paper-writing

Paper Writing Skill

Draft, structure, and refine scientific papers across all disciplines.

When to Use

• "Write the methods section for..."
• "Draft an abstract for these results"
• "Help me structure this paper"
• "Format these citations in APA/IEEE"
• "Improve the introduction of my paper"
• Generating LaTeX-formatted content

When NOT to Use

• Literature searching (use literature-search)
• Data analysis (use code-execution + scipy-analysis)
• Non-academic writing
• Grant proposals (different structure)

Paper Structure (IMRaD)

Title

• Concise, informative, contains key terms
• Avoid abbreviations and jargon
• 10-15 words ideal

Abstract (150-300 words)

Background: [1-2 sentences: context and gap]
Objective: [1 sentence: what this study does]
Methods: [2-3 sentences: approach and data]
Results: [2-3 sentences: key findings with numbers]
Conclusions: [1-2 sentences: implications]

Introduction

1. Broad context (funnel from general to specific)
2. Literature review (key findings, organized thematically)
3. Research gap (what's missing or contradictory)
4. Study objective and hypothesis
5. Brief approach overview
6. Significance statement

Methods

• Study design and setting
• Participants/samples (inclusion/exclusion criteria)
• Materials and instruments
• Procedure (reproducible detail)
• Data analysis plan
• Ethical approvals

Results

• Present in order of research questions
• Text + tables + figures (no redundancy)
• Statistical results: test statistic, df, p-value, effect size
• Report exact p-values (not just p < 0.05)

Discussion

1. Summary of key findings
2. Comparison with prior literature
3. Mechanistic explanation
4. Strengths of the study
5. Limitations and their impact
6. Future directions
7. Conclusions and implications

Citation Formats

APA 7th Edition

• In-text: (Author, Year) or Author (Year)
• Two authors: (Smith & Jones, 2024)
• 3+ authors: (Smith et al., 2024)

IEEE

• Numbered: [1], [2], [3]
• Reference list: [1] A. Author, "Title," Journal, vol. X, no. Y, pp. Z-Z, Year.

Chicago (Author-Date)

• In-text: (Author Year, page)
• Bibliography: Author. Year. "Title." Journal Vol(Issue): Pages.

Vancouver/NLM

• Numbered: (1), (2), (3)
• Reference: Author(s). Title. Journal. Year;Vol(Issue):Pages.

LaTeX Templates

Article

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,graphicx,natbib}
\title{Title}
\author{Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
...
\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}
...
\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\bibliography{refs}
\end{document}

Integration with MCP Tools

Citation Workflow

1. Search papers via academic-mcp (19 databases) or semantic-scholar-mcp
2. Export BibTeX/APA/MLA citations directly from Semantic Scholar MCP
3. Manage references with zotero-mcp (if Zotero is available)
4. Use arxiv-latex-mcp to read LaTeX source for accurate equation citing

Related Skills

• For detailed LaTeX formatting → use latex-writing skill
• For citation network analysis → use citation-analysis skill
• For systematic reviews → use systematic-review skill
• For meta-analysis → use meta-analysis skill

Guidelines

1. Use active voice where appropriate
2. Be precise — avoid vague qualifiers ("somewhat", "relatively")
3. Define abbreviations on first use
4. Every claim needs a citation or data reference
5. Tables and figures must be self-contained with captions
6. Follow target journal's style guide
7. Report effect sizes, not just p-values
8. Include CRediT author contributions, data availability, and COI statements