Research Paper Writer

Overview

This skill guides the creation of formal academic research papers that meet publication standards for IEEE and ACM conferences/journals. It ensures proper structure, formatting, academic writing style, and comprehensive coverage of research topics.

Workflow

1. Understanding the Research Topic

When asked to write a research paper:

Clarify the topic and scope with the user:

• What is the main research question or contribution?

• What is the target audience (conference, journal, general academic)?

• What is the desired length (page count or word count)?

• Are there specific sections required?

• What formatting standard to use (IEEE or ACM)?

Gather context if needed:

• Review any provided research materials, data, or references

• Understand the domain and technical background

• Identify key related work or existing research to reference

2. Paper Structure

Follow this standard academic paper structure:

1. Title and Abstract

   • Concise title reflecting the main contribution
   • Abstract: 150-250 words summarizing purpose, methods, results, conclusions

2. Introduction

   • Motivation and problem statement
   • Research gap and significance
   • Main contributions (typically 3-5 bullet points)
   • Paper organization paragraph

3. Related Work / Background

   • Literature review of relevant research
   • Comparison with existing approaches
   • Positioning of current work

4. Methodology / Approach / System Design

   • Detailed description of proposed method/system
   • Architecture diagrams if applicable
   • Algorithms or procedures
   • Design decisions and rationale

5. Implementation (if applicable)

   • Technical details
   • Tools and technologies used
   • Challenges and solutions

6. Evaluation / Experiments / Results

   • Experimental setup
   • Datasets or test scenarios
   • Performance metrics
   • Results presentation (tables, graphs)
   • Analysis and interpretation

7. Discussion

   • Implications of results
   • Limitations and threats to validity
   • Lessons learned

8. Conclusion and Future Work

   • Summary of contributions
   • Impact and significance
   • Future research directions

9. References

   • Comprehensive bibliography in proper citation format

10. Academic Writing Style

Apply these writing conventions from scholarly research:

Tone and Voice:

• Formal, objective, and precise language

• Third-person perspective (avoid "I" or "we" unless describing specific contributions)

• Present tense for established facts, past tense for specific studies

• Clear, direct statements without unnecessary complexity

Technical Precision:

• Define all acronyms on first use: "Context-Aware Systems (C-AS)"

• Use domain-specific terminology correctly and consistently

• Quantify claims with specific metrics or evidence

• Avoid vague terms like "very", "many", "significant" without data

Argumentation:

• State claims clearly, then support with evidence

• Use logical progression: motivation → problem → solution → validation

• Compare and contrast with related work explicitly

• Address limitations and counterarguments

Section-Specific Guidelines:

Abstract:

• First sentence: broad context and motivation

• Second/third: specific problem and gap

• Middle: approach and methodology

• End: key results and contributions

• Self-contained (readable without the full paper)

Introduction:

• Start with real-world motivation or compelling problem

• Build from general to specific (inverted pyramid)

• End with clear contribution list and paper roadmap

• Use examples to illustrate the problem

Related Work:

• Group related work by theme or approach

• Compare explicitly: "Unlike [X] which focuses on Y, our approach..."

• Identify gaps: "However, these approaches do not address..."

• Position your work clearly

Results:

• Present data clearly in tables/figures

• Describe trends and patterns objectively

• Compare with baselines quantitatively

• Acknowledge unexpected or negative results

4. Formatting Guidelines

IEEE Format (default):

• Page size: A4 (210mm × 297mm)

• Margins: Top 19mm, Bottom 43mm, Left/Right 14.32mm

• Two-column layout with 4.22mm column separation

• Font: Times New Roman throughout

• Title: 24pt bold

• Author names: 11pt

• Section headings: 10pt bold, numbered (1., 1.1, 1.1.1)

• Body text: 10pt

• Figure/Table captions: 8pt

• Line spacing: Single

• Paragraph: No indentation, 3pt spacing between paragraphs

• Figures: Centered, with captions below

• Tables: Centered, with captions above

ACM Format (alternative):

• Standard ACM conference proceedings format

• Single-column abstract, two-column body

• Include CCS Concepts and Keywords sections after abstract

• Use ACM reference format for citations

5. Citations and References

In-text citations:

• Use numbered citations: "Recent work [1, 2] has shown..."

• Multiple citations in chronological order: [3, 7, 12]

• Reference specific sections: "As demonstrated in [5, Section 3]..."

Reference formatting (IEEE style):

[1] A. Author, B. Author, and C. Author, "Title of paper," in Proc. Conference Name, Year, pp. 123-456. [2] D. Author, "Title of journal article," Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, pp. 123-456, Month Year. [3] E. Author, Book Title, Edition. City: Publisher, Year.

Reference list requirements:

• Alphabetically ordered by first author's last name (or numbered by citation order)

• Include DOI or URL when available

• Minimum 15-20 references for a full paper

• Mix of recent (last 5 years) and foundational works

6. Content Generation Process

Step-by-step approach:

Create outline

• Develop detailed section-by-section outline

• Define key points for each section

• Identify where figures/tables are needed

Draft sections iteratively

• Start with methodology (core contribution)

• Then introduction (now that contribution is clear)

• Related work (to position the contribution)

• Results and evaluation

• Discussion and conclusion

• Abstract last (summary of complete paper)

Add citations

• Reference related work throughout

• Support claims with evidence from literature

• Create comprehensive reference list

Review and refine

• Check logical flow between sections

• Ensure consistency in terminology

• Verify all figures/tables are referenced in text

• Confirm abstract matches content

• Validate citation completeness

Examples

Example 1: User asks for a survey paper

User: "Write a research paper surveying recent advances in context-aware systems"

Response:

1. Clarify scope: "I'll create a survey paper on context-aware systems. A few questions:

   • Should I focus on specific aspects (e.g., requirements engineering, implementation techniques)?
   • What time period for 'recent' (last 5 years, 10 years)?
   • Target length: 10-15 pages, or 20-30 pages comprehensive survey?
   • IEEE or ACM format?"

2. After clarification, create outline showing:

   • Taxonomy of context-aware systems
   • Survey methodology
   • Classification scheme
   • Section-by-section coverage of different aspects
   • Trends and future directions

3. Draft paper following survey structure with extensive related work coverage

Example 2: User asks for an experimental paper

User: "Write a paper about my new algorithm for detecting hallucinations in vision-language models"

Response:

1. Gather details about:

   • Algorithm approach and novelty
   • Experimental setup and datasets used
   • Results and metrics
   • Comparison baselines

2. Structure as experimental paper:

   • Introduction: motivation for hallucination detection
   • Related work: existing detection methods
   • Proposed method: detailed algorithm description
   • Experiments: datasets, metrics, setup
   • Results: quantitative comparison with baselines
   • Analysis: ablation studies, error analysis
   • Conclusion: contributions and future work

3. Emphasize reproducibility and empirical validation

Resources

references/

• writing_style_guide.md : Detailed academic writing conventions extracted from example papers

• ieee_formatting_specs.md : Complete IEEE formatting specifications

• acm_formatting_specs.md : Complete ACM formatting specifications

assets/

• full_paper_template.pdf : IEEE paper template with formatting examples

• interim-layout.pdf : ACM paper template

• Reference these templates when discussing formatting requirements with users

Important Notes

• Always ask for clarification on topic scope before starting

• Quality over speed: Take time to structure properly and write clearly

• Cite appropriately: Academic integrity requires proper attribution

• Be honest about limitations: Acknowledge gaps or constraints in the research

• Maintain consistency: Terminology, notation, and style throughout

• User provides the research content: This skill structures and writes; the user provides the technical contributions and findings