From est-skills
Designs experiments and sampling campaigns for Environmental Science & Technology so the design survives expert review — covering environmental relevance, controls, replication, mass/energy balances, and QA/QC.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/est-skills:est-study-designThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
ES&T reviewers are demanding about whether a design can actually support its environmental claim.
ES&T reviewers are demanding about whether a design can actually support its environmental claim.
The failure modes are predictable: unrealistic conditions, missing controls, no replication, an
unclosed mass balance, or QA/QC bolted on after the fact. Design to pre-empt them. Execution and
reporting of results live in est-data-analysis.
est-data-analysis).The fastest way to lose an environmental-relevance argument is to omit the control that rules out a competing process. Match the control set to what you are claiming:
| If you claim... | You must control for... | Reviewer's killer question |
|---|---|---|
| Biodegradation/biotransformation | abiotic loss (autoclaved/poisoned control) | "could this be sorption or hydrolysis?" |
| Photolysis | dark control, light-screened control | "is the loss just thermal?" |
| Adsorption to a sorbent | blank sorbent, dissolved-phase loss | "is it volatilization?" |
| Treatment removal | influent/effluent mass balance, blank run | "where did the mass go?" |
| Toxicity/effect | solvent/vehicle control, dilution series | "is the carrier causing it?" |
To support "precursor X biotransforms to PFHxA in river water," the design (illustrative) builds in the defenses before any sample is run:
The design choice that pre-empts the top rejection: the abiotic control plus the mass balance together make the biotransformation claim falsifiable, which is exactly what the analytical reviewer checks.
【Design】lab / mesocosm / field / modeling + endpoints
【Environmental relevance】conditions match target system? [Y/N + justification]
【Controls】which confounders ruled out
【Replication/power】n, randomization, effect size
【Mass/energy balance】planned? how closed?
【QA/QC plan】blanks / spikes / CRM / LOD-LOQ / calibration
【Next】est-data-analysis
../../resources/external_tools.md — instruments, fate/transport models, QA/QC backbone../../resources/official-source-map.md — ES&T scope and rigor expectationsnpx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin est-skillsGuides data analysis and QA/QC reporting for environmental science manuscripts. Covers blanks, recoveries, detection limits, uncertainty propagation, and mass balances.
Guides design of manipulative experiments, observational studies, and process models for Global Change Biology manuscripts. Helps avoid pseudoreplication and match scale to claim.
Structures biological experiments with controls, randomization, blinding, and power analysis to produce valid reproducible results. Uses GLP and Fisher principles.