systematic-survey

Research

Exhaustive PRISMA-style literature survey — comprehensive coverage of all related work on a specific question. Multi-stage screening, citation chaining, quality assessment, and structured data extraction. Use when the user needs to demonstrate complete literature coverage or conduct rigorous gap analysis.

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How to use this skill

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

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Systematic Survey

Purpose: Deep and exhaustive — exhaustive coverage of all related work on a specific question. PRISMA-style rigor.

When to use: User needs to demonstrate comprehensive literature coverage (e.g., for a survey paper's related work section, or gap analysis requiring complete picture).

Budget

Base SOP	Target	±10% Range
web-search	50 results	45–55
web-research	5 pages	4–6
paper-overview	60 papers	54–66
paper-search	40 papers	36–44
paper-research	30 papers	27–33

State Ledger

Print this table before each major iteration decision:

| SOP            | Target | Current | % Complete |
|----------------|--------|---------|------------|
| web-search     | 50     | ???     | ???%       |
| web-research   | 5      | ???     | ???%       |
| paper-overview | 60     | ???     | ???%       |
| paper-search   | 40     | ???     | ???%       |
| paper-research | 30     | ???     | ???%       |

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

Available Tactics

prisma-screening — multi-stage filtering (identification → screening → eligibility → inclusion)
citation-chaining — forward/backward citation expansion until saturation

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):

define-search-protocol — formalize queries + inclusion/exclusion criteria
extract-data — structured comparison tables from deep-read papers
quality-assessment — methodological rigor scoring
prisma-flowchart — PRISMA-compliant flow documentation
saturation-detection — determine when to stop expanding
gap-identification — find what the literature hasn't addressed
survey-synthesis — produce final structured output

Execution Guidance

Start with define-search-protocol (formalize queries + inclusion/exclusion criteria)
Use prisma-screening tactic for multi-stage filtering
citation-chaining to catch papers missed by keyword search
saturation-detection to know when to stop expanding
extract-data for structured comparison tables
quality-assessment for methodological rigor scoring
This is the most resource-intensive strategy — budget reflects depth

Output Format

Comprehensive Systematic Review containing:

PRISMA flow diagram (identification → screening → eligibility → inclusion counts)
Structured comparison tables (method × dataset × metric)
Quality assessment scores per paper
Identified gaps with evidence
Synthesis narrative connecting findings

Available Tactics

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

Tactic	When to use
citation-chaining	Forward and backward citation tracing tactic — expand paper coverage by tracing citation networks in both directions from seed/key papers. Alternates forward (who cited this) and backward (what this cited) passes until saturation.
prisma-screening	Multi-stage PRISMA screening tactic — progressively filter papers from a large candidate pool to a focused set for deep reading. Four stages (identification, title/abstract screening, full-text screening, inclusion) with documented counts at each stage.

Available SOPs

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

SOP	When to use
define-search-protocol	Formalize search queries and inclusion/exclusion criteria for systematic surveys. Produces a reproducible search protocol document. Used by systematic-survey.
extract-data	Structured data extraction from deep-read papers — produces comparison tables (method, dataset, metrics, results, limitations). Used by systematic-survey and deep-survey.
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-saturation-detection	Determine when additional searching yields diminishing returns. Analyzes the latest expansion batch against existing corpus to judge continue/near-saturation/saturated. Used by snowball and systematic-survey.
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.
prisma-flowchart	Generate PRISMA-compliant flow data documenting the screening funnel — counts at each stage (identification, screening, eligibility, inclusion) with exclusion reasons. Used by systematic-survey via prisma-screening tactic.
quality-assessment	Methodological rigor scoring for papers — evaluates bias risk, reproducibility, sample adequacy using established frameworks. Used by systematic-survey.
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.