---
name: jcr-topic-selection
description: Use when shaping or stress-testing a research question for the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) — confirming it is a genuine consumer-behavior question with a conceptual contribution, and that JCR (not JCP, JMR, or JM) is the right venue.
---

# Topic Selection & JCR Fit (jcr-topic-selection)

## When to trigger

- You have an interesting consumer effect but are unsure it rises to a JCR question
- You are choosing between JCR and a neighboring venue (JCP, JMR, JM, Marketing Science)
- A coauthor asks "is this conceptual enough for JCR?"
- You want to test whether the work advances, deepens, or repudiates consumer theory

## The JCR bar: a conceptual contribution about consumption

JCR's overriding publication criterion is **advancing understanding of consumer behavior or the conduct of consumer research**. A finding alone — even a robust, surprising one — is not enough. The question must promise to **advance, deepen, or repudiate existing theory** about how people acquire, use, dispose of, and derive meaning from products, services, and experiences. Ask early: *what do we understand about consumers after this paper that we did not before, and which theoretical conversation does it change?*

JCR is explicitly **multi-disciplinary**. A fit-worthy question draws substantively on at least one base discipline — psychology (judgment, motivation, emotion, identity), anthropology/sociology (culture, ritual, meaning, social structure), or economics (preferences, choice, welfare) — and is not merely an applied marketing tactic. The journal's identity is institutionalized by a Policy Board of ~11 sponsoring professional societies, so genuinely interdisciplinary framing is expected, not decorative.

## Two JCR-worthy genres

JCR is one of the few elite journals where two traditions compete on equal footing:

- **Behavioral / experimental**: a theory-driven psychological process, tested across multiple lab and online studies.
- **Interpretive / Consumer Culture Theory (CCT)**: ethnographic, phenomenological, or netnographic work that theorizes the sociocultural meanings of consumption.

A strong topic commits to one genre's logic (or a principled mix) rather than straddling weakly. Decide early — it drives `jcr-methods` and `jcr-theory-development`.

## Fit test (run before investing)

- [ ] The question is about **consumer behavior or the conduct of consumer research**, not a firm-strategy or pure-modeling question.
- [ ] There is a **conceptual contribution**: it changes a theoretical conversation, not just adds a context.
- [ ] At least one **base discipline** (psych / anthro-soc / econ) is doing real theoretical work.
- [ ] You can name the **genre** (experiments vs. CCT vs. mixed) and it suits the question.
- [ ] You can articulate **consumer relevance** in a sentence — a preview of the required 300-word Consumer Relevance and Contribution Statement.

## Venue routing

- Managerial-strategy or analytical-modeling marketing question → **JMR / JM / Marketing Science**, not JCR.
- Tight cognitive/affective process with a psychology focus → consider **JCP**.
- Sociocultural meaning of consumption → **JCR (CCT)** is a natural home.
- No theory advance, just a new effect or context → not yet a JCR paper; reframe here first.

## Anti-patterns

- "Interesting effect, no theory" — a curiosity, not a contribution.
- Treating "interdisciplinary" as citing one paper from another field rather than borrowing its theoretical engine.
- Choosing JCR for prestige when the paper is really a managerial or modeling contribution.
- Postponing the consumer-relevance articulation until submission.

## Output format

```
【Question】one-sentence consumer-behavior question
【Conceptual move】advances / deepens / repudiates which theory?
【Base discipline】psychology / anthropology-sociology / economics (+ how it works)
【Genre】experiments / CCT / mixed
【Consumer relevance】one-sentence preview of the 300-word statement
【JCR fit】fit / borderline / wrong venue → [route]
【Next step】jcr-theory-development
```