humrel-topic-selection

Research

Use when deciding whether a question belongs in Human Relations (HR) and how to frame it for the journal's interdisciplinary work-and-society audience. Tests fit and sharpens the question; it does not develop the theory or invent evidence.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills/blob/HEAD/Human-Relations-Skills/skills/humrel-topic-selection/SKILL.md

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Topic Selection (humrel-topic-selection)

When to trigger

You have a workplace/organizational phenomenon but are unsure it is an HR question rather than a sibling-journal question
The puzzle is interesting empirically but you cannot yet say what social-theoretical understanding it would advance
A coauthor asks "is this Human Relations, Organization Studies, JMS, or Work, Employment and Society?"
The topic is timely (AI at work, platform labour, hybrid work, inequality) and you need it to be more than topical

What makes a question an HR question

HR is the interdisciplinary social-science journal of relationships at and around work. Its self-description is the test: research that advances "our understanding of social relationships at and around work through theoretical development and empirical investigation." Three things travel together for a strong HR topic:

The relational/social core. The phenomenon is about people in relation — power, identity, meaning, conflict, control, solidarity, emotion, institutions — not a firm-level performance lever or an isolated individual trait. If the question could be answered without reference to social relations, it is probably not HR.
A theoretical stake, declared early. HR runs an editorial scoping screen and demands "a unique and substantive theoretical contribution"; "suitable data are a necessary but not sufficient feature to get to full peer review." A topic that is only descriptive or only managerial-prescriptive will not clear the screen.
Interdisciplinary reach. HR draws on sociology, psychology, organization studies, and critical theory. The best topics speak to a conversation readers from more than one tradition recognize.

Sibling boundaries — where the topic should and should not go

If the centre of gravity is…	The natural home is…	HR's distinct angle
US-style hypothesis test of an OB effect	AMJ	HR wants theory + social context, methods plural, not a moderated-mediation template
A debate internal to organization theory / paradigms	Organization Studies (EGOS)	HR is broader social science of work, less paradigm-internal
Managerial relevance / strategy / the firm	JMS	HR foregrounds the social relation, not managerial payoff
Employment, labour markets, class, work sociology	Work, Employment and Society	HR pulls the case up to organizational/relational theory, not labour-market description
A purely critical/deconstructive intervention	Organization	HR welcomes critique but rewards a constructive, generative theoretical contribution

How to sharpen the question

State the phenomenon as a puzzle or tension ("workers say X yet do Y"), not a topic label.
Name the conversation it joins and the prior it could unsettle (feeds humrel-literature-positioning).
Identify which HR readers would care (organizational sociologists? critical scholars? work psychologists?) and which would desk-screen it as out of scope.
Decide the likely archetype (ethnographic, critical, quantitative, mixed, theory) early — it sets the chain entry point in humrel-workflow.

Checklist

The question is about social relationships at/around work, not a firm-performance lever
A theoretical stake is stated, not just an empirical gap or a timely topic
The target conversation and the prior it could overturn are named
You can say why it is HR and not OS / JMS / AMJ / WES / Organization
At least one HR reader segment would find it non-obvious and important
Process facts cited (length, review model, portal) trace to resources/official-source-map.md or are marked 待核实

Anti-patterns

A "hot topic" (AI, hybrid work) with no relational mechanism or theoretical stake
A managerial how-to or performance-optimization question dressed as organizational research
A descriptive case that never rises above its setting to organizational theory
Framing so generic the journal name could be swapped without changing a word
Treating the editorial scoping screen as a formality rather than the first real gate

Output format

【Journal】Human Relations
【Skill】humrel-topic-selection
【Verdict】fit / sharpen / reroute to sibling
【Puzzle (one sentence)】the tension, not the topic
【Relational core】how it is about relationships at/around work
【Theoretical stake】what understanding it could advance
【Sibling boundary】why HR and not OS / JMS / AMJ / WES / Organization
【Source status】verified / 待核实 / not asserted
【Next skill】humrel-theory-development