research-paper-writer

SKILL.md

Research Paper Writer

Overview

This skill guides the creation of formal academic research papers that meet publication standards for IEEE and ACM conferences/journals. It ensures proper structure, formatting, academic writing style, and comprehensive coverage of research topics.

Workflow

1. Understanding the Research Topic

When asked to write a research paper:

Clarify the topic and scope with the user:

What is the main research question or contribution?

What is the target audience (conference, journal, general academic)?

What is the desired length (page count or word count)?

Are there specific sections required?

What formatting standard to use (IEEE or ACM)?

Gather context if needed:

Review any provided research materials, data, or references

Understand the domain and technical background

Identify key related work or existing research to reference

2. Paper Structure

Follow this standard academic paper structure:

1. Title and Abstract
   - Concise title reflecting the main contribution
   - Abstract: 150-250 words summarizing purpose, methods, results, conclusions

2. Introduction
   - Motivation and problem statement
   - Research gap and significance
   - Main contributions (typically 3-5 bullet points)
   - Paper organization paragraph

3. Related Work / Background
   - Literature review of relevant research
   - Comparison with existing approaches
   - Positioning of current work

4. Methodology / Approach / System Design
   - Detailed description of proposed method/system
   - Architecture diagrams if applicable
   - Algorithms or procedures
   - Design decisions and rationale

5. Implementation (if applicable)
   - Technical details
   - Tools and technologies used
   - Challenges and solutions

6. Evaluation / Experiments / Results
   - Experimental setup
   - Datasets or test scenarios
   - Performance metrics
   - Results presentation (tables, graphs)
   - Analysis and interpretation

7. Discussion
   - Implications of results
   - Limitations and threats to validity
   - Lessons learned

8. Conclusion and Future Work
   - Summary of contributions
   - Impact and significance
   - Future research directions

9. References
   - Comprehensive bibliography in proper citation format

3. Academic Writing Style

Apply these writing conventions from scholarly research:

Tone and Voice:

Formal, objective, and precise language

Third-person perspective (avoid "I" or "we" unless describing specific contributions)

Present tense for established facts, past tense for specific studies

Clear, direct statements without unnecessary complexity

Technical Precision:

Define all acronyms on first use: "Context-Aware Systems (C-AS)"

Use domain-specific terminology correctly and consistently

Quantify claims with specific metrics or evidence

Avoid vague terms like "very", "many", "significant" without data

Argumentation:

State claims clearly, then support with evidence

Use logical progression: motivation → problem → solution → validation

Compare and contrast with related work explicitly

Address limitations and counterarguments

Section-Specific Guidelines:

Abstract:

First sentence: broad context and motivation

Second/third: specific problem and gap

Middle: approach and methodology

End: key results and contributions

Self-contained (readable without the full paper)

Introduction:

Start with real-world motivation or compelling problem

Build from general to specific (inverted pyramid)

End with clear contribution list and paper roadmap

Use examples to illustrate the problem

Related Work:

Group related work by theme or approach

Compare explicitly: "Unlike [X] which focuses on Y, our approach..."

Identify gaps: "However, these approaches do not address..."

Position your work clearly

Results:

Present data clearly in tables/figures

Describe trends and patterns objectively

Compare with baselines quantitatively

Acknowledge unexpected or negative results

4. Formatting Guidelines

IEEE Format (default):

Page size: A4 (210mm × 297mm)

Margins: Top 19mm, Bottom 43mm, Left/Right 14.32mm

Two-column layout with 4.22mm column separation

Font: Times New Roman throughout

Title: 24pt bold

Author names: 11pt

Section headings: 10pt bold, numbered (1., 1.1, 1.1.1)

Body text: 10pt

Figure/Table captions: 8pt

Line spacing: Single

Paragraph: No indentation, 3pt spacing between paragraphs

Figures: Centered, with captions below

Tables: Centered, with captions above

ACM Format (alternative):

Standard ACM conference proceedings format

Single-column abstract, two-column body

Include CCS Concepts and Keywords sections after abstract

Use ACM reference format for citations

5. Citations and References

In-text citations:

Use numbered citations: "Recent work [1, 2] has shown..."

Multiple citations in chronological order: [3, 7, 12]

Reference specific sections: "As demonstrated in [5, Section 3]..."

Reference formatting (IEEE style):

[1] A. Author, B. Author, and C. Author, "Title of paper," in Proc. Conference Name, Year, pp. 123-456.
[2] D. Author, "Title of journal article," Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, pp. 123-456, Month Year.
[3] E. Author, Book Title, Edition. City: Publisher, Year.

Reference list requirements:

Alphabetically ordered by first author's last name (or numbered by citation order)

Include DOI or URL when available

Minimum 15-20 references for a full paper

Mix of recent (last 5 years) and foundational works

6. Content Generation Process

Step-by-step approach:

Create outline

Develop detailed section-by-section outline

Define key points for each section

Identify where figures/tables are needed

Draft sections iteratively

Start with methodology (core contribution)

Then introduction (now that contribution is clear)

Related work (to position the contribution)

Results and evaluation

Discussion and conclusion

Abstract last (summary of complete paper)

Add citations

Reference related work throughout

Support claims with evidence from literature

Create comprehensive reference list

Review and refine

Check logical flow between sections

Ensure consistency in terminology

Verify all figures/tables are referenced in text

Confirm abstract matches content

Validate citation completeness

Examples

Example 1: User asks for a survey paper

User: "Write a research paper surveying recent advances in context-aware systems"

Response:
1. Clarify scope: "I'll create a survey paper on context-aware systems. A few questions:
   - Should I focus on specific aspects (e.g., requirements engineering, implementation techniques)?
   - What time period for 'recent' (last 5 years, 10 years)?
   - Target length: 10-15 pages, or 20-30 pages comprehensive survey?
   - IEEE or ACM format?"

2. After clarification, create outline showing:
   - Taxonomy of context-aware systems
   - Survey methodology
   - Classification scheme
   - Section-by-section coverage of different aspects
   - Trends and future directions

3. Draft paper following survey structure with extensive related work coverage

Example 2: User asks for an experimental paper

User: "Write a paper about my new algorithm for detecting hallucinations in vision-language models"

Response:
1. Gather details about:
   - Algorithm approach and novelty
   - Experimental setup and datasets used
   - Results and metrics
   - Comparison baselines

2. Structure as experimental paper:
   - Introduction: motivation for hallucination detection
   - Related work: existing detection methods
   - Proposed method: detailed algorithm description
   - Experiments: datasets, metrics, setup
   - Results: quantitative comparison with baselines
   - Analysis: ablation studies, error analysis
   - Conclusion: contributions and future work

3. Emphasize reproducibility and empirical validation

Resources

references/

writing_style_guide.md: Detailed academic writing conventions extracted from example papers

ieee_formatting_specs.md: Complete IEEE formatting specifications

acm_formatting_specs.md: Complete ACM formatting specifications

assets/

full_paper_template.pdf: IEEE paper template with formatting examples

interim-layout.pdf: ACM paper template

Reference these templates when discussing formatting requirements with users

Important Notes

Always ask for clarification on topic scope before starting

Quality over speed: Take time to structure properly and write clearly

Cite appropriately: Academic integrity requires proper attribution

Be honest about limitations: Acknowledge gaps or constraints in the research

Maintain consistency: Terminology, notation, and style throughout

User provides the research content: This skill structures and writes; the user provides the technical contributions and findings