Wp workflow

World Politics Workflow Router (wp-workflow)

The orchestrator for a World Politics submission. Figure out the stage and the article type, then send the user to the matching skill. World Politics publishes scholarship in comparative politics and international relations — it is a specialist in that joint domain, not a discipline-wide generalist (unlike APSR/AJPS/JOP) and not IR-only. The router's first job is to confirm the question travels across cases or systems and sits inside the journal's scope.

When to trigger

• Starting a new World Politics paper and unsure where to begin
• Mid-project and unsure which skill applies next
• Deciding between a research article and a review article
• Returning with a decision letter (route to wp-rebuttal)

First question: which article type, and is it in scope?

Situation	Type	Route to
Original study posing a substantive comparative/IR question	Research article (≤ 12,500 words)	normal pipeline below
Synthesis of thematically related books that reframes a field's agenda	Review article (usually commissioned; still triple-blind)	wp-literature-positioning + wp-theory-building
Opinion / policy piece, stand-alone political theory, historical or journalistic narrative	Out of scope	stop — World Politics does not publish these

Review articles "differ from conventional book reviews": they must advance how a field should pursue future work, not just summarize books. They are usually commissioned — confirm before investing (待核实).

Routing map (stage → skill)

Idea / fit & scope?              → wp-topic-selection
Where does it sit in the field?  → wp-literature-positioning
What's the argument that travels?→ wp-theory-building
Is the design defensible?        → wp-research-design
Are the analyses sound?          → wp-data-analysis
Are the exhibits clear?          → wp-tables-figures
Does it read across cases?       → wp-writing-style
Dataverse & transparency?        → wp-transparency-and-data-policy
How will it be judged?           → wp-review-process
Ready to submit?                 → wp-submission
Got an R&R / decision?           → wp-rebuttal

Default order

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

Iterate: most papers loop theory ↔ design ↔ analysis several times before writing-style.

Anti-patterns

• Treating World Politics like a generalist venue (APSR/AJPS/JOP) — the contribution must sit in comparative politics or IR and speak across cases
• Treating it like an IR-only journal — comparative-politics questions are equally central
• Submitting an opinion/policy piece, stand-alone political theory, or a historical/journalistic narrative (explicitly out of scope)
• Pitching an unsolicited review article without checking the commissioning norm

Venue-routing calibration (where a paper belongs)

Before dispatching internally, sanity-check that World Politics is the right home. It is a leading peer-reviewed journal of comparative politics and international relations — theory-driven work on the political economy of development, regime change, conflict and security, and institutions, using comparative, quantitative, qualitative, and formal methods, and known for analytical review essays.

Symptom	Likely better home	Re-route signal
IR institutions / political economy, narrow	International Organization	Route there if the audience is IR-only
General-interest, any subfield	APSR / AJPS / Journal of Politics	Discipline-wide reach, not comparative-IR specialist
Comparative breadth, lighter theory	Comparative Political Studies	If the theoretical question is not big enough
Travels across cases, big theoretical question	World Politics	Stay; run the pipeline below

If a neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, say so before investing in the pipeline.

Router pass for World Politics

Run this as a concrete capability pass. First lock the political mechanism, case scope, evidence warrant, and comparative or international implication; then test whether the manuscript addresses comparative and international politics reviewers who expect a big political question, credible evidence, and theory that travels beyond one case.

• Primary move: Run the pack as fit gate, evidence gate, writing gate, source-map gate, and output contract; stop when a gate lacks evidence.
• Decision ledger: return claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
• Sibling comparison: compare against International Organization for IR institutions/political economy, Journal of Politics for wider political science, Comparative Political Studies for comparative breadth; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
• Verification floor: before submission-ready advice, re-open resources/official-source-map.md for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.

Output format

【Stage】idea / positioning / theory / design / analysis / exhibits / writing / transparency / review / submit / rebut
【Type】research article / review article
【In scope?】comparative or IR, travels across cases? [Y/N]
【Route to】wp-<skill>
【Why】one line
【Then】the next skill after that

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — comparative + IR data and software by method
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official World Politics URLs behind every fact in this pack