cps-workflow

name	cps-workflow
description	Use when starting or navigating any Comparative Political Studies (CPS) manuscript and you need the right next sub-skill, chosen by lifecycle stage and whether the paper makes a genuinely comparative claim across countries or over time. It dispatches; it does not draft content.

CPS Workflow Router (cps-workflow)

The orchestrator for a Comparative Political Studies submission. Figure out the stage, then send the user to the matching skill. CPS is the discipline's comparative-politics specialist (SAGE, since 1968) — the router's first job is to confirm the paper makes a comparative argument (across countries, subnational units, or over time), not a single-case study with no comparative leverage.

When to trigger

• Starting a new CPS paper and unsure where to begin
• Mid-project and unsure which skill applies next
• Unsure whether the paper is comparative enough for CPS (vs. a single-country area-studies piece)
• Returning with a decision letter (route to cps-rebuttal)

First question: is it comparative?

Situation	CPS fit	Route to
Cross-national or cross-regional claim	Strong	normal pipeline below
Subnational comparison or over-time within one country	Strong (intra-national counts)	normal pipeline
Single case used to build/test a portable theory	Conditional — must travel	cps-topic-selection + cps-theory-building
Single country, descriptive, no comparative leverage	Weak — likely off-fit	cps-topic-selection (reframe)
General US poli-sci or pure IR theory	Off-fit — see sibling guard	reconsider venue

CPS publishes work on democratization & regimes, institutions, political behavior & participation, ethnic politics & conflict, comparative political economy, and parties & elections — comparative in design or in the portability of the claim.

Routing map (stage → skill)

Idea / comparative fit?          → cps-topic-selection
Where does it sit in the field?  → cps-literature-positioning
What's the argument?             → cps-theory-building
Is the design defensible?        → cps-research-design
Are the analyses sound?          → cps-data-analysis
Are the exhibits clear?          → cps-tables-figures
Does it read for comparativists? → cps-writing-style
Replication & transparency?      → cps-transparency-and-data
How will it be judged?           → cps-review-process
Ready to submit?                 → cps-submission
Got an R&R / decision?           → cps-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: most papers loop theory ↔ design ↔ analysis several times before writing-style.

Comparative-fit routing check

Before selecting the next skill, force a one-minute CPS fit check:

Check	Pass condition	Route if weak
Comparative leverage	The variation that identifies the claim is across cases or time, not within one snapshot.	cps-research-design
Travel	The argument is stated as a portable mechanism a comparativist of another region can import.	cps-theory-building
Generality	The contribution speaks to a comparative-politics debate, not only to one country's specialists.	cps-topic-selection
Transparency	Quantitative results have a CPS Dataverse plan; qualitative evidence has a documentation plan.	cps-transparency-and-data

If the paper fails the comparative-leverage check, do not route to writing-style — it needs a design or fit repair, because CPS reviewers reject well-executed single-case papers that never become comparative.

Anti-patterns

• Treating CPS like an area-studies outlet — a lone country case with no comparative leverage is off-fit
• Pitching to the whole discipline like APSR/AJPS — CPS wants the comparative-politics contribution
• Submitting a pure-IR or pure-formal-theory paper that never compares political systems
• Deferring the replication package to acceptance — quantitative papers cannot be finally accepted without it

Output format

【Stage】idea / positioning / theory / design / analysis / exhibits / writing / transparency / review / submit / rebut
【Comparative?】cross-national / subnational / over-time / single-case-that-travels / not-yet
【Route to】cps-<skill>
【Why】one line
【Then】the next skill after that

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — comparative-politics data + software by method
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official CPS / SAGE URLs behind every fact in this pack