luwill/research-skills

Overview

This skill generates high-quality academic research proposals tailored for PhD applications, following Nature Reviews-style academic conventions. It supports STEM, humanities, and social sciences and can produce output in English or Chinese based on your preference. The typical target length is 2,000–4,000 words, with domain-specific adjustments.

How this skill works

I guide you through a five-phase workflow: collect requirements, gather and organize literature (including optional Zotero integration), propose a structured outline for your approval, draft the full proposal in flowing academic prose, and deliver a polished Markdown file with a quality checklist. The output includes section-specific figure suggestions, citation style aligned to your domain, and an editable timeline and references list. I pause for user approval after the outline before generating the full text.

When to use it

• When you ask to write or create a PhD/research proposal or research plan
• When preparing a doctoral application for STEM, humanities, or social sciences
• When you need a Nature Reviews-style academic proposal in English or Chinese
• When you want a structured outline and staged approval before full drafting
• When you have literature in Zotero to integrate or want a literature search strategy

Best practices

• Provide a clear research topic, domain, preferred language, and target word count up front
• Upload or point to key literature (Zotero recommended) before literature collection begins
• Approve the proposed outline and word allocation before full writing starts
• Request specific citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago) and regional English variant (US/UK) early
• Ask for additional figure suggestions or Gantt chart details if visual elements are important

Example use cases

• A STEM applicant requesting a 3,000-word PhD proposal on machine learning for medical imaging with Zotero references
• A humanities applicant asking for a literature-driven proposal in English or Chinese on modern language evolution
• A social science applicant seeking a mixed-methods doctoral proposal with a detailed timeline and methodological justification
• Preparing a proposal tailored to a specific supervisor or research group with targeted references and institution alignment