research-superpowers

Research Superpowers: Literature Search & Review

Give Claude Code superpowers for systematic literature searching and review. Search PubMed, screen papers, extract data, traverse citations, and synthesize findings.

Focus: Finding and reviewing scientific papers, not lab work or data analysis.

What You Get

A complete toolkit for systematic literature reviews:

• Literature Search - PubMed and Semantic Scholar integration
• Smart Paper Screening - Abstract scoring + deep dive for relevant data extraction
• Screening Rubrics - Build and test custom relevance criteria collaboratively
• ChEMBL Integration - Check if medicinal chemistry papers have curated SAR data (~99k papers)
• Open Access Finding - Unpaywall API to find free versions of paywalled papers
• Citation Traversal - Intelligent backward and forward citation following
• Large-Scale Screening - Parallel subagent processing for 50+ papers
• Research Orchestration - End-to-end workflow from query to synthesized findings

Quick Start

Option 1: Install from Marketplace (Recommended)

# In Claude Code, add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/kthorn/research-superpower

# Install the plugin
/plugin install research-superpowers@research-superpowers-marketplace

# Start asking literature search questions!
# Example: "Find papers on BTK inhibitor selectivity with IC50 data"
# Example: "Review literature on CRISPR gene editing in cardiomyocytes"
# Example: "What's known about MmpL3 inhibitors for tuberculosis?"

Option 2: Manual Installation

# Clone to your config directory
git clone https://github.com/kthorn/research-superpower ~/.config/research-superpowers

# Start Claude Code and tell it your literature search question

Note: These skills help you find and review papers. For analyzing experimental data or designing experiments, you'll need other tools.

How It Works (Literature Review Workflow)

1. Parse your literature question - Extract keywords, data types, constraints
2. Build screening rubric - Define what makes papers relevant (optional, for large searches)
3. Search PubMed - Find candidate papers
4. Screen abstracts - Score papers for relevance (0-10)
5. Deep dive on promising papers - Fetch full text, extract specific data and methods
6. Traverse citations - Follow relevant references and citing papers (via Semantic Scholar)
7. Synthesize findings - Organize results in SUMMARY.md with structured extraction
8. Track everything - Maintain research session folder with findings, PDFs, and deduplication

Project Structure

research-superpowers/
├── skills/
│   ├── getting-started/        # Introduction and workflow overview
│   └── research/
│       ├── answering-research-questions/    # Main orchestration
│       ├── searching-literature/            # PubMed search
│       ├── evaluating-paper-relevance/      # Abstract screening + deep dive
│       ├── checking-chembl/                 # ChEMBL SAR data lookup
│       ├── traversing-citations/            # Citation network traversal
│       └── finding-open-access-papers/      # Unpaywall integration
├── scripts/
│   └── find-skills              # Search for relevant skills
└── hooks/
    └── session-start.sh         # Auto-load at Claude Code startup

Research Session Output

Each research query creates a folder:

research-sessions/2025-10-11-btk-inhibitor-selectivity/
├── SUMMARY.md                   # Main findings organized by relevance
├── papers-reviewed.json         # Deduplication tracking
├── papers/
│   ├── 10.1234_example.pdf
│   └── ...
└── citations/
    └── citation-graph.json      # Citation relationships

Skills Library

Literature Search & Review Skills

• answering-research-questions - Main orchestration workflow (search → screen → extract → synthesize)
• building-screening-rubrics - Collaborative rubric design with test-driven refinement
• searching-literature - PubMed API integration with query optimization
• evaluating-paper-relevance - Two-stage relevance filtering (abstract + deep dive)
• subagent-driven-review - Parallel screening for large searches (50+ papers)
• checking-chembl - ChEMBL database lookup for medicinal chemistry papers
• traversing-citations - Smart citation following via Semantic Scholar
• finding-open-access-papers - Unpaywall API for finding free full text
• cleaning-up-research-sessions - Safe cleanup of intermediate files after research complete

Philosophy

These skills focus on systematic literature searching and review: