---
name: jcp-literature-positioning
description: Use when staking a Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP) manuscript's contribution against the consumer-psychology literature and its siblings (JCR, JMR, Marketing Science, Psychological Science). Positions the mechanism as new; it does not build the theory (jcp-theory-development) or design studies (jcp-methods).
---

# Literature Positioning (jcp-literature-positioning)

## When to trigger

- A reviewer wrote "we already know this" or "how is this different from [classic effect]?"
- Your contribution overlaps a well-known consumer-psych phenomenon and the delta is unclear
- The paper could be read as JCR / JMR / Psychological Science and you must claim the JCP lane
- Your literature review is a citation list, not an argument about what is missing
- You are unsure whether to position against an *effect* or against a *process* in prior work

## Position the process against the field, not the effect

At JCP the contribution is a mechanism, so positioning means showing **what the field believes about the process and how you change it** — not just that your effect is novel. The strongest JCP positioning identifies a **gap in causal understanding**: prior work documented the effect but mis-specified or never identified the process; or a dominant account predicts the wrong moderation; or two literatures make conflicting process claims your paper reconciles. Frame the review as a debt the field owes the consumer's mind, then pay it.

A useful test: write the sentence "Prior work shows that X affects consumer Y and attributes it to process P; we show the real (or an additional) process is P′, which implies M." If you cannot fill in P (what the field currently thinks the mechanism is), your positioning is still effect-level and a reviewer will say the contribution is incremental.

## Staking the JCP lane against siblings

| Sibling | How it overlaps | Your one-sentence differentiation |
|---------|-----------------|-----------------------------------|
| **JCR** | Both run consumer experiments | "Our contribution is a psychological mechanism, tested experimentally — not interpretive/CCT theorizing of consumption meaning." |
| **JMR / Marketing Science** | Both study consumer data | "We explain a mental process; we do not introduce a measure, model, or method." |
| **Journal of Marketing** | Both touch consumer outcomes | "Our outcome is the consumer's psychology, not a firm/strategy decision." |
| **Psychological Science / JPSP / JEP** | Both study cognition/affect | "The phenomenon is consumption-specific and matters to consumer-psychology theory and practice." |

If a reviewer suggests the paper "belongs in JCR," the fix is usually to foreground the **mechanism and its measurement** (JCP's center) rather than the broad consumption-meaning framing (JCR's). If they suggest "Psych Science," foreground the **consumer stakes and the consumer-psychology audience**.

## Building the positioning argument

- **Cite the process incumbents, not just the effect papers.** Show you know what the field thinks the mechanism is.
- **Make the gap a contradiction or an absence**, not a "no one has looked at this context."
- **Quantify the delta in understanding**: a new mediator, an overturned moderation, a reconciliation of conflicting findings.
- **Engage SCP-community work**: JCP reviewers are SCP members; ignoring the relevant JCP/consumer-psych canon reads as outsider work.
- **Be honest about adjacency**: name the closest prior paper and say precisely what it did not establish.

## Checklist

- [ ] The review states what the field currently believes the **process** is, then changes it
- [ ] The gap is a contradiction or genuine absence, not "a new context/category"
- [ ] One sentence differentiates the paper from each plausible sibling (JCR / JMR / Psych Sci)
- [ ] The closest prior paper is named and its limitation stated precisely
- [ ] Relevant consumer-psychology (SCP-community) work is engaged, not just general-psych classics
- [ ] The claimed delta is process-level (mediator / moderation / reconciliation), not effect-level

## Anti-patterns

- **Effect-level novelty**: "no one has shown X→Y in this setting" presented as a contribution
- **Strawman incumbents**: misrepresenting the dominant account so your delta looks bigger
- **Sibling avoidance**: never naming JCR/Psych Science when the reviewer obviously will
- **Citation carpet**: thirty references with no argument about the missing mechanism
- **Canon blindness**: skipping the obvious JCP/consumer-psych precedents a Division-23 reviewer reads weekly

## Output format

```text
【Field's current process belief】what prior work thinks the mechanism is
【Gap】contradiction / absence at the process level (one sentence)
【Our delta】new mediator / overturned moderation / reconciliation
【Closest prior paper】citation + what it did not establish
【Sibling lane】why JCP not JCR / JMR / Psych Science (one line each as needed)
【Next skill】jcp-methods
```