Can this skill find the full text of papers?

Yes, it automatically checks OpenAlex and Unpaywall for open-access versions and generates a download checklist for paywalled content.

Can I export the results to my citation manager?

Yes, the skill generates BibTeX files and markdown bibliographies that are compatible with citation managers like Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote.

Does LitSearch require an API key?

No, LitSearch uses the OpenAlex API, which is free and does not require authentication for basic academic research use.

What is 'snowballing' in the context of this skill?

Snowballing is the process of expanding your corpus by retrieving the references of your included papers (backward) and identifying newer works that cite them (forward).

How does the AI assist in the screening process?

The agent reads titles and abstracts to pre-classify papers as Include, Exclude, or Borderline, providing a brief rationale for each decision so you can review and approve them.

LitSearch Academic Review Agent

Name: LitSearch Academic Review Agent
Author: nealcaren

bynealcaren

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Web Scraping & Data Collection

Automates systematic literature reviews and builds structured scholarship databases using the OpenAlex API.

LitSearch is a specialized Claude Code skill designed for sociology and social science researchers to conduct rigorous, reproducible literature reviews. It guides users through every phase of the research lifecycle—from defining scope and querying the OpenAlex API to screening abstracts, performing forward and backward snowballing, and generating a fully annotated database. By combining AI-assisted screening with human expertise, it streamlines the identification of foundational works, tracks full-text availability, and exports synthesized bibliographies in BibTeX format, ensuring a comprehensive and queryable evidence base for any academic topic.

Key Features

01Automated Snowballing to discover missing papers through forward and backward citation tracking.

02Export-Ready Outputs including annotated bibliographies, research gap memos, and BibTeX files.

03Systematic Screening Workflow using LLMs to classify relevance with transparent reasoning logs.

04OpenAlex API Integration for access to 250M+ scholarly works and citation networks.

05Structured Annotation & Synthesis to extract research questions, methods, and findings into queryable JSON.

069 GitHub stars

Use Cases

01Conducting a systematic literature review for a sociology thesis or peer-reviewed journal article.

02Mapping a new research field to identify foundational works and emerging theoretical debates.

03Building a citation-manager-ready database for collaborative quantitative social data analysis.

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add nealcaren/social-data-analysis lit-search

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill