro-rebuttal)

First questions: subfield and article type

Situation	Article type	Route to
Field-shaping theoretical/methodological intervention, broad reach	Major Article (6,000–10,000 words) → gets the CA✩ Treatment	normal pipeline below
Sharp finding, provocation, or new framework, shorter	Report (3,000–5,000 words)	curranthro-topic-selection + curranthro-data-analysis
Curated multi-author debate on a pressing issue	Forum	curranthro-topic-selection + curranthro-writing-style
Critique/reply to a CA piece from the last ~8 months	Discussion / Comment (≤ 800 words)	curranthro-rebuttal + curranthro-writing-style
Bridging academic and applied work	Current Applications (open-access section)	curranthro-topic-selection

CA spans all subfields: sociocultural, archaeology, biological/physical, linguistic (plus ethnohistory, prehistory, applied). Method and ethics demands differ by subfield — name yours before routing (see curranthro-research-design). Only Major Articles get the full CA✩ commentary.

Routing map (stage → skill)

Idea / fit / article type?       → curranthro-topic-selection
Where does it sit in the field?  → curranthro-literature-positioning
What's the conceptual argument?  → curranthro-theory-building
Is the fieldwork/design sound?   → curranthro-research-design
Is the analysis/inference sound? → curranthro-data-analysis
Are exhibits clear & ethical?    → curranthro-tables-figures
Does it read across the fields?  → curranthro-writing-style
Ethics, consent, accountability? → curranthro-transparency-and-data
How does CA✩ review work?        → curranthro-review-process
Ready to submit?                 → curranthro-submission
Got Comments / an R&R?           → curranthro-rebuttal

Default order

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

Iterate: ethnographic and theory-driven papers loop theory ↔ fieldwork ↔ interpretation many times, and the ethics-and-accountability check (curranthro-transparency-and-data) should run early and again before submission. The CA✩ logic also runs throughout — from topic-selection onward, ask "who are my likely commentators, and what will they attack?"

CA✩ fit check (run before routing to the next skill)

Check	Pass condition	Route if weak
Reach	A scholar in another subfield (e.g., a linguist reading an archaeology paper) can state why it matters to anthropology writ large.	curranthro-topic-selection
Commentary worthiness	The argument is bold and synthetic enough that international commentators would have something substantive to debate.	curranthro-theory-building
Mode honesty	The method (ethnographic, archival, material, lab) is defended in its own idiom, not forced into a quantitative template.	curranthro-research-design
Ethics of care	Consent, anonymization, heritage/repatriation obligations have an explicit plan.	curranthro-transparency-and-data

If the paper fails the reach or commentary-worthiness check, do not route to writing-style — a CA Major Article that no one would bother commenting on is not yet a CA Major Article.

Anti-patterns

• Treating CA like a one-subfield outlet — the Major Article should reach all of anthropology
• Forgetting the CA✩ Treatment exists: writing a paper that cannot withstand published, signed Comments
• Confusing CA with its siblings: it is not American Anthropologist (AAA flagship, no comment apparatus), American Ethnologist, or Cultural Anthropology — CA is Wenner-Gren-sponsored and defined by the comment-and-reply format
• Forcing ethnographic/interpretive work into a hypothesis-test template
• Deferring ethics, consent, and anonymization to the end (they are design decisions)

Output format

【Stage】idea / positioning / theory / design / analysis / exhibits / writing / ethics / review / submit / reply
【Subfield】sociocultural / archaeology / biological / linguistic / ethnohistory-applied
【Article type】Major Article (CA✩) / Report / Forum / Discussion-Comment / Current Applications
【Route to】curranthro-<skill>
【Why】one line
【Then】the next skill after that

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — anthropology data sources, archives, CAQDAS, lab/quant tooling by subfield
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official CA / Wenner-Gren / UChicago Press URLs behind every fact in this pack