research

name	research
version	2026.05.05
effort	medium
triggers	arxiv|paper|research paper|citation|SOTA|prior art|doi|literature|literature review|preprint|study|publication|h-index|scholarly|academic|semantic scholar|openalex|pubmed|europepmc|crossref|dblp|unpaywall|internet archive|oreilly|find papers|who cites|survey of|novel claim|orcid|ror
description	Academic / literature research orchestrator. Routes intent -> best free tool first (arxiv, semantic_scholar, openalex, crossref, europepmc, pubmed, unpaywall, orcid, ror, dblp, openlibrary, internet_archive_search, oreilly_search), escalates to paid only when free < 3 hits. Auto-picks for "find papers on X", "prior art", "SOTA map", "who cites Y", "OA PDF for DOI", "author disambiguation", "literature review". NEVER WebFetch.
composes_with	autoresearch, elite-loop, "!:discover"

Research Skill — Academic & Literature Orchestrator

Replaces the 1-line Academic: context7 | arXiv routing in core-minimal.md with a decision matrix and tested chain patterns. All tools listed are FREE unless marked $. All via mcp__gateway__gateway_execute, server prefix fulcrum:.

Prime directive

free-first -> escalate only when free<3 hits | NEVER WebFetch (~50K/call waste)
<3 hits on free  -> try exa_search($0.005, semantic)
<3 hits on exa   -> parallel_search($0.004, multi-hop)
still nothing    -> widen query / drop filters before paying more

Research-type -> best-tool matrix (V evidence tested 2026-05-05)

#	Intent	Primary (FREE)	Secondary	Why	Conf
1	Fresh preprints (last 6mo ML/CS)	arxiv_search sortBy=submittedDate	semantic_scholar year=2025-2026	arxiv indexes preprints day-0; S2 lags ~weeks	V
2	Citation graph / influence	semantic_scholar fields=citationCount	openalex_search_works	S2 returns clean citationCount inline	V
3	Specific author's works	openalex_get_author	semantic_scholar + name	OpenAlex returns h-index + works_count + ORCID in one call; S2 needs paper->author hop	I
4	OA PDF for a DOI	unpaywall_find_open	europepmc_search (for biomed)	Unpaywall is THE canonical "is this free?" DB (~50M); does NOT index arXiv DOIs	V
5	Biomedical / clinical	europepmc_search	pubmed_search+pubmed_fetch_article	EPMC returns hasPDF/inEPMC/OA inline; PubMed only gives PMID list	V
6	CS-specific (established work)	semantic_scholar+arxiv_search	dblp_search	DBLP only indexes formally-published venues (0 hits on "Hebbian LLM memory" 2026-04-24); trap for fresh queries	V
7	Math-specific	arxiv_search cat:math.*	crossref_search_works	arXiv is the math preprint standard; crossref for published journals	I
8	Historical / archived / pre-arXiv terminology	internet_archive_search	openlibrary_search (books) / crossref_search_works (DOI lineage)	IA finds archived texts, old arXiv mirrors, proceedings, patents, and pre-current-keyword material; OpenLibrary is book metadata only	V
9	Multi-hop "cites X AND disputes Y"	parallel_search ($0.004)	exa_search type=neural	parallel_search built for chained multi-hop reasoning	I
10	Prior art (patent-claim grade)	chain: arxiv_search + semantic_scholar + internet_archive_search + exa_search	parallel_search	No single source; must triangulate preprint+published+archived web/text	I
11	SOTA map of a whole field	chain: arxiv_search (fresh) + semantic_scholar (influential, top-k by citations) + openalex_search_works (concept breadth)	exa_search fill gaps	3 axes: recent / influential / conceptual cluster	V
12	Novel-claim validation (cross-discipline)	openalex_search_works (concepts graph)	semantic_scholar	OpenAlex concepts span 250M works + cross-field topics	I
13	Author disambiguation / institution	orcid_get_person + ror_search_organization	openalex_get_author	ORCID=canonical ID, ROR=canonical institution	I
14	Production engineering pattern / practitioner implementation	oreilly_search	oreilly_books_search for book-level bibliography	O'Reilly surfaces book/chapter-level implementation guidance and operator patterns that paper indexes often omit	V

Confidence: V=tested today with real query | I=schema-level argument | A=assumption.

3 chain patterns (Rams #10 — less but better)

Pick one of these by intent. Default is pattern A.

A. "Find papers on X" / survey (DEFAULT for 90% of asks)

1. fulcrum:arxiv_search  {search_query: "all:X AND all:Y", sortBy: "submittedDate", max_results: 10}
2. fulcrum:semantic_scholar {query: "X Y", limit: 10, fields: "title,authors,year,citationCount,externalIds,abstract"}
3. Merge: dedupe by DOI/ArXiv ID. Sort by (year desc, citationCount desc).
4. If historical, pre-arXiv, old terminology, or prior-art adjacent:
   fulcrum:internet_archive_search {q: "mediatype:texts AND (\"X\" OR \"Y\")", rows: 10, fl: "identifier,title,creator,date,mediatype,downloads,subject", sort: "downloads desc"}
5. If the ask includes production engineering, agent/product implementation, operational memory, deployment, eval, or system-design practice:
   fulcrum:oreilly_search {query: "X Y", formats: "book", limit: 10, sort: "relevance"}
6. Skip O'Reilly for pure citation counting, DOI/OA lookup, author disambiguation, or biomed-only searches; skip IA for fresh-only queries with a tight recent-year filter.
7. If free scholarly + IA/O'Reilly fanout still returns < 3 useful hits: fulcrum:exa_search {query: "...", category: "research_paper", num_results: 5}

B. "Prior art" / SOTA map

1. A + openalex_search_works {search: "X", per_page: 10, filter: "publication_year:2023-2026", select: "id,title,publication_year,doi,cited_by_count,authorships"}
   (always pass 'select' — default response is ~35KB/result from inverted-index abstract)
2. For top-5 influential: semantic_scholar citations graph (paperId -> references + citations).
3. If patent-grade: add internet_archive_search for archived/pre-current-keyword evidence before paid web search.
4. If still under-covered: add parallel_search for non-paper web evidence.

C. "Who is author X" / "I have DOI Y"

Author:   orcid_get_person <ORCID>  ||  openalex_get_author <id_or_ORCID>
DOI->OA:  unpaywall_find_open <doi> <email>   (NOT for arXiv DOIs — 404)
DOI->md:  crossref_get_doi <doi>

Parameter gotchas (save 5-10 rediscovery calls)

arxiv_search          -> search_query (NOT query),  sortBy, sortOrder, max_results
dblp_search           -> q (NOT query),             h (NOT limit)
openalex_search_works -> search (NOT query),        per_page, filter, select (USE IT)
pubmed_search         -> term (NOT query),          retmax, sort
semantic_scholar      -> query, limit, fields, year
europepmc_search      -> query, pageSize, cursorMark
crossref_search_works -> query, rows, filter
exa_search            -> query, category (research_paper), num_results, type
internet_archive_search -> q (Lucene), rows, fl, sort; use mediatype:texts for papers/books/proceedings
oreilly_search        -> query, formats, limit, page, sort; use formats=book for book/chapter results
oreilly_books_search  -> query, limit, page; use for whole-book bibliography/ISBN, not narrow chapter evidence
unpaywall_find_open   -> doi, email REQUIRED; use [e-mail]; fails on 10.48550/arXiv.* (use publisher DOI)
openalex: pass `select: "id,title,publication_year,doi,cited_by_count,authorships"` or response is ~35KB/hit

Output format (citation-ready)

One line per hit. Year desc. Drop duplicates by DOI/ArXiv ID.

<Title> — <Authors> (<Year>) arXiv:<id> | doi:<doi> | cites:<n>

Example:

Hebbian Memory-Augmented Recurrent Networks — Szelogowski (2025) arXiv:2507.21474 | doi:10.48550/arXiv.2507.21474 | cites:2
HeLa-Mem: Hebbian Learning and Associative Memory for LLM Agents — Zhu, Li, Zhang et al. (2026) arXiv:2604.16839 | ACL 2026 | cites:0

Cost ceiling rules

FREE budget      -> unlimited (arxiv, S2, openalex, crossref, EPMC, pubmed, unpaywall, orcid, ror, dblp, openlibrary, internet_archive_search, oreilly_search/oreilly_books_search)
$0.005 exa       -> OK if free returned <3 hits OR semantic query needs neural
$0.004 parallel  -> OK only for multi-hop chains (pattern B with patent-grade ask)
$0.01 tavily     -> last resort only
WebFetch         -> NEVER (~50K tokens = $0.25 equivalent in context)

Test evidence (2026-04-24, query: "Hebbian learning LLM memory")

Tool	Hits	Top result	Cost
arxiv_search (sort=submittedDate)	2	HeLa-Mem (2026-04-18, ACL 2026)	FREE
semantic_scholar	11,990	Hebbian Memory-Augmented RNN (2025, cites:2)	FREE
openalex_search_works (2024-26)	261	HeLa-Mem	FREE but 113KB payload — USE select
crossref_search_works	3,080,234	Short-term Hebbian ~ transformer attention (Ellwood 2023, PLoS)	FREE
europepmc_search	5,553	Anti-Hebbian replay (Hippocampus 2026) — all biomed	FREE
pubmed_search	539	biomed-only, PMID list only	FREE
dblp_search	0	— (DBLP too conservative for fresh preprint queries)	FREE
exa_search category=research_paper	2	HeLa-Mem arxiv abs URL	$0.007
unpaywall_find_open (arXiv DOI)	404	— (doesn't index arXiv DOIs)	FREE
unpaywall_find_open (publisher DOI 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011843)	gold OA	PLoS PDF + PMC mirror + DOAJ	FREE
internet_archive_search mediatype:texts	93	archived patents/proceedings and older neural-memory/Hebbian-learning texts, e.g. dHAN associative thought (2007) and visual-cortex Hebbian learning (2005)	FREE
oreilly_search "LLM memory" OR "AI agents memory"	28	AI Agents and Applications ch.14 "Productionizing AI agents: Memory, guardrails, and beyond"; Hands-On GenAI appendix "LLM Memory Requirements"	FREE

Winning combo for this query: Pattern A core (arxiv_search + semantic_scholar) plus conditional free fanout. internet_archive_search adds older/pre-current-keyword and patent/proceedings context; oreilly_search adds practitioner LLM/agent-memory chapters. No paid escalation needed when these free fanouts produce useful context. dblp was 0-hit noise; crossref found a 2023 paper the others missed via keyword ranking so it's worth as a 3rd cross-check for survey/prior-art.

Composition

• Metric-hill-climb of a target file -> use autoresearch skill (different tool).
• Debate/multi-perspective decisions -> use swarm-templates/research-council.
• Autonomous discovery loop -> use /!:discover or /!:autoresearch (slash command).
• This skill = literature search orchestration only.

Quick recipes

# "SOTA map of hebbian memory"
-> Pattern B with year=2023-2026, top-10 by (year, cites)

# "Find papers by Hinton on forward-forward"
-> openalex_get_author "Geoffrey Hinton" -> filter works by title contains "forward-forward"
   OR semantic_scholar query "forward-forward Hinton"

# "Is DOI 10.1038/nature12373 open access?"
-> unpaywall_find_open doi=10.1038/nature12373 email=[e-mail]
   (returns best_oa_location.url_for_pdf if OA)

# "Recent CS papers about X (last 30 days)"
-> arxiv_search search_query="all:X AND cat:cs.*" sortBy=submittedDate max_results=20

2026.05.05 | supersedes Academic: context7 | arXiv line in core-minimal.md