academic-researcher

$27

Use this skill when you need to write:

• Research papers for conferences (IEEE, ACM) or journals

• Literature reviews and survey papers

• Theses/dissertations (master's or PhD)

• Research proposals and grant applications

• Technical reports with academic rigor

Workflow Overview

Phase 1: Requirements → Phase 2: Planning → Phase 3: Discovery

    ↓                   ↓                    ↓

Phase 6: QA ← Phase 5: Writing ← Phase 4: Structure

Phase 1: Requirements Clarification

Before starting, clarify with the user:

Essential Questions

-

Document Type

• Research paper (conference/journal)?

• Literature review / survey?

• Thesis / dissertation chapter?

• Research proposal?

-

Topic & Scope

• What is the main research question or contribution?

• What is the target word count or page limit?

• Any specific research questions to address?

-

Target Venue

• Which conference or journal?

• Any specific formatting requirements?

• Submission deadline?

-

Citation Format

• IEEE (default for CS/Engineering)?

• APA (social sciences)?

• Other (ACM, Chicago)?

User Input Template

## Research Document Request

**Type:** [Research Paper / Literature Review / Thesis]

**Topic:** [Your research topic]

**Target:** [Conference/Journal name or "General"]

**Length:** [X pages or X words]

**Citation:** [IEEE / APA / Other]

**Deadline:** [Date if applicable]

**Special Requirements:** [Any specific guidelines]

Phase 2: Research Planning

Search Strategy Development

• Identify core concepts - Extract key terms from the topic

• Build keyword list - Include synonyms, variants, and domain-specific terms

• Select databases - Choose appropriate sources:

Database

Best For

Google Scholar

Broad academic search

IEEE Xplore

Engineering, CS

ACM Digital Library

Computing

arXiv

Preprints, CS, physics

PubMed

Medicine, life sciences

ScienceDirect

General science

JSTOR

Humanities, social sciences

Search Command Patterns (Tool-Agnostic)

Use your platform's browsing/search tool. If browsing is unavailable, ask the user to provide PDFs/DOIs/URLs (or an existing references.bib) and proceed from those.

Query patterns to use:

• Broad first: broad topic + survey / review

• Recent window: add a year range (e.g., last 3-5 years) or use the tool's recency filter

• Exact phrase: "exact phrase"

• Boolean combos: (term1 AND term2) OR term3

• Snowballing: find "references" (backward) and "cited by" (forward) from 2-3 anchor papers

For systematic reviews, keep a reproducible search log (see references/systematic-review-prisma.md).

Phase 3: Source Discovery & Verification

Discovery Process

Step 1: Foundational Sources

• Search for seminal papers and foundational work

• Look for highly-cited papers (100+ citations)

• Find survey papers on the topic

Step 2: Recent Work

• Search for papers from last 2-3 years

• Look for "state of the art" reviews

• Find latest developments and advances

Step 3: Related Work

• Papers citing key foundational works

• Papers cited by recent major papers

• Parallel approaches and alternatives

Verification Checklist

For each source, verify:

• Published in peer-reviewed venue (journal, conference)

• Author credentials and institutional affiliation

• Publication venue reputation (check Google Scholar metrics, impact factor)

• Citation count indicates impact

• Methodology is sound and described clearly

• Relevance to your research question

Red Flags (Exclude These Sources)

• Predatory journals (check Beall's List or journalquality.info)

• No peer review process

• No institutional affiliation

• Suspiciously high publication volume

• Pay-to-publish without legitimate review

Source Tracking

Create a source database (and keep references.bib as the single source of truth):

## Source [N]

- **Citation Key:** [e.g., smith2023transformers]

- **Title:** [Paper title]

- **Authors:** [Author list]

- **Venue/Year:** [Journal/Conference, Year]

- **Status:** [peer-reviewed / preprint / standard / dataset / software]

- **DOI:** [If available]

- **URL:** [Canonical link]

- **Citations:** [Count + date checked]

- **Relevance:** [High/Medium/Low]

- **Key Points:** [1-3 bullets: what you will cite]

- **Limitations:** [1-2 bullets]

- **Use In:** [Which section of your document]

See references/source-evaluation.md and references/bibliography-workflows.md.

Paper Access Strategy

When you find a relevant paper but cannot access the full text:

-

Check open access first:

• Run node scripts/resolve-papers.js --doi "10.xxxx/yyyy" to find legal OA versions

• Check arXiv (most CS papers have preprints)

• Check PubMed Central (biomedical papers)

• Check the authors' personal/lab websites (often host preprints)

-

Use available metadata:

• Abstract + figures from the paper landing page are often sufficient for related-work sections

• Semantic Scholar provides abstracts and citation context for free

-

Ask the user:

• If a paper is critical and paywalled, ask the user to provide it

• Users may have institutional access, interlibrary loan, or direct author contact

-

Be transparent:

• If citing a paper you could only read the abstract of, note this limitation

• Never fabricate content from a paper you haven't read

Phase 4: Document Structure

Research Paper Structure (IMRaD)

1. Title

2. Abstract (150-250 words)

3. Keywords (5-7 terms)

4. Introduction

   - Background and motivation

   - Problem statement

   - Research objectives

   - Contributions (3-5 bullet points)

   - Paper organization

5. Related Work / Literature Review

   - Thematic organization

   - Gap identification

6. Methodology / Approach

   - System design (if applicable)

   - Algorithm description

   - Technical approach

7. Results / Evaluation

   - Experimental setup

   - Metrics

   - Results presentation

8. Discussion

   - Interpretation

   - Implications

   - Limitations

9. Conclusion

   - Summary

   - Future work

10. References

Literature Review Structure

1. Title

2. Abstract

3. Introduction

   - Review scope and objectives

   - Methodology (how sources were selected)

4. Thematic Sections (organized by themes)

5. Synthesis and Discussion

   - Trends and patterns

   - Gaps in literature

6. Conclusion

   - Summary

   - Future directions

7. References

Systematic Review Structure (PRISMA-Style)

1. Title

2. Abstract

3. Introduction (scope + research questions)

4. Methods (protocol, databases, queries, screening, extraction, appraisal)

5. Results (selection counts + evidence tables + taxonomy)

6. Discussion (implications, limitations, threats to validity)

7. Conclusion (what is known + gaps + future directions)

8. References

9. Appendices (full queries, screening reasons, extraction schema)

See references/systematic-review-prisma.md.

Thesis Structure

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

   - Background

   - Problem statement

   - Research questions

   - Thesis objectives

   - Contributions

3. Literature Review

   - Theoretical framework

   - Related work

   - Research gap

4. Methodology

   - Research design

   - Data collection

   - Analysis methods

5. Results/Findings

6. Discussion

7. Conclusion

8. References

9. Appendices

Phase 5: Writing & LaTeX

LaTeX Document Setup

For submission, prefer official publisher templates (see references/official-templates.md). The templates below are scaffolds for learning the structure.

Included templates:

• references/templates/ieee-conference.tex (IEEE conference paper)

• references/templates/literature-review.tex (narrative literature review)

• references/templates/systematic-review.tex (systematic review)

• references/templates/thesis.tex (thesis/dissertation)

• references/templates/apa7-manuscript.tex (APA 7 manuscript)

• references/templates/research-proposal.tex (research proposal)

Minimal IEEE skeleton (BibTeX):

\documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}

\IEEEoverridecommandlockouts

\usepackage{cite}

\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsfonts}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\usepackage{xcolor}

\title{Your Paper Title}

\author{

\IEEEauthorblockN{First Author}

\IEEEauthorblockA{Department, University\\

City, Country\\

email@example.edu}

}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\begin{abstract}

Your abstract goes here (150--250 words).

\end{abstract}

\begin{IEEEkeywords}

keyword1, keyword2, keyword3

\end{IEEEkeywords}

\section{Introduction}

...

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

\bibliography{references}

\end{document}

Academic Writing Style

Tone:

• Formal and objective

• Use "we" for multi-author papers when describing your work (standard in CS/Engineering)

• Use third person for discussing other work ("Smith et al. proposed...")

• Precise technical terminology

• Present tense for established facts, past tense for specific studies

Avoid:

• Colloquial language

• Unsupported claims

• Excessive quotations (paraphrase instead)

• Vague terms ("very", "significant") without data

Citation Integration

IEEE Style (numbered):

Recent work has shown this approach is effective \cite{smith2023}.

Multiple studies support this finding \cite{smith2023, jones2022, doe2021}.

APA Style (author-date):

% Parenthetical (APA author-date)

Recent work has shown this approach is effective \parencite{smith2023}.

Multiple studies support this finding \parencite{smith2023,jones2022}.

% Narrative

\textcite{smith2023} demonstrated this approach is effective.

Paragraph Structure

Each paragraph should follow a clear pattern:

• Topic sentence — state the main point

• Evidence/Support — cite sources or present data

• Analysis — explain what the evidence means

• Transition — connect to the next paragraph

Transition Patterns

• Contrast: "However," "In contrast," "While X focuses on..."

• Extension: "Building on this," "Furthermore," "Similarly,"

• Consequence: "As a result," "Therefore," "This suggests that"

• Gap: "Despite these advances," "However, X remains unexplored"

Mathematical Typesetting

Inline math: $E = mc^2$

Displayed equations:

\begin{equation}

f(x) = \sum_{i=1}^{n} a_i x^i

\end{equation}

Multi-line equations:

\begin{align}

a &= b + c \\

  &= d + e + f

\end{align}

Matrices:

\begin{bmatrix}

a_{11} & a_{12} \\

a_{21} & a_{22}

\end{bmatrix}

Proofs:

\begin{proof}

Let $x$ be any element...

Therefore, we conclude...

\end{proof}

See references/latex-math-guide.md for more examples.

Phase 6: Quality Assurance

Pre-Submission Checklist

Content:

• Clear research question/objective

• Logical flow and organization

• Minimum 15-20 sources for full paper

• All sources verified and labeled (peer-reviewed vs preprint vs other)

• All claims supported by citations

• Methodology clearly explained

• Results clearly presented with metrics

• Limitations acknowledged

• Contributions clearly stated

Technical (IEEE):

• Reference format correct

• All citations match reference list

• No missing references

• Consistent citation numbering

• Figure/table captions complete

• Margins match venue requirements

Writing Quality:

• Academic tone maintained

• No grammatical errors

• Smooth transitions

• Abstract matches content

• Keywords present

Evidence & Citations:

• No invented citations; every reference is verifiable (title/authors/venue/year/DOI or canonical URL)

• Every citation key used in LaTeX exists in references.bib

• Key claims are not overgeneralized beyond the cited evidence (see references/claim-evidence-map.md)

Reproducibility (If Empirical):

• Dataset versions, splits, and preprocessing are specified

• Baseline selection and tuning budget fairness are stated

• Seeds/variance reporting policy is stated

• Compute and environment details are included (see references/reproducibility-checklist.md)

Statistics (If Applicable):

• Uncertainty is reported where appropriate (CIs/SE/bootstrap)

• Statistical tests (if used) are specified with assumptions and multiple-comparison handling

• Effect sizes are emphasized over p-values alone (see references/statistical-reporting.md)

Threats to Validity:

• Threats are enumerated (internal/construct/statistical/external) with concrete mitigations (see references/threats-to-validity.md)

Citation Formats

Prefer managing references via references.bib (BibTeX/BibLaTeX) and generating the reference list automatically; see references/bibliography-workflows.md. The examples below are reference list patterns for manual verification.

IEEE Format

Journal Article:

[1] A. Author, B. Author, and C. Author, "Title of article," Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, pp. ZZ-ZZ, Month Year.

Conference Paper:

[2] A. Author and B. Author, "Title of paper," in Proc. Conference Name, City, Country, Year, pp. ZZ-ZZ.

Book:

[3] A. Author, Title of Book, Edition. City, State: Publisher, Year.

See references/ieee-citation-guide.md for complete reference.

APA Format (7th Edition)

Journal Article:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Conference Paper:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year, Month). Title of paper. In Conference Name (pp. pages). Publisher.

See references/apa-citation-guide.md for complete reference.

Output

Primary Output: LaTeX Source

I generate .tex files that you can compile with:

• Overleaf (online, recommended)

• Local LaTeX: TinyTeX, MacTeX, TeX Live

• VS Code: LaTeX Workshop extension

Compilation Commands

# IEEE-style (BibTeX)

pdflatex paper.tex

bibtex paper

pdflatex paper.tex

pdflatex paper.tex

# APA-style (BibLaTeX + biber)

pdflatex paper.tex

biber paper

pdflatex paper.tex

pdflatex paper.tex

# Or use latexmk (recommended if available)

latexmk -pdf -bibtex paper.tex

latexmk -pdf -usebiber paper.tex

Alternative Outputs

If LaTeX is not suitable, I can also generate:

• Markdown with MathJax support

• DOCX via Pandoc conversion

Important Notes

• Quality over quantity - Fewer well-chosen sources are better than many weak ones

• Recent sources preferred - Last 5-7 years unless historical context needed

• Research integrity - Always cite properly, never plagiarize

• Be honest about limitations - Acknowledge gaps in your research

• User provides content - I structure and write; you provide the research contributions

References

• references/ieee-citation-guide.md - Complete IEEE reference examples

• references/apa-citation-guide.md - Complete APA reference examples

• references/latex-math-guide.md - LaTeX math typesetting examples

• references/bibliography-workflows.md - BibTeX/BibLaTeX workflows and verification

• references/source-evaluation.md - Source verification and peer-review labeling

• references/systematic-review-prisma.md - Systematic review workflow (PRISMA-style)

• references/literature-review-extraction-matrix.md - Extraction + thematic synthesis guidance

• references/claim-evidence-map.md - Claim-to-evidence QA template

• references/reproducibility-checklist.md - Reproducibility QA checklist

• references/statistical-reporting.md - Practical statistical reporting guidance

• references/threats-to-validity.md - Threats-to-validity prompts

• references/acm-citation-guide.md - ACM citation format reference

• references/revision-response-guide.md - Reviewer response and revision guidance

• references/official-templates.md - Links to official publisher LaTeX templates

• references/templates/ - LaTeX templates (IEEE, APA, thesis, reviews, proposals)

• examples/ - Protocols and working templates (vocabulary, extraction matrix, claim-evidence map)

• scripts/resolve-papers.js - Paper discovery and open-access resolution via Semantic Scholar, Unpaywall, CrossRef

• scripts/validate-bib.js - BibTeX entry validation against CrossRef

• scripts/check-citations.js - Citation key consistency checker