scope-calibration

Research

Strategy: Adjust research question scope — zoom in/out until the scope is appropriate

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

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Scope Calibration

Adjust research question scope — when a question is too broad or too narrow, find the right granularity through systematic zoom in/out.

When to Use

The initial RQ is too broad (cannot be answered within a reasonable time)
The initial RQ is too narrow (the answer is trivial or lacks significance)
A balance between ambition and feasibility is needed

Thinking Framework

Core logic: a good research question has "Goldilocks" characteristics — not too broad, not too narrow, just right.

Zoom In (when the question is too broad)

Add constraints to narrow the scope:

Time constraint: "within the past 5 years..."
Place constraint: "among Chinese universities..."
Population constraint: "for beginners..."
Method constraint: "using a transformer architecture..."
Phenomenon constraint: "especially under scenario X..."

Zoom Out (when the question is too narrow)

Relax constraints to widen the scope:

Raise the level of abstraction: from concrete instance to general principle
Remove unnecessary qualifiers
Extend the scope of applicability

Judgment Criteria

Too broad: requires a book to answer / cannot be answered by a single experiment
Appropriate: answerable by one paper / a clear study design can be specified
Too narrow: answer is self-evident / lacks theoretical contribution

Budget Gate

Tier	Iteration rounds	Output
S	≥1 round of scope adjustment	Appropriately scoped RQ
M	≥2 rounds of scope adjustment + comparison	Before/after comparison + final RQ
L	≥3 rounds + multi-direction exploration	Multiple granularity versions + rationale for the optimal choice

Default Reference Flow

Run scope-assessment on the current RQ
Choose the zoom direction based on the verdict (too broad / too narrow)
Apply constraint adjustments
Re-assess scope
Iterate until "appropriate"
Confirm with the FINER check

context-checkpoint

After the strategy completes, context-checkpoint must be called, recording:

The original RQ and its scope verdict
The adjustment direction and concrete operations
The final RQ and its scope verdict
The adjustment rationale

Available Tactics

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

Tactic	When to use
question-refinement-loop	Tactic: iteratively refine a research question until it passes all 5 FINER criteria