research-reviewer

name	research-reviewer
version	1.0
description	Audits a completed research item for citation discipline, speculation control, writing quality, and logical coherence. Use after research investigation is complete and before the item is marked done. Audit-only — never edits the item.

Skill: Research Item Review

When Not to Use

• When the research item is still in progress — complete the investigation first
• When a quick sanity check is needed rather than a full audit — use citation-discipline, speculation-control, or remove-ai-slop individually
• When the goal is to improve the writing — this skill audits; it does not rewrite

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Interaction Protocol

Operating mode: Audit-only. Read the item. Report violations. Do not edit, rewrite, or commit anything.

Before starting, confirm:

1. Is the item complete? (Findings, Evidence Map, and Executive Summary are populated — not stubs or "TBD")
2. Which sections require full audit? (Research Skill Output and Findings sections require full checks; Context section has lighter standards — see scope notes below)

Output: A structured violation report. See Output Format.

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Inputs and Outputs

Input: A completed research item in structured Markdown format with Research Skill Output and Findings sections
Output: A structured audit report with per-skill PASS/FAIL verdicts and specific violations
Composability: Use after research §8 Output Finalisation; referenced in research skill as the final gate before marking an item complete. Applies citation-discipline, speculation-control, remove-ai-slop, and peer-reviewer in sequence.

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Scope Notes

Apply these standards consistently across all items:

Research Skill Output and Findings sections: Full audit. All four skills apply at maximum rigour.

Context section: Lighter standard.

• citation-discipline: flag only hard factual claims (specific statistics, named studies, precise dates) that lack a source. Do not flag framing prose, motivating rationale, or working hypotheses.
• speculation-control: flag overconfident assertions presented as settled fact. Allow unlabelled framing assumptions and working hypotheses — the Context section is intentionally a pre-investigation framing device.
• remove-ai-slop: apply normally.

Template structure: Do not flag required structural elements (section headers, numbered sections, Evidence Map table) as AI slop. These are required by the format.

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Step 1 — Citation Discipline

Check the Research Skill Output and Findings sections for:

• Factual claims that lack a [fact], [inference], or [assumption] label and a corresponding source
• Sourced claims where the citation does not directly support what is asserted
• Vague quantifiers ("many", "most", "significant") used without sourcing
• Acronyms or initialisms used without expansion on first occurrence
• Domain terms used without a link to an authoritative definition

Do not flag stubs or "TBD" sections — an incomplete section is not a citation violation.

The labels [inference] and [assumption] are the accepted convention for epistemic labelling in research items — treat them as compliant with citation discipline for the purpose of distinguishing verified facts from inferences.

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Step 2 — Speculation Control

Check the Research Skill Output and Findings sections for:

• Speculative statements that are not prefixed with Speculation: or Hypothesis:, or not labelled [inference] or [assumption]
• Opinions or subjective judgments that are not labelled Opinion:
• Overconfident language ("clearly", "obviously", "undeniably") unsupported by evidence
• Evidentiary gaps filled with invented or assumed detail presented as fact

The labels [inference] and [assumption] in Research Skill Output sections are the accepted convention — treat them as compliant.

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Step 3 — Remove AI Slop

Check the Findings section (Executive Summary, Key Findings, Analysis, etc.) for:

• Formulaic AI writing patterns: predictable transitions ("Furthermore", "Additionally", "It is important to note"), symmetrical paragraphs, explicit meta-structure ("In conclusion")
• Alignment artifacts: safety-prefacing language, over-explained causal links, unnecessary framing sentences
• Lexical monotony: repeated sentence openings, uniform sentence length, excessive hedging density

Apply remove-ai-slop/SKILL.md checks in full.

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Step 4 — Peer Review

Check the Executive Summary, Key Findings, and Analysis sections for:

• Conclusions in the Executive Summary that lack corresponding supporting evidence in the Findings or Evidence Map
• Confidence levels not calibrated to source count and independence: High requires multiple independent sources; Medium requires one credible source; Low applies to single uncertain sources or strong inferential leaps
• Central findings that present a single explanation for a contested or multi-causal phenomenon without acknowledging alternatives exist
• Competing hypotheses dismissed without reasoning or evidence
• Missing cross-references to related completed items where the connection is material to the conclusion

Apply peer-reviewer/SKILL.md checks in full.

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Output Format

Produce the report in this exact format:

REVIEW_TARGET: <item identifier or title>
citation-discipline: PASS | FAIL
  VIOLATION: <specific violation with section reference or quote>
speculation-control: PASS | FAIL
  VIOLATION: <specific violation with section reference or quote>
remove-ai-slop: PASS | FAIL
  VIOLATION: <specific violation with section reference or quote>
peer-reviewer: PASS | FAIL
  logical-coherence-and-evidence-sufficiency: PASS | FAIL
    VIOLATION: <specific violation with section reference or quote>
  alternative-explanations: PASS | FAIL
    VIOLATION: <specific violation with section reference or quote>
  cross-item-integration: PASS | FAIL
    VIOLATION: <specific violation with section reference or quote>
OVERALL: PASS | FAIL

Rules:

• Use PASS if no violations are found for a skill; use FAIL if any violations are found
• Each violation on its own line, indented two spaces, prefixed VIOLATION:
• OVERALL: PASS only if all four skills passed; otherwise OVERALL: FAIL
• If a required companion skill file is missing, write SKILL_FILE_MISSING as the result and treat it as PASS for the overall calculation
• If the item is a stub (Findings not yet populated), write ITEM_INCOMPLETE and do not audit