Literature Review Skills
Five skills for literature reviews: question refinement, modules, method comparison, contradictions and the research gap.
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- MIT
Minimal access
Why this level
- The skills only provide instructions and run no commands on the machine
Install
- Works in
In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI
npx skillfoxx add skills/literature-review-skillsDetects the agents on your machine, shows the access level and pins the version.
Other ways to install
Access and checks
How we reviewMinimal accessThe tool runs nothing and makes no network calls.
- The skills only provide instructions and run no commands on the machine
This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.
What it does
A set of five skills guides the planning stages of a literature review but does not write the review: academic decisions, source verification and the final argument stay with the author. The stages: `refine-literature-question` narrows a topic to a question, `decompose-review-modules` splits it into 3–5 modules, `compare-research-methods` compares methods, `map-literature-contradictions` turns disagreements into findings and `locate-review-research-gap` states a defensible gap. A root `SKILL.md` reads the relevant stages. Version 0.3 added discipline guides loaded on demand: journalism and communication, library and information science, with a general order for other topics. Narrative, scoping, systematic and conceptual reviews are supported.
Who it is for. Graduate students and supervisors preparing a literature review for a thesis or course paper.
Good fit when
- A broad topic does not become a question that steers search and screening.
- A review must be split into three to five modules with clear boundaries.
- Methods in the papers found must be compared to see which questions each can answer.
- Contradictions between studies must become a coherent synthesis and a stated gap.
Not a fit when
- A finished review text is needed: the skills structure work and do not write it for the author.
- Searching and verifying publications is needed: the author checks sources personally.
- The topic is security or intelligence: the set has no dedicated guide for it.
Example request
Use refine-literature-question on the topic of rural e-commerce participation and propose a question for the review.Limitations
The set does not write a review or verify literature, which stays with the author. Discipline guides exist only for journalism and communication and for library and information science, and other topics use the general order. News means scholarly journalism, and digests of current events are out of scope. With a manual clone the five stages do not necessarily register as separate skills: to invoke one by name, place its folder with `references/` in the agent's skills directory. Both English and Chinese documentation are available.
How to disable. Delete the skill folders from the agent directory or remove them through the `npx skills` installer, then open a new session.
FAQ
How do I install it?
With `npx skills add https://github.com/xingtaxueshu/literature-review-skills`. You can also ask an agent to find and install the set from the link or clone the repository by hand.
Does the set write the review itself?
No, it helps plan and structure the review. Decisions, source checks and the final argument stay with the author.
Which skills are included?
Five: `refine-literature-question`, `decompose-review-modules`, `compare-research-methods`, `map-literature-contradictions` and `locate-review-research-gap`. The root `SKILL.md` is the common entry.
Which disciplines have guides?
Journalism and communication and library and information science. Other topics use the general order.
How do I invoke a single stage?
Name it: Use refine-literature-question on this topic. In a manual install put the full stage folder with `references/` in the skills directory.
Discussion
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README in short
Covers the five-stage workflow, three install methods, invocation examples, discipline guides, a suggested order of work and validation.