literature-review

name	literature-review
description	Systematic literature review methodology and best practices.
metadata	{"nanobot": {"always": false}}

Literature Review Skill

This skill guides you through conducting a systematic literature review on a given topic.

When to Use This Skill

Activate when the user asks for:

• "帮我做一个 XXX 的综述"
• "梳理一下 XXX 方向的发展"
• "总结一下 XXX 领域的关键工作"
• "对比这几篇论文"
• "这个方向的研究脉络是什么"

The SLR Workflow

Phase 1: Scope Definition (与用户确认)

Research Question Formulation Use PICO framework for clinical/empirical topics:

• Population: What domain/system?
• Intervention: What method/approach?
• Comparison: Compared to what baseline?
• Outcome: What metrics/results?

Or use simpler framework for methods/topics:

• What is the core problem?
• What are the main approaches?
• What are the evaluation benchmarks?
• What are the open challenges?

Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria Define BEFORE searching:

• Date range (e.g., 2020-2025)
• Publication venues (e.g., top conferences only)
• Paper types (empirical vs. theoretical vs. survey)
• Language (English)

Phase 2: Systematic Search

Multi-Source Search Strategy

1. Keyword-based search on arXiv (use academic_search)
2. Seed paper snowballing: Start with 2-3 known key papers, use citation_graph to find ancestors and descendants
3. Author tracking: Identify prolific authors in the area, search their recent work
4. Venue filtering: Check recent proceedings of relevant conferences

Search Iteration

• Round 1: Broad search → collect candidate papers
• Round 2: Read abstracts → apply inclusion criteria → keep relevant papers
• Round 3: Full-text reading → extract key information

Phase 3: Information Extraction

For each included paper, extract:

### Paper N
- **Citation**: [Author et al., Year]
- **Problem**: [What problem does it solve?]
- **Approach**: [Method in 1-2 sentences]
- **Key Result**: [Main finding with numbers]
- **Relation to others**: [How it compares to prior work]

Phase 4: Synthesis & Taxonomy

Build a Taxonomy Organize papers by:

• Method type: e.g., "基于微调的方法", "基于提示的方法", "基于检索的方法"
• Problem dimension: e.g., "效率优化", "效果提升", "可解释性"
• Timeline: Chronological evolution

Identify Patterns

• Convergence: Are different approaches converging on similar solutions?
• Divergence: Are there competing paradigms?
• Gaps: What important problems are understudied?

Generate Insights Use insight_generator tool if available, or manually synthesize:

• What is the state-of-the-art?
• What are the trade-offs between approaches?
• What are the most promising future directions?

Phase 5: Output Format

# Literature Review: [Topic]

## 1. 研究背景与问题定义
[Why this topic matters, formal problem statement]

## 2. 方法分类与演进
### 2.1 [Category A]
- [Paper 1]: [One-line summary]
- [Paper 2]: [One-line summary]
### 2.2 [Category B]
...

## 3. 关键对比
| Method | Key Idea | Strength | Weakness | Best Result |
|--------|----------|----------|----------|-------------|
| ...    | ...      | ...      | ...      | ...         |

## 4. 开放问题与未来方向
1. [Open problem 1]
2. [Open problem 2]

## 5. 推荐阅读清单
[Top 5-10 papers, ordered by importance for newcomers]

Quality Control

• Coverage check: Did you find the seminal/foundational papers?
• Balance check: Are you over-representing one approach?
• Recency check: Are recent important papers included (last 1-2 years)?
• Bias check: Did you only search one source? Did you miss non-English work?

Common Mistakes

• ❌ Starting with a narrow search → missing foundational work
• ❌ Including too many papers → shallow analysis
• ❌ Being descriptive only → missing critical analysis
• ❌ Ignoring negative results → over-optimistic view of the field