Scholar Research

Search, analyze, and summarize peer-reviewed academic papers from open access sources. Provides credibility scoring, visualization, timeline generation, and...

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):

Factor	Weight	Description
citation_count	15%	Times cited by other papers
publication_recency	10%	Newer = more relevant
author_reputation	12%	Combined h-index of authors
journal_impact	12%	Impact factor, CiteScore
peer_review_status	10%	Peer-reviewed vs pre-print
open_access	8%	Free to read/download
retraction_status	10%	Not retracted
author_network	8%	Connected to established network
funder_acknowledgment	5%	Clear funding sources
reproducibility	5%	Code/data available

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