Academic Paper Skills
A two-skill Claude Code framework — strategist plans, composer writes — for philosophy and interdisciplinary papers, gated by a 7-dimension, 35-point reviewer simulation before a single word of prose is drafted.
Last reviewed by the paperbanana team on Jul 13, 2026
Install
git clone https://github.com/lishix520/academic-paper-skills.git
cp -r strategist ~/.claude/skills/academic-paper-strategist
cp -r composer ~/.claude/skills/academic-paper-composerWhat is Academic Paper Skills?
Academic Paper Skills is a systematic, two-skill framework by independent researcher Li Shixiong for planning and writing philosophy and interdisciplinary academic papers in Claude Code. Instead of one skill that both plans and drafts, the repository splits the work into academic-paper-strategist (planning) and academic-paper-composer (writing), connected by a single artifact: a detailed, reviewer-assessed outline. The strategist runs three phases — platform analysis (identify the target venue and extract its style guide), theoretical framework development (literature review and gap analysis, with every claimed research gap required to be backed by 3-5 citations), and outline optimization, where the resulting outline is scored by a built-in reviewer simulation before it is allowed to proceed to drafting.
That reviewer simulation is the project’s central quality mechanism: a 7-dimension, 35-point rubric — originality, argumentation, literature, methodology, clarity, impact, and technical accuracy, each worth 5 points — that an outline must score at least 28/35 on to advance to the composer stage. The composer then runs its own three phases (foundation setup with style-guide and chapter planning, systematic writing with per-chapter quality checks, and a final polish-and-evaluate pass) and ships with two Python verification scripts, `chapter_quality_check.py` and `final_evaluation.py`, so quality gates are partly automated rather than purely LLM self-assessment.
The framework is explicitly platform-aware: its style-guide-learning step analyzes 8-10 sample papers to extract the target platform’s writing standards, and it lists preprint-platform support for PhilArchive, arXiv, PhilSci-Archive, and PsyArXiv among others — reflecting its origin in the author’s own experience publishing philosophy papers on consciousness and mortality (the repository ships a consciousness-and-mortality paper and an AI-ethics paper as worked examples). Because it is intentionally narrow — two skills, a fixed two-phase workflow, philosophy-and-interdisciplinary framing — it suits a single-author, single-paper planning-to-draft cycle rather than a lab-wide, multi-discipline skill catalog.
Core capabilities
Two-skill strategist → composer pipeline
academic-paper-strategist produces a detailed, reviewer-scored outline through platform analysis, theoretical framework development, and outline optimization; academic-paper-composer consumes that outline through foundation, systematic writing, and polish phases.
7-dimension, 35-point reviewer simulation gate
Outlines are scored on originality, argumentation, literature, methodology, clarity, impact, and technical accuracy (5 points each); only outlines scoring 28/35 or higher proceed to the writing phase.
Evidence-based gap identification
Every research gap the strategist identifies must be backed by 3-5 citations, rather than being asserted without literature support.
Platform-specific style learning
The strategist analyzes 8-10 sample papers from the target venue to extract concrete writing-style standards before any drafting begins, and supports preprint platforms including PhilArchive, arXiv, PhilSci-Archive, and PsyArXiv.
Automated quality checks via Python scripts
Two verification scripts — `evaluate_samples.py`/`gap_analysis.py` on the strategist side and `chapter_quality_check.py`/`final_evaluation.py` on the composer side — supplement LLM judgment with scripted checks at each of the three validation gates.
Worked examples included
The repository ships two complete example runs — a philosophy-of-mind paper on consciousness and an AI-ethics paper — under `examples/`, showing the pipeline’s expected input and output at each stage.
What you can use it for
Planning a paper from a raw idea
Tell Claude "Plan a paper on how mortality generates consciousness" to activate academic-paper-strategist, which walks through platform analysis, literature-backed gap analysis, and outline optimization.
Writing a full draft from an approved outline
Provide a finished outline and say "Write the paper from this outline" to activate academic-paper-composer, which runs foundation setup, section-by-section writing with quality checks, and a final polish pass.
Converting a dissertation chapter into a standalone paper
Use the strategist to re-frame a chapter’s argument for a specific target venue’s style and gap requirements, then use the composer to produce a submission-ready draft.
Preparing an interdisciplinary paper for multiple preprint platforms
Run platform analysis against different targets (PhilArchive vs. arXiv vs. PsyArXiv) to get venue-specific style guides before committing to a final outline.
Stress-testing an outline before investing in a full draft
Run the strategist’s outline-optimization phase alone to get the 7-dimension, 35-point reviewer score, and revise the outline until it clears the 28/35 threshold.
How to get started
- 1
Install prerequisites
Make sure Claude Code is installed and configured, and that Python 3.8+ is available for the verification scripts (`evaluate_samples.py`, `gap_analysis.py`, `chapter_quality_check.py`, `final_evaluation.py`).
- 2
Clone the repository
Run `git clone https://github.com/lishix520/academic-paper-skills.git` to get the strategist/, composer/, and examples/ directories.
- 3
Copy both skills into Claude Code
Run `cp -r strategist ~/.claude/skills/academic-paper-strategist` and `cp -r composer ~/.claude/skills/academic-paper-composer`, then restart Claude Code so both skills load.
- 4
Run the strategist, then the composer
Start with a planning request to trigger academic-paper-strategist and iterate on the outline until it scores at least 28/35, then hand that outline to a writing request that triggers academic-paper-composer.
How it compares to similar skills
Academic Paper Skills is a small, focused two-skill pipeline for a single paper’s plan-then-draft cycle in philosophy and interdisciplinary work — not a broad multi-discipline skill catalog.
Academic Research Skills
Pick academic-research-skills if you need a fuller pipeline with citation-audit and revision stages for STEM or general academic work, not just philosophy/interdisciplinary planning and drafting.
ARIS — Auto Research In Sleep
Pick ARIS if your paper depends on running and reporting computational experiments rather than a purely argument-and-literature-based philosophy paper.
Qinyan Academic Skills
Pick qinyan-academic-skills if you need a much broader toolbox (literature databases, grant writing, presentations) beyond a two-phase strategist/composer writing pipeline.