Search published venue papers (IEEE, ACM, Springer, etc.) via Semantic Scholar API. Complements /arxiv (preprints) with citation counts, venue metadata, and TLDR. Use when user says "search semantic scholar", "find IEEE papers", "find journal papers", "venue papers", "citation search", or wants published literature beyond arXiv preprints.
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Search published venue papers (IEEE, ACM, Springer, etc.) via Semantic Scholar API. Complements /arxiv (preprints) with citation counts, venue metadata, and TLDR. Use when user says "search semantic scholar", "find IEEE papers", "find journal papers", "venue papers", "citation search", or wants published literature beyond arXiv preprints.
argument-hint
query-or-paper-id
allowed-tools
Bash(*), Read, Write
Semantic Scholar Paper Search
Search topic or paper ID: $ARGUMENTS
Role & Positioning
This skill is the published venue counterpart to /arxiv:
Skill
Source
Best for
/arxiv
arXiv API
Latest preprints, cutting-edge unrefereed work
/semantic-scholar
Semantic Scholar API
Published journal/conference papers (IEEE, ACM, Springer, etc.) with citation counts, venue info, TLDR
Do NOT duplicate arXiv's job. If results contain an externalIds.ArXiv field, the paper is also on arXiv — note this but do not re-fetch from arXiv.
Constants
MAX_RESULTS = 10 — Default number of search results.
S2_FETCHER — canonical name semantic_scholar_fetch.py, resolved per
shared-references/integration-contract.md §2
(Policy D1 — primary + fallback cascade). If unresolved (canonical
chain exhausted), fall back to the inline Python alternative
documented in Step 2.
DEFAULT_FILTERS — For general research queries, apply these by default to reduce noise:
--fields-of-study "Computer Science,Engineering"
--publication-types JournalArticle,Conference
Overrides (append to arguments):
/semantic-scholar "topic" - max: 20 — return up to 20 results
/semantic-scholar "topic" - type: journal — only journal articles
/semantic-scholar "topic" - type: conference — only conference papers
/semantic-scholar "topic" - min-citations: 50 — only highly-cited papers
/semantic-scholar "topic" - year: 2022- — papers from 2022 onward
/semantic-scholar "topic" - fields: all — remove default field-of-study filter
- type: journal|conference|review|all: map to --publication-types
- min-citations: N: map to --min-citations
- year: RANGE: map to --year (e.g. 2022-, 2020-2024)
- fields: FIELDS: override --fields-of-study (use all to remove filter)
- sort: citations|date: use search-bulk with --sort citationCount:desc or publicationDate:desc
If the argument matches a DOI pattern (10.XXXX/...), a Semantic Scholar ID (40-char hex), or a prefixed ID (ARXIV:..., CorpusId:...), skip search and go directly to Step 3.
Note: --venue requires exact venue names (e.g. "IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing"), not partial matches like "IEEE". Avoid using --venue in automated flows — prefer --publication-types + --fields-of-study.
Step 3: Fetch Details for a Specific Paper
When a single paper ID is requested:
python3 "$S2_FETCHER" paper "PAPER_ID"
Where PAPER_ID can be:
DOI: 10.1109/TSP.2021.3071210
ArXiv: ARXIV:2006.10685
CorpusId: CorpusId:219792180
S2 ID: f9314fd99be5f2b1b3efcfab87197d578160d553
Step 4: De-duplicate Against arXiv
For each result, check externalIds.ArXiv:
If present → paper is also on arXiv. Note this in output but do NOT re-fetch via /arxiv.
If absent → paper is venue-only (e.g. IEEE without preprint). This is the unique value of this skill.
Step 5: Present Results
Present results as a table:
| # | Title | Venue | Year | Citations | Authors | Type |
|---|-------|-------|------|-----------|---------|------|
| 1 | Deep Learning Enabled... | IEEE Trans. Signal Process. | 2021 | 1364 | Xie et al. | Journal |
For each paper, also show:
DOI link: https://doi.org/DOI (for IEEE/ACM papers, this is the canonical link)
Open Access PDF: if openAccessPdf.url is non-empty, show it
TLDR: if available, show the one-line summary
Also on arXiv: if externalIds.ArXiv exists, note the arXiv ID
Step 6: Detailed Summary
For each paper (or top 5 if many results):
## [Title]-**Venue**: [venue name] ([publicationVenue.type]: journal/conference)
-**Year**: [year] | **Citations**: [citationCount]
-**Authors**: [full author list]
-**DOI**: [doi link]
-**Fields**: [fieldsOfStudy]
-**TLDR**: [tldr.text if available]
-**Abstract**: [abstract]
-**Open Access**: [openAccessPdf.url or "Not available"]
-**Also on arXiv**: [ArXiv ID if exists, else "No"]
Step 7: Update Research Wiki (if active)
Required when research-wiki/ exists in the project; skip silently
otherwise. When the wiki dir exists, resolve $WIKI_SCRIPT per the
canonical chain at
shared-references/wiki-helper-resolution.md
(Variant B — warn-and-skip). For results with an externalIds.ArXiv
field, use --arxiv-id; for venue-only papers (no arXiv mirror —
common for IEEE/ACM), fall back to manual metadata:
if [ -d research-wiki/ ]; thencd"$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)" || exit 1
ARIS_REPO="${ARIS_REPO:-$(awk -F'\t' '$1=="repo_root"{print $2; exit}' .aris/installed-skills.txt 2>/dev/null)}"if [ -z "${ARIS_REPO:-}" ] && [ -f "$HOME/.aris/repo" ]; then
ARIS_REPO=$(cat"$HOME/.aris/repo" 2>/dev/null) || truefi
WIKI_SCRIPT=".aris/tools/research_wiki.py"
[ -f "$WIKI_SCRIPT" ] || WIKI_SCRIPT="tools/research_wiki.py"
[ -f "$WIKI_SCRIPT" ] || { [ -n "${ARIS_REPO:-}" ] && WIKI_SCRIPT="$ARIS_REPO/tools/research_wiki.py"; }
[ -f "$WIKI_SCRIPT" ] || {
echo"WARN: research_wiki.py not found; semantic-scholar results delivered, wiki ingest skipped. Fix: bash tools/install_aris.sh or smart_update.sh (refreshes ~/.aris/repo), export ARIS_REPO, or cp <ARIS-repo>/tools/research_wiki.py tools/." >&2
WIKI_SCRIPT=""
}
[ -n "$WIKI_SCRIPT" ] && for each paper in results:
if paper.externalIds.ArXiv:
python3 "$WIKI_SCRIPT" ingest_paper research-wiki/ \
--arxiv-id "<ArXiv>"else:
python3 "$WIKI_SCRIPT" ingest_paper research-wiki/ \
--title "<title>" --authors "<authors joined by , >" \
--year <year> --venue "<venue>" \
[--external-id-doi "<externalIds.DOI>"]
fi
The helper handles slug / dedup / page / index / log — do not
handwrite papers/<slug>.md. See
shared-references/integration-contract.md.
Backfill with /research-wiki sync --arxiv-ids <id1>,<id2>,... for
arXiv-available papers.
Step 8: Final Output
Summarize what was done:
Found N published papers for "query"
Filters applied: [publication types, fields, year range, etc.]
N papers are venue-only (not on arXiv)
Wiki-ingested N papers (if research-wiki/ was present)
Suggest follow-up skills:
/arxiv "topic" - search arXiv preprints (complements this search)
/research-lit "topic" - multi-source review: Zotero + local PDFs + arXiv + S2
/novelty-check "idea" - verify novelty against literature
Key Rules
Default to filtered search: Always apply --fields-of-study and --publication-types unless user says - fields: all. Without filters, S2 returns cross-discipline noise (linguistics, psychology, etc.).
Citation count is gold: S2's citation data is its main advantage over arXiv. Always show citationCount prominently and use it to rank/prioritize results.
Venue metadata matters: Show venue and publicationVenue.type (journal vs conference) — this helps users assess paper quality.
DOI is the canonical ID for published papers: Always show DOI links for IEEE/ACM/Springer papers.
Rate limiting: S2 API without key is heavily rate-limited (~1 req/s, strict cooldown). If HTTP 429 occurs, wait and retry. Recommend users set SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY env var for higher limits (free at https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api#api-key-form).
TLDR may be null: Some publishers (notably IEEE) elide the TLDR field. Fall back to showing the first sentence of the abstract.
openAccessPdf may be empty: Many IEEE papers are closed access. Always provide the DOI link as fallback.
If the S2 API is unreachable, suggest using /arxiv or /research-lit "topic" - sources: web as fallback.
