Journal Monitor

Monthly scan of new articles in Research Policy, Regional Studies and NBER. Creates and updates an Obsidian note with titles, authors, and abstracts, deduplicating against previously logged items.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
Data & AIIntermediate
007/29/2026
Claude CodeCursor
#journals#research-policy#regional-studies#nber#monitoring#monthly

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name: journal_monitor description: Monthly scan of new articles in Research Policy, Regional Studies journals and NBER regional/innovation papers. Creates and updates an Obsidian note with titles, authors, and abstracts — deduplicating against previously logged items. tags:

  • journals
  • research-policy
  • regional-studies
  • nber
  • monitoring
  • monthly

Journal Monitor

Purpose

Fetch new articles from:

  1. Research Policy (journal, Elsevier/ScienceDirect) — most recent issue
  2. Regional Studies (journal, Taylor & Francis) — most recent issue
  3. NBER — most recent working papers in the regional economics and innovation programs

Produce structured entries (title, authors, abstract) and update the Obsidian note at:

/Users/michal/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/Michal/Notes/Fleeting notes/new_articles.md

Deduplicate against all previously logged entries. Run monthly.


Instructions

Step 1 — Fetch Research Policy (most recent issue)

  1. Fetch the Research Policy journal issues page: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/research-policy/issues Identify the most recent volume/issue number and its publication date.

  2. Fetch the table of contents for that issue. The URL pattern is: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/research-policy/vol/<VOL>/issue/<ISSUE> Replace <VOL> and <ISSUE> with the values found in step 1.

  3. For each article listed, collect:

    • Title
    • Author(s)
    • DOI / URL
    • Abstract (fetch the article page if the abstract is not on the ToC)
  4. If the page is paywalled or JavaScript-rendered and cannot be fetched directly, fall back to a web search: Research Policy journal most recent issue {{currentDate}} articles abstracts and extract what is available from search snippets and any open-access pages.

Step 2 — Fetch Regional Studies (most recent issue)

  1. Fetch the Regional Studies journal issues page: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cres20/current Identify the most recent volume/issue number and its publication date.

  2. For each article listed, collect:

    • Title
    • Author(s)
    • DOI / URL
    • Abstract (fetch the article page if the abstract is not on the ToC)
  3. If the page is paywalled or JavaScript-rendered and cannot be fetched directly, fall back to a web search: Regional Studies journal most recent issue {{currentDate}} articles abstracts and extract what is available from search snippets and any open-access pages.

  4. Keep all articles from the most recent issue (it is a curated journal; all items are relevant).

Step 3 — Fetch NBER regional economics and innovation papers

Run the following searches to find NBER working papers published in the past 30 days. Today is {{currentDate}}.

  1. Fetch https://www.nber.org/papers?page=1&perPage=40&sortBy=public_date and filter for papers tagged with:

    • Regional Economics program (repe)
    • Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship program (prpe)
    • Urban Economics program (urpe)
  2. If the NBER page is not machine-readable, run these web searches instead:

    • site:nber.org working paper regional economics {{currentYear}}
    • site:nber.org working paper innovation entrepreneurship {{currentYear}}
    • NBER working paper regional policy innovation 2026 new
  3. For each paper found, collect:

    • Title
    • Author(s)
    • NBER working paper number (w#####)
    • URL (https://www.nber.org/papers/w#####)
    • Abstract (fetch the paper page if needed)
  4. Limit to papers issued within the past 35 days unless they are highly relevant. Target 5–15 papers per source.

Step 4 — Filter and prioritise

Research Policy — keep all articles from the most recent issue (it is a curated journal; all items are relevant).

Regional Studies — keep all articles from the most recent issue (it is a curated journal; all items are relevant).

NBER — apply a relevance filter. Keep papers that relate to:

  • Regional economic development, place-based policy, spatial economics
  • Innovation policy, R&D, patents, knowledge spillovers
  • IP, intangible assets, technology transfer
  • Entrepreneurship, firm dynamics, startups
  • Labour markets and regional inequality

Discard: macro/monetary papers, pure health/environmental papers with no regional or innovation angle, finance papers unrelated to the above themes.

Step 5 — Format entries

For each article, produce a formatted entry:

#### [Title]

**Authors:** [Last, F.; Last, F.]
**Source:** [Research Policy, Vol. X, Issue Y | NBER Working Paper #NNNNN]
**Date:** [Month YYYY]
**URL:** [https://...]

> [Full abstract text]

---

Step 6 — Write the note (full replacement)

Always overwrite the entire file at: /Users/michal/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/Michal/Notes/Fleeting notes/new_articles.md

Do not read or preserve any previous content. Write the complete note from scratch using this structure:

---
tags: [journals, research-policy, regional-studies, nber, monitoring]
created: {{currentDate}}
updated: {{currentDate}}
---

# New Articles — Research Policy, Regional Studies & NBER

Monthly scan of new articles from *Research Policy*, *Regional Studies*, and NBER working papers (regional economics, innovation, entrepreneurship programs).

Replaced in full on each run. Reflects the most recent issues and the past 35 days of NBER papers.

---

## {{currentMonth}} {{currentYear}}

### Research Policy — Vol. X, Issue Y

[entries]

### Regional Studies — Vol. X, Issue Y

[entries]

### NBER — Regional Economics & Innovation

[entries]

---

Step 7 — Confirm

Report back to the user:

  • Number of Research Policy articles written
  • Number of Regional Studies articles written
  • Number of NBER papers written
  • Any articles that look especially relevant to current work (IP, innovation policy, regional development)
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