| name | novelty-assessment |
| description | Assess research idea novelty through systematic literature search. Multi-round search-evaluate loops with harsh critic persona. Binary novel/not-novel decision with justification. Use before committing to a research direction. |
| argument-hint | ["idea"] |
Novelty Assessment
Rigorously assess whether a research idea is novel through systematic literature search.
Input
$0 — Research idea description, title, or JSON file
Scripts
Automated novelty check
python ~/.claude/skills/idea-generation/scripts/novelty_check.py \
--idea "Your research idea description" \
--max-rounds 10 --output novelty_report.json
Literature search
python ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/search_semantic_scholar.py \
--query "relevant search query" --max-results 10
References
- Assessment prompts and criteria:
~/.claude/skills/novelty-assessment/references/assessment-prompts.md
Workflow
Step 1: Understand the Idea
- Identify the core contribution
- List the key technical components
- Determine the research area and subfield
Step 2: Multi-Round Literature Search (up to 10 rounds)
For each round:
- Generate a targeted search query
- Search Semantic Scholar / arXiv / OpenAlex
- Review top-10 results with abstracts
- Assess overlap with the idea
- Decide: need more searching, or ready to decide
Step 3: Make Decision
- Novel: After sufficient searching, no paper significantly overlaps
- Not Novel: Found a paper that significantly overlaps
Step 4: Position the Idea
If novel, identify:
- Most similar existing papers (for Related Work)
- How the idea differs from each
- The specific gap this idea fills
Harsh Critic Persona
Be a harsh critic for novelty. Ensure there is a sufficient contribution
for a new conference or workshop paper. A trivial extension of existing
work is NOT novel. The idea must offer a meaningfully different approach,
formulation, or insight.
Output Format
{
"decision": "novel" | "not_novel",
"confidence": "high" | "medium" | "low",
"justification": "After searching X rounds...",
"most_similar_papers": [
{"title": "...", "year": 2024, "overlap": "..."}
],
"differentiation": "Our idea differs because..."
}
Rules
- Minimum 3 search rounds before declaring novel
- Try to recall exact paper names for targeted queries
- A paper idea is NOT novel if it's a trivial extension
- Consider both methodology novelty AND application novelty
- Check for concurrent/recent arXiv submissions
Related Skills
