zai-org/synapse/research-paper-writer

Research Paper Writer

Overview

This skill guides the creation of formal academic research papers that meet publication standards for IEEE and ACM conferences/journals. It ensures proper structure, formatting, academic writing style, and comprehensive coverage of research topics.

Workflow

1. Understanding the Research Topic

When asked to write a research paper:

1. Clarify the topic and scope with the user:

• What is the main research question or contribution?
• What is the target audience (conference, journal, general academic)?
• What is the desired length (page count or word count)?
• Are there specific sections required?
• What formatting standard to use (IEEE or ACM)?

1. Gather context if needed:

• Review any provided research materials, data, or references
• Understand the domain and technical background
• Identify key related work or existing research to reference

2. Paper Structure

Follow this standard academic paper structure:

1. Title and Abstract
   - Concise title reflecting the main contribution
   - Abstract: 150-250 words summarizing purpose, methods, results, conclusions
 
2. Introduction
   - Motivation and problem statement
   - Research gap and significance
   - Main contributions (typically 3-5 bullet points)
   - Paper organization paragraph
 
3. Related Work / Background
   - Literature review of relevant research
   - Comparison with existing approaches
   - Positioning of current work
 
4. Methodology / Approach / System Design
   - Detailed description of proposed method/system
   - Architecture diagrams if applicable
   - Algorithms or procedures
   - Design decisions and rationale
 
5. Implementation (if applicable)
   - Technical details
   - Tools and technologies used
   - Challenges and solutions
 
6. Evaluation / Experiments / Results
   - Experimental setup
   - Datasets or test scenarios
   - Performance metrics
   - Results presentation (tables, graphs)
   - Analysis and interpretation
 
7. Discussion
   - Implications of results
   - Limitations and threats to validity
   - Lessons learned
 
8. Conclusion and Future Work
   - Summary of contributions
   - Impact and significance
   - Future research directions
 
9. References
   - Comprehensive bibliography in proper citation format

3. Academic Writing Style

Apply these writing conventions from scholarly research:

Tone and Voice:

• Formal, objective, and precise language
• Third-person perspective (avoid "I" or "we" unless describing specific contributions)
• Present tense for established facts, past tense for specific studies
• Clear, direct statements without unnecessary complexity

Technical Precision:

• Define all acronyms on first use: "Context-Aware Systems (C-AS)"
• Use domain-specific terminology correctly and consistently
• Quantify claims with specific metrics or evidence
• Avoid vague terms like "very", "many", "significant" without data

Argumentation:

• State claims clearly, then support with evidence
• Use logical progression: motivation → problem → solution → validation
• Compare and contrast with related work explicitly
• Address limitations and counterarguments

Section-Specific Guidelines:

Abstract:

• First sentence: broad context and motivation
• Second/third: specific problem and gap
• Middle: approach and methodology
• End: key results and contributions
• Self-contained (readable without the full paper)

Introduction:

• Start with real-world motivation or compelling problem
• Build from general to specific (inverted pyramid)
• End with clear contribution list and paper roadmap
• Use examples to illustrate the problem

Related Work:

• Group related work by theme or approach
• Compare explicitly: "Unlike [X] which focuses on Y, our approach..."
• Identify gaps: "However, these approaches do not address..."
• Position your work clearly

Results:

• Present data clearly in tables/figures
• Describe trends and patterns objectively
• Compare with baselines quantitatively
• Acknowledge unexpected or negative results

4. Formatting Guidelines

IEEE Format (default):

• Page size: A4 (210mm × 297mm)
• Margins: Top 19mm, Bottom 43mm, Left/Right 14.32mm
• Two-column layout with 4.22mm column separation
• Font: Times New Roman throughout
• Title: 24pt bold
• Author names: 11pt
• Section headings: 10pt bold, numbered (1., 1.1, 1.1.1)
• Body text: 10pt
• Figure/Table captions: 8pt
• Line spacing: Single
• Paragraph: No indentation, 3pt spacing between paragraphs
• Figures: Centered, with captions below
• Tables: Centered, with captions above

ACM Format (alternative):

• Standard ACM conference proceedings format
• Single-column abstract, two-column body
• Include CCS Concepts and Keywords sections after abstract
• Use ACM reference format for citations

5. Citations and References

In-text citations:

• Use numbered citations: "Recent work [1, 2] has shown..."
• Multiple citations in chronological order: [3, 7, 12]
• Reference specific sections: "As demonstrated in [5, Section 3]..."

Reference formatting (IEEE style):

[1] A. Author, B. Author, and C. Author, "Title of paper," in Proc. Conference Name, Year, pp. 123-456.
[2] D. Author, "Title of journal article," Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, pp. 123-456, Month Year.
[3] E. Author, Book Title, Edition. City: Publisher, Year.

Reference list requirements:

• Alphabetically ordered by first author's last name (or numbered by citation order)
• Include DOI or URL when available
• Minimum 15-20 references for a full paper
• Mix of recent (last 5 years) and foundational works

6. Content Generation Process

Step-by-step approach:

1. Create outline

• Develop detailed section-by-section outline
• Define key points for each section
• Identify where figures/tables are needed

1. Draft sections iteratively

• Start with methodology (core contribution)
• Then introduction (now that contribution is clear)
• Related work (to position the contribution)
• Results and evaluation
• Discussion and conclusion
• Abstract last (summary of complete paper)

1. Add citations

• Reference related work throughout
• Support claims with evidence from literature
• Create comprehensive reference list

1. Review and refine

• Check logical flow between sections
• Ensure consistency in terminology
• Verify all figures/tables are referenced in text
• Confirm abstract matches content
• Validate citation completeness

Examples

Example 1: User asks for a survey paper

User: "Write a research paper surveying recent advances in context-aware systems"
 
Response:
1. Clarify scope: "I'll create a survey paper on context-aware systems. A few questions:
   - Should I focus on specific aspects (e.g., requirements engineering, implementation techniques)?
   - What time period for 'recent' (last 5 years, 10 years)?
   - Target length: 10-15 pages, or 20-30 pages comprehensive survey?
   - IEEE or ACM format?"
 
2. After clarification, create outline showing:
   - Taxonomy of context-aware systems
   - Survey methodology
   - Classification scheme
   - Section-by-section coverage of different aspects
   - Trends and future directions
 
3. Draft paper following survey structure with extensive related work coverage

Example 2: User asks for an experimental paper

User: "Write a paper about my new algorithm for detecting hallucinations in vision-language models"
 
Response:
1. Gather details about:
   - Algorithm approach and novelty
   - Experimental setup and datasets used
   - Results and metrics
   - Comparison baselines
 
2. Structure as experimental paper:
   - Introduction: motivation for hallucination detection
   - Related work: existing detection methods
   - Proposed method: detailed algorithm description
   - Experiments: datasets, metrics, setup
   - Results: quantitative comparison with baselines
   - Analysis: ablation studies, error analysis
   - Conclusion: contributions and future work
 
3. Emphasize reproducibility and empirical validation

Resources

references/

• writing_style_guide.md: Detailed academic writing conventions extracted from example papers
• ieee_formatting_specs.md: Complete IEEE formatting specifications
• acm_formatting_specs.md: Complete ACM formatting specifications

assets/

• full_paper_template.pdf: IEEE paper template with formatting examples
• interim-layout.pdf: ACM paper template
• Reference these templates when discussing formatting requirements with users

Important Notes

• Always ask for clarification on topic scope before starting
• Quality over speed: Take time to structure properly and write clearly
• Cite appropriately: Academic integrity requires proper attribution
• Be honest about limitations: Acknowledge gaps or constraints in the research
• Maintain consistency: Terminology, notation, and style throughout
• User provides the research content: This skill structures and writes; the user provides the technical contributions and findings