narrative-review

Research

Theory-driven literature review for building arguments and frameworks. Flexible, subjective, and narrative-focused — selects evidence strategically to support a thesis. High web-research budget for blogs, opinion pieces, and industry perspectives. Use when the user is writing a position paper, survey introduction, or constructing a coherent narrative around a research theme.

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How to use this skill

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Prompt to paste

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/yogsoth-ai/de-anthropocentric-research-engine/blob/HEAD/skills/narrative-review/SKILL.md

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Narrative Review

Purpose: Flexible, subjective, theory-driven — build a theoretical argument supported by literature. Not objective coverage, but persuasive framing.

When to use: User is writing a position paper, survey introduction, or needs to construct a coherent narrative around a research theme.

Budget

Base SOP	Target	±10% Range
web-search	80 results	72–88
web-research	15 pages	13–17
paper-overview	50 papers	45–55
paper-search	40 papers	36–44
paper-research	20 papers	18–22

State Ledger

Print this table before each major iteration decision:

| SOP            | Target | Current | % Complete |
|----------------|--------|---------|------------|
| web-search     | 80     | ???     | ???%       |
| web-research   | 15     | ???     | ???%       |
| paper-overview | 50     | ???     | ???%       |
| paper-search   | 40     | ???     | ???%       |
| paper-research | 20     | ???     | ???%       |

Do not exit the strategy until all rows reach ≥90%.

Available Tactics

narrative-framing — define themes → build argument → select supporting evidence

Available SOPs

Import (strict protocol execution):

web-search → web-browsing/skills/web-search/SKILL.md
web-research → web-browsing/skills/web-research/SKILL.md
paper-overview → literature-engine/skills/literature-overview/SKILL.md
paper-search → literature-engine/skills/literature-search/SKILL.md
paper-research → literature-engine/skills/literature-research/SKILL.md

Subagent (CC decides when to invoke):

categorize-papers — cluster papers by theme/method/timeline
thematic-coding — identify recurring themes across papers
gap-identification — find what the literature hasn't addressed
survey-synthesis — produce final structured output

Execution Guidance

narrative-framing tactic is central — defines the argument structure first, then searches for evidence
High web-research (15 pages) because narrative reviews draw on blogs, opinion pieces, industry perspectives
thematic-coding to identify recurring themes across papers
Reading is selective and theory-driven — not exhaustive, but strategically chosen to support the narrative
gap-identification frames the "so what" of the narrative

Output Format

Structured Narrative containing:

Thesis / central argument statement
Supporting evidence organized by theme
Counterarguments acknowledged and addressed
Gap / opportunity identified (the "so what")
Suggested narrative arc for writing

Available Tactics

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

Tactic	When to use
narrative-framing	Theory-driven reading tactic — define a theoretical framework first, then guide reading to fill it with evidence. Five stages (theme identification, argument construction, evidence collection, counter-evidence, synthesis). The most intellectually demanding tactic.

Available SOPs

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

SOP	When to use
categorize-papers	Cluster papers by theme, method, or timeline. Produces natural groupings from a paper collection. Used by scoping-survey and narrative-review.
knowledge-acquisition-gap-identification	Identify what the literature has NOT addressed — missing methods, untested combinations, unexplored applications, contradictions without resolution. Used by all strategies.
knowledge-acquisition-paper-overview	Abstract-level paper scanning for broad coverage. Import of literature-engine/literature-overview skill. Abstract-level only — no methodology conclusions from abstracts.
knowledge-acquisition-paper-research	Full-depth paper reading with raw text extraction. Import of literature-engine/literature-research skill. Must read fullText (true) — equations, hyperparameters, specific claims extracted.
knowledge-acquisition-paper-search	AI-summarized paper reading for intermediate depth. Import of literature-engine/literature-search skill. Must call get_paper_content for every analyzed paper.
knowledge-acquisition-web-research	Full-page web reading for non-academic perspectives — blogs, tech reports, product pages, industry analysis. Import of web-browsing/web-research skill. Must fetch full page via apify for every analyzed page.
knowledge-acquisition-web-search	Quick web scanning for landscape understanding. Import of web-browsing/web-search skill. Snippets only — no conclusions from snippets alone.
survey-synthesis	Final synthesis step — weave all gathered evidence (reading notes, extracted data, categorizations) into a coherent structured output appropriate to the strategy type. Used by all 5 strategies as the final step.
thematic-coding	Identify recurring themes across papers using qualitative coding methodology. Produces a codebook with theme definitions, supporting evidence, and frequency counts. Used by narrative-review.