Emerging Topic Scout

A real-time monitoring system for identifying "incubation period" research hotspots in biological and medical sciences before they are defined by mainstream journals.

Overview

This skill continuously monitors:

• bioRxiv: Biology preprints via RSS/API ⚠️ Currently blocked by Cloudflare
• medRxiv: Medicine preprints via RSS/API ⚠️ Currently blocked by Cloudflare
• arXiv: Quantitative Biology preprints via RSS ✅ Recommended alternative
• Academic discussions: Social media and forum mentions

It uses trend analysis algorithms to detect sudden spikes in topic frequency, cross-platform mentions, and emerging keyword clusters.

⚠️ Network Access Notice

bioRxiv and medRxiv are currently protected by Cloudflare JavaScript Challenge, which prevents programmatic RSS access. As a workaround, this skill now supports arXiv q-bio (Quantitative Biology) as an alternative data source.

Recommended usage:

# Use arXiv for reliable data fetching
python scripts/main.py --sources arxiv --days 30

# bioRxiv/medRxiv may return 0 results due to Cloudflare protection
python scripts/main.py --sources biorxiv medrxiv --days 30  # May not work

Installation

cd /Users/z04030865/.openclaw/workspace/skills/emerging-topic-scout
pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt

Usage

Basic Scan (Recommended: Use arXiv)

python scripts/main.py --sources arxiv --days 7 --output json

Legacy bioRxiv/medRxiv (May not work due to Cloudflare)

python scripts/main.py --sources biorxiv medrxiv --days 7 --output json

Advanced Configuration (arXiv Recommended)

python scripts/main.py \
  --sources arxiv \
  --keywords "CRISPR,gene editing,machine learning" \
  --days 14 \
  --min-score 0.7 \
  --output markdown \
  --notify

Legacy Configuration (bioRxiv/medRxiv - May not work)

python scripts/main.py \
  --sources biorxiv medrxiv \
  --keywords "CRISPR,gene editing,long COVID" \
  --days 14 \
  --min-score 0.7 \
  --output markdown \
  --notify
# Note: bioRxiv/medRxiv may return 0 results due to Cloudflare protection

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `--sources` | list | `arxiv` | Data sources to monitor (arxiv recommended due to Cloudflare issues with biorxiv/medrxiv) |
| `--keywords` | string | (auto-detect) | Comma-separated keywords to track |
| `--days` | int | `7` | Lookback period in days |
| `--min-score` | float | `0.6` | Minimum trending score (0-1) |
| `--max-topics` | int | `20` | Maximum topics to return |
| `--output` | string | `markdown` | Output format: `json`, `markdown`, `csv` |
| `--notify` | flag | `false` | Send notification for high-priority topics |
| `--config` | path | `config.yaml` | Path to configuration file |

## Output Format

### JSON Output