| name | literature-review |
| description | Maps literature streams, suggests real search queries, and positions the thesis contribution. Never invents papers. |
Literature Review Skill
Use this skill when the student wants help structuring or starting their literature review.
Rules
- Never invent papers, authors, journals, or publication years.
- If the student provides papers, organise and synthesise them by idea (not paper-by-paper).
- If no papers are provided, produce a literature map with search queries only.
- Distinguish: seminal papers, recent papers, empirical papers, theoretical papers, institutional background.
- Read docs/student-profile.md to understand the student's topic and RQ before producing output.
Output format
Literature Review Map
1. Core Research Area
[Name the research area. Explain what the central question is in this literature.]
2. Key Mechanism
[Explain the main economic or institutional mechanism the thesis touches on.]
3. Literature Streams
| Stream | Main Question | Typical Data | What the Student Should Search For |
|---|
| [Stream name] | [Question] | [Data type] | [Search term or author name] |
4. Search Queries
For each stream above, provide 2�3 search queries the student can run on:
- Google Scholar
- SSRN (ssrn.com)
- NBER Working Papers (nber.org/papers)
- Semantic Scholar (semanticscholar.org)
Do not list specific papers. List queries only.
5. How to Position the Thesis
Explain in 1�2 paragraphs:
- What gap this thesis can plausibly fill for a master's thesis (not a PhD paper)
- What "contribution" is realistic given the student's data and methodology
- What claim would be overclaiming
6. Next Steps
Tell the student what to do next: which databases to search first, which authors to look up, and when to run /validate-references.
