Scholar Research Skill

Search and analyze academic papers from open access sources with credibility scoring and detailed summaries.

When to Use

• User wants to find papers on a specific topic
• User needs credibility assessment of papers
• User wants summarized research with methodology
• User wants to track field evolution over time
• User needs figures/tables extracted from top papers

Data Sources (Free/Open Access)

The skill searches across these sources:

• arXiv - Pre-prints (Physics, Math, CS, q-bio, q-fin)
• PubMed/PMC - Biomedical & Life sciences
• DOAJ - Peer-reviewed OA journals (all disciplines)
• OpenAlex - 250M+ papers metadata
• CORE - Largest OA full-text aggregator
• Semantic Scholar - Limited free tier
• Unpaywall - Finds free versions of paywalled papers
• CrossRef - All DOI metadata
• bioRxiv - Biology pre-prints
• medRxiv - Medicine pre-prints
• Zenodo - EU research data/papers
• HAL - French OA repository
• J-STAGE - Japanese OA repository
• SSRN - Economics, Law pre-prints

User-Added Sources

Users can add custom sources via config:

{
  "custom_sources": [
    {"name": "My University", "url": "https://repo.my.edu", "api": "..."}
  ]
}

Scoring System

Default Weights (Total: 100 + 40 bonus)

Paper Quality (100 points):

Bonus Points (up to +40):

• Author Trust: +20 max
• Journal Reputation: +20 max

Customizing Weights

Users can modify weights in config:

{
  "scoring": {
    "citation_count": 25,
    "publication_recency": 5
  }
}

Or use preset profiles: "strict", "recent_only", "balanced"

Output Format

Top Papers (default: 5, user-configurable)

[1] Paper Title (Year)
    Score: 95/100 | Citations: 234
    📄 PDF | 📊 Figures | 🔬 SI
    
    Summary: [One paragraph]
    
    Methodology: [Detailed breakdown]

Field Timeline

📈 FIELD TIMELINE (N papers)

2024: ████████████████████ 15 papers
       → Major: [Breakthrough 1]
       → Trend: [Trend 1]

2023: ████████████████ 12 papers
       → Major: [Breakthrough 2]

Credibility Distribution

📊 Credibility Distribution

Score 90-100: ██ (5) ★ Top
Score 70-89:  ████████ (15)
Score 50-69:  ██████████████████ (25)
Score 30-49:  ██████████ (10)
Score 0-29:   ██ (2)

[████████████░░░░░░░░░] Average: 58/100

Workflow

1. Search: Query across all enabled sources
2. Fetch: Download metadata + PDFs
3. Score: Calculate credibility scores
4. Sort: Rank by score + relevance
5. Present: Top N papers + timeline
6. Extract: Figures from top-scored papers (optional)

Usage Examples

Find papers on: machine learning
Fields: computer science, AI
Top papers: 5
Extract figures: true

Find papers on: quantum computing
Fields: physics
Top papers: 10
Extract figures: false

Dependencies

• Python 3.8+
• requests (API calls)
• beautifulsoup4 (parsing)
• pypdf2 (PDF extraction)
• opencv-python (figure detection)
• transformers (summarization)
• matplotlib (visualization)

Configuration

See config.json for:

• API keys
• Source enable/disable
• Scoring weights
• Display preferences
• Custom sources

Notes

• Always prioritize open access sources
• Cite sources in responses
• Warn about pre-print limitations
• Check retraction status when available
• Respect rate limits