literature-review

# Systematic Literature Review

This skill guides you through conducting a PhD-level literature review.

## Phase 1: Scope Definition

Before searching, clearly define:

### Research Question
- What specific question are you investigating?
- Is it focused enough to be answerable?
- Is it broad enough to find relevant literature?

### Inclusion Criteria
- **Time range**: How far back to search?
- **Source types**: Peer-reviewed only? Include preprints?
- **Language**: English only or multilingual?
- **Geographic scope**: Any regional focus?
- **Discipline**: Single field or interdisciplinary?

### Exclusion Criteria
- What types of sources to exclude?
- Quality thresholds (e.g., minimum citations)?

**CHECKPOINT**: Confirm scope with user before proceeding.

## Phase 2: Search Strategy

### Search Term Development
1. Identify key concepts from research question
2. List synonyms and related terms for each concept
3. Include both technical and common terms
4. Consider field-specific vocabulary

### Boolean Query Construction
```
(concept1 OR synonym1a OR synonym1b)
AND
(concept2 OR synonym2a OR synonym2b)
AND
(concept3 OR synonym3a)
```

### Database Selection
Execute searches using WebSearch with site filters:
- `site:arxiv.org` - Preprints (CS, physics, math)
- `site:scholar.google.com` - Broad academic
- `site:semanticscholar.org` - AI-powered discovery
- `site:pubmed.gov` - Biomedical
- `site:ssrn.com` - Social sciences, economics
- `site:acm.org` - Computer science

## Phase 3: Source Retrieval and Screening

### Initial Screening
For each result:
1. Check title relevance
2. Read abstract
3. Assess publication quality
4. Decide include/exclude

### Full-Text Retrieval
Use WebFetch to get:
- Full paper content (if available)
- Key sections (methods, results, discussion)
- Reference lists for citation chaining

### Citation Chaining
- **Backward**: Check references of key papers
- **Forward**: Find papers citing key works

## Phase 4: Quality Assessment

Rate each s