literature-review

What This Skill Does

The literature-review skill is a sophisticated research assistant designed to streamline the academic writing process. It integrates four major scholarly databases—Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref, and PubMed—into a unified interface. By abstracting the complexities of multiple API request structures, this tool enables users to perform comprehensive cross-database searches, retrieve metadata and full abstracts, and utilize automatic deduplication via DOI cross-referencing. It is specifically engineered to bridge the gap between raw data collection and high-level academic synthesis, allowing users to build a robust foundation for literature reviews without manually navigating disparate web interfaces.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your OpenClaw environment, execute the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/weird-aftertaste/literature-review

Ensure that you have set your USER_EMAIL environment variable before running, as this ensures your traffic is routed through the 'Polite Pool' for major academic APIs like OpenAlex and Crossref.

Use Cases

This skill is ideal for students, researchers, and professional writers. Use it when you need to conduct a systematic search for papers on a specific hypothesis, verify the bibliographic details of known publications, or reconstruct full abstracts from indexed data. It excels at multi-source comparison, ensuring that niche findings indexed in specialized databases like PubMed are not missed during broader topic overviews. It serves as an automated research librarian that organizes, filters, and prepares your reference material for drafting.

Example Prompts

1. "Perform a broad search on the neuroprotective effects of curcumin, pull 5 sources, and group them by study type."
2. "Search for the latest research on CRISPR-Cas9 in agricultural applications using both Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex; deduplicate the list and provide a summary."
3. "Get the full metadata and TL;DR summary for the paper with DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2022.05.003 and format it for my bibliography."

Tips & Limitations

To maximize efficiency, prioritize pm for medical research and s2 for citation-rich analysis. Always configure your API keys for Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex to enjoy higher rate limits, especially for large-scale literature reviews. Note that Crossref provides excellent metadata but does not contain full abstracts; pair it with other sources if abstract text is required. Be mindful of the polite access policy—always maintain a valid email in your environment variables to prevent API blocks during high-volume research sessions.