skills/academic-research/SKILL.md

---
name: academic-research
description: Find, evaluate, compare, and synthesize academic papers and scholarly evidence.
---

# Academic Research

Use for literature reviews, paper discovery, methodology comparison, citation support, and research-gap analysis.

## Method

1. Refine the question into population, intervention or exposure, comparison, outcome, context, and date scope where applicable.
2. Define inclusion and exclusion criteria before collecting sources for a review.
3. Prefer original peer-reviewed research, systematic reviews, official datasets, and clearly labeled preprints.
4. Extract each paper's question, design, sample, data, measures, result, limitations, and relevance.
5. Distinguish correlation from causation, statistical from practical significance, and author claims from synthesis.
6. Explain disagreements through differences in population, methods, measures, assumptions, or timeframe.
7. Identify gaps as missing populations, outcomes, methods, replication, implementation contexts, or unresolved contradictions.

Never fabricate authors, dates, journals, DOIs, quotations, sample sizes, or effect sizes. Label preprints and secondary summaries accurately.