phg-topic-selection

name	phg-topic-selection
description	Use when deciding whether a topic is review-worthy for Progress in Human Geography (PiHG) — a large, live, contested literature with real disciplinary stakes, not a gap-filling empirical study. Tests fit and scope; it does not build the argument or gather sources.

Topic Selection & Review-Worthiness (phg-topic-selection)

PiHG's first gate is not "is this interesting?" but "is this review-worthy for the discipline?" The journal publishes critical reviews and theory, not empirical work, so a topic earns a PiHG essay only if there is a substantial, contested literature whose state a synthetic argument can usefully re-order — and if the essay would matter beyond one sub-field's specialists.

When to trigger

• Choosing what to review, or narrowing a broad interest into an essay
• Unsure whether a literature is big and live enough to sustain a review
• A colleague said "this is just a summary" or "why does the field need this now?"
• Deciding whether the piece is a review article or a scoped Progress Report

The review-worthiness test (all four must hold)

Criterion	Pass condition	Fails when
Volume	A large enough body of work exists to synthesize, not just cite	A handful of papers — too thin for a review
Liveness	The debate is active and unsettled now	A closed, historical, or consensus topic
Contest	Real disagreement or unresolved tension to adjudicate	Everyone already agrees; nothing to argue
Stakes	Re-ordering it matters beyond the niche	A parochial corner only insiders care about

If any fails, the topic is not yet a PiHG review — narrow it, wait for the literature to mature, or send an empirical study elsewhere.

The "so what has changed?" clock

PiHG reviews are timely. A review-worthy topic usually has a trigger: a burst of new work, a methodological turn, a real-world shift, or a concept that has quietly drifted. State why now — a review with no answer to "why this, why now?" reads as a textbook chapter, not an intervention.

Scope discipline (the cap is short)

A PiHG review is ~4,000–8,000 words inclusive of endnotes — short for a survey. Choose a scope you can synthesize into one argument, not everything ever written. A tightly-scoped essay with a clear thesis beats an exhaustive catalogue every time.

• Prefer a contested seam between literatures over a whole sub-field.
• Prefer a concept whose meaning is drifting over a topic with no conceptual tension.
• If the scope needs 15,000 words to cover, it is two essays or the wrong scope.

The empirical-trap check (PiHG-specific)

The most common misfit is an empirical study dressed as a review. Ask: if you deleted every "we find / the data show," is there still a review? If the piece's spine is your own findings, PiHG is the wrong venue — this is a study, and it belongs at an empirical journal.

Worked micro-example (illustrative)

Weak: "A review of research on gentrification." (whole sub-field, no tension, no "why now")
Review-worthy: "Gentrification research has split into a rent-gap camp and a consumption camp that no
  longer argue with each other; a decade of platform-mediated displacement now cuts across both — this
  essay asks what the split has hidden and what platform displacement reveals." (contested seam + trigger
  + stakes + synthesizable scope)

Checklist

• The literature is large, live, contested, and has stakes beyond the niche
• There is a clear answer to "why this review, why now?"
• Scope is narrow enough to synthesize into ONE argument within the cap
• The piece is a review, not an empirical study in disguise (delete-the-data test)
• A generalist human geographer, not only specialists, would care

Anti-patterns

• Reviewing a settled or consensus topic ("there is nothing left to argue")
• Choosing a scope so broad it can only be catalogued, not argued
• A review with no "why now?" — reads as a textbook, not an intervention
• Smuggling in an empirical study and calling it a review
• Confusing "under-reviewed" with "review-worthy" — some corners are small for a reason

Output format

【Topic】the contested literature/seam in one line
【Review-worthy?】volume / liveness / contest / stakes [Y/N each]
【Why now】the trigger
【Scope】what is in / out, and can it be synthesized in ~8,000 words?
【Not empirical?】passes delete-the-data test? [Y/N]
【Next】phg-theory-building

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/exemplars/library.md — landmark review/theory works whose scope and stakes are worth studying
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — genres, scope, and what PiHG does not publish