commres-theory-building — independently scanned and version-tracked by SaferSkills.
SaferSkills independently audited commres-theory-building (Agent Skill) and scored it 100/100 (green). The audit ran 55 deterministic rules across Security, Supply Chain, Maintenance, Transparency, and Community; it found 0 high-severity and 0 lower-severity findings. The full rule-by-rule trace and per-finding evidence are below. Free, methodology-open.
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Every scanned point with the score it earned and what moved between them.
First recorded scan — no prior version to compare against.
The primary manifest — the file an agent reads to learn what this artifact does.
At CR a result is not a contribution until it is attached to a testable communication mechanism. This skill turns an idea into theory: precise constructs, an explicit process, and numbered hypotheses that the design will test. CR is a hypothetico-deductive journal — a paper that documents an effect without a tested mechanism rarely clears the bar.
norms); distinguish each from its near neighbors so measurement is unambiguous.
with what cognitive/affective/social step that produces the outcome. This is the mediator.
or reverse the effect. CR rewards "for whom / when," not just "whether."
questions where theory is thin): H1 (effect), H2 (mediation path), H3 (moderation). These become the tests in commres-research-design and commres-data-analysis.
CR is the home of process models — message → mediator → outcome, conditioned by moderators. State the causal ordering the model assumes and how the design licenses it: a mediator measured on the same cross-sectional wave as the outcome cannot carry a causal-process claim (defer the temporal warrant to design). Pre-specify the indirect-effect test; do not fit a PROCESS model post hoc and narrate it as theory.
A common substantive rejection is "theory cited but not advanced." Citing a theory is not moving it. Calibrate where a paper sits:
| Level | What the paper does to theory | CR verdict (typical) |
|---|---|---|
| Applies | uses an existing framing/priming/cultivation account as-is | rarely enough alone |
| Extends | adds a moderator/boundary condition to a known effect | competitive if consequential |
| Specifies | opens a mediating process a prior account left as a black box | strong fit |
| Adjudicates | pits two mechanisms and lets the data choose | high-end contribution |
The bar is the tested theoretical move, not the method. A heuristic, not an editorial rule.
| Referee comment | Underlying gap | Fix at the argument stage |
|---|---|---|
| "Theory cited but not advanced" | applies, does not extend | name the boundary or black box the study opens |
| "Effect without a mechanism" | no mediator | state the cognitive/affective/social step and a mediation hypothesis |
| "Why doesn't this travel?" | boundary conditions absent | specify moderators where the effect holds and breaks |
| "Construct slippage" | measured thing isn't the construct | re-anchor the definition; split from neighbors; revisit the scale |
| "HARKing suspected" | hypotheses look post hoc | preregister; present theory before results, RQs where theory is thin |
A study finds gain-framed vaccine messages raise intention more than loss-framed ones — a bare effect. Lifted to a CR argument: framing shifts perceived response-efficacy (mediator, H2), which raises intention (H1); the path is stronger for low-prior-knowledge audiences (moderator, H3). The constructs are defined and distinguished from "perceived threat," the indirect effect is pre-specified with bootstrap CIs, and the moderator gives a "for whom" — a portable, tested mechanism rather than a re-documented framing effect.
【Core claim】one sentence
【Mechanism】the communication process (the mediator)
【Constructs】defined + distinguished from neighbors
【Hypotheses】H1 (effect) / H2 (mediation) / H3 (moderation) → research-design
【Boundary conditions】which audiences / messages / contexts
【Causal-ordering warrant】how the design licenses the process claim
【Next】commres-research-design../../resources/external_tools.md — measurement, SEM, and mediation/PROCESS tooling../../resources/official-source-map.md — CR scope and contribution expectations~30 seconds. Free. No account. Every finding cites a rule and a line of evidence.