| name | multi-source-literature-brief |
| description | Use this skill to query OpenAlex, Europe PMC, Crossref, and PubMed for the same topic and build a normalized literature brief. Do not use it as a full systematic-review workflow or citation-analysis engine. |
Purpose
Build a compact cross-source literature brief for a query by aggregating multiple official scholarly APIs into one normalized JSON report.
When to use
- You want a quick cross-check of literature coverage across general and biomedical indexes.
- You need a reusable JSON brief before deeper paper triage or ranking.
- You want a small overlap view by DOI or title across sources.
When not to use
- You need exhaustive retrieval for a systematic review.
- You need full-text mining, citation graphs, or advanced deduplication.
- You need offline-only execution.
Inputs
- Query string
- Per-source result limit
- Optional output path
- Optional NCBI/OpenAlex etiquette fields such as
--email or --mailto
Outputs
- JSON report with per-source counts, normalized top results, and cross-source overlap candidates
Requirements
- Python 3.10+
- Network access to OpenAlex, Europe PMC, Crossref, and NCBI E-utilities
Procedure
- Run
python3 skills/scientific-knowledge/multi-source-literature-brief/scripts/build_literature_brief.py --query "single-cell RNA-seq" --limit 2 --out skills/scientific-knowledge/multi-source-literature-brief/assets/single_cell_literature_brief.json.
- Inspect the
sources section to compare the top normalized results from each API.
- Review
overlap_summary to see which DOI or title candidates appear in more than one source.
Validation
- The command exits successfully.
- All four source blocks are present.
- Each source returns at least one normalized result for a known query.
Failure modes and fixes
- NCBI rate limiting: rerun after a short pause or pass
--email; the wrapper already retries transient 429 responses.
- Sparse Crossref hits: keep the query phrase concise because Crossref is title-oriented here.
- Query drift across sources: use quoted phrases or a more specific biomedical term.
Safety and limits
- This skill aggregates public bibliographic metadata only.
- It does not infer scientific truth or replace manual review.
Example
python3 skills/scientific-knowledge/multi-source-literature-brief/scripts/build_literature_brief.py --query "CRISPR screen melanoma" --limit 1
Provenance
Related skills
openalex-literature-searcheuropepmc-method-triagecrossref-metadata-searchncbi-pubmed-search
