/academic-writing

name: academic-writing
description: Scholarly writing and research compliance. Use for CRediT, preregistration, Plan S, Nelson Memo, preprints, ORCID, LLM disclosure.

Academic writing and research methodology

Systematic approaches for scholarly writing, research design, and academic communication.

Research design fundamentals

Research question development

## Crafting a research question

### The FINER criteria
- **F**easible: Can you actually do this research?
- **I**nteresting: Does it matter to the field?
- **N**ovel: Does it add new knowledge?
- **E**thical: Can it be done ethically?
- **R**elevant: Does it address a real problem?

### Question types
| Type | Purpose | Example |
|------|---------|---------|
| Descriptive | Document phenomena | "What are the characteristics of X?" |
| Comparative | Compare groups/conditions | "How does X differ between groups?" |
| Correlational | Examine relationships | "Is there a relationship between X and Y?" |
| Causal | Establish causation | "Does X cause Y?" |
| Exploratory | Generate hypotheses | "What factors might explain X?" |

### Refining your question
Start broad → Narrow progressively

Draft 1: "How does social media affect politics?"
Draft 2: "How does Twitter use affect political polarization?"
Draft 3: "How does exposure to partisan Twitter accounts affect
         political attitude polarization among US adults?"
Draft 4: "Does increased exposure to ideologically homogeneous Twitter
         feeds increase affective polarization among politically
         engaged US adults aged 18-35?"

Literature review strategy

## Systematic literature search

### Database selection by field
- **Multidisciplinary**: Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar
- **Social Sciences**: JSTOR, ProQuest, SSRN
- **Communication**: Communication Abstracts, ComAbstracts
- **Health**: PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL
- **Education**: ERIC
- **Business**: Business Source Complete

### Search strategy template
1. **Identify key concepts** from research question
2. **Generate synonyms** for each concept
3. **Combine with Boolean operators**

Example for: "social media political polarization"

Concept 1: social media
- OR: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, "social networking sites",
      "online platforms", "digital media"

Concept 2: political
- OR: partisan, ideological, electoral, civic

Concept 3: polarization
- OR: division, extremism, "attitude change", radicalization

Combined search:
(Twitter OR Facebook OR "social media" OR "social networking")
AND (political OR partisan OR ideological)
AND (polarization OR division OR extremism)

### Inclusion/exclusion criteria
Document your criteria:
- Publication date range: [X to present]
- Languages: [English only / multiple]
- Publication types: [Peer-reviewed only / include preprints]
- Geographic scope: [Global / specific countries]
- Methodologies: [All / specific approaches]

### Managing your search
- Save searches to re-run later
- Export results to reference manager
- Track number of results at each stage
- Document date of each search

Citation management

# Zotero/reference manager integration patterns

# For automated citation workflows
CITATION_STYLES = {
    'apa7': 'American Psychological Association 7th edition',
    'mla9': 'Modern Language Association 9th edition',
    'chicago': 'Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition',
    'harvard': 'Harvard Reference format',
    'ieee': 'IEEE',
    'vancouver': 'Vancouver (medicine)',
}

# BibTeX entry template
BIBTEX_ARTICLE = """
@article{{{citekey},
    author = {{{author}}},
    title = {{{title}}},
    journal = {{{journal}}},
    year = {{{year}}},
    volume = {{{volume}}},
    number = {{{number}}},
    pages = {{{pages}}},
    doi = {{{doi}}}
}}
"""

# Common citation patterns by context
CITATION_CONTEXTS = {
    'introducing_concept': "According to Author (Year), ...",
    'supporting_claim': "Research has shown that X (Author, Year; Author, Year).",
    'contrasting': "While Author (Year) argues X, Author (Year) contends Y.",
    'methodology_reference': "Following the method developed by Author (Year), ...",
    'direct_quote': 'Author (Year) states that "exact quote" (p. X).',
}

Paper structure and writing

IMRaD structure (scientific papers)

## Standard research paper sections

### Abstract (150-300 words typically)
- Background (1-2 sentences)
- Purpose/objective (1 sentence)
- Methods (2-3 sentences)
- Results (2-3 sentences)
- Conclusions (1-2 sentences)

### Introduction
**Funnel structure:**
1. Broad context - Why does this topic matter?
2. Narrow focus - What's the specific problem?
3. Gap identification - What don't we know?
4. Research question/hypothesis - What will you investigate?
5. Contribution preview - Why does this study matter?

### Literature Review
**Organize thematically, not chronologically:**
1. Theme 1: Key findings, debates, gaps
2. Theme 2: Key findings, debates, gaps
3. Theme 3: Key findings, debates, gaps
4. Synthesis: How themes connect to your study

### Methods
**The reproducibility test:** Could another researcher replicate your study from this section alone?

Include:
- Participants/sample (who, how selected, N)
- Materials/measures (what instruments, their validity)
- Procedure (step-by-step what happened)
- Analysis approach (statistical tests, qualitative methods)
- Ethical considerations (IRB, consent)

### Results
**Report, don't interpret:**
- Present findings systematically
- Use tables/figures for complex data
- Report effect sizes, not just p-values
- Address each research question/hypothesis

### Discussion
**Reverse funnel structure:**
1. Summary of key findings
2. Interpretation in context of literature
3. Theoretical implications
4. Practical implications
5. Limitations
6. Future research directions
7. Conclusion

Academic writing style

## Writing conventions

### Voice and tense
| Section | Tense | Exa