Scholarly

An AI agent skill that guides you through writing academic papers and theses, section by section.

What is Scholarly?

Scholarly is an AI-powered academic writing assistant that helps researchers, graduate students, and academics build complete research papers through guided conversation.

Instead of staring at a blank document, Scholarly guides you through a series of targeted questions to progressively develop each section of your paper—from Abstract to Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.

Features

🎯 Guided Section-by-Section Development

• Start with Title & Abstract
• Build Introduction through progressive context-setting
• Conduct systematic Literature Review with gap identification
• Detail Methods for full reproducibility
• Report Results with proper statistical formatting
• Discuss findings with theoretical and practical implications
• Conclude with clear takeaways

📚 Comprehensive Writing Guidance

• Section-specific structures and templates
• Common mistakes to avoid
• Statistical reporting formats (APA style)
• Sentence starters and transition phrases
• Discipline-specific considerations

📖 11 Core Sections Covered

Section	What's Covered
Title	Keywords, conciseness, variable naming
Abstract	250-word structure, past/present tense
Introduction	4-layer structure (Context → Lit → Gap → Purpose)
Literature Review	Thematic/chonological/methodological organization
Methods	Participants, design, materials, procedure, analysis
Results	Statistical reporting, tables vs. figures
Discussion	Interpretation, literature dialogue, limitations
Conclusion	Key takeaways, avoiding redundancy
References	APA 7th format quick reference
Thesis-specific	Bachelor's, Master's, PhD requirements

📋 Templates Included

• Abstract template (250 words)
• Introduction outline
• Methods sub-structure
• Discussion structure
• Statistical notation guide

Platform Compatibility

Scholarly works with any AI agent framework that supports skills:

• OpenClaw / WorkBuddy — Install to ~/.workbuddy/skills/
• Claude Code — Install to ~/.claude/skills/
• Cursor — Install to ~/.cursor/skills/
• Other frameworks — Any agent that reads SKILL.md from a skills directory

Installation

For OpenClaw / WorkBuddy Users

cp -r scholarly ~/.workbuddy/skills/

Restart your agent to activate.

For Claude Code Users

cp -r scholarly ~/.claude/skills/

For Cursor Users

cp -r scholarly ~/.cursor/skills/

For Developers

git clone https://github.com/ShiyangZheng/scholarly.git

Usage

In Conversation

Simply tell the agent what you're working on:

"I'm writing my psychology undergraduate thesis on the relationship between social media use and anxiety."

"Help me outline a literature review on machine learning in education."

"I'm preparing a methods section for my mixed-methods dissertation on ESL learners."

The Process

1. Foundation: Scholarly asks about your paper type, discipline, research design, and citation style.

2. Section-by-Section: Each section is developed through targeted questions:

   • What are your key variables?
   • What's your target sample?
   • What are your main hypotheses?

3. Draft Generation: Complete section drafts with templates and examples.

4. Iteration: Refine each section based on your feedback.

Paper Types Supported

Type	Description
Course Paper	Undergraduate/graduate coursework papers
Journal Article	Peer-reviewed publications
Conference Paper	Academic conference submissions
Bachelor's Thesis	Undergraduate honors thesis
Master's Thesis	Graduate thesis
Doctoral Dissertation	PhD dissertation
Literature Review	Standalone review articles

Research Designs Supported

• Quantitative: Experiments, surveys, correlational studies
• Qualitative: Interviews, ethnography, case studies
• Mixed Methods: Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches
• Systematic Review: PRISMA-style comprehensive reviews

File Structure

scholarly/
├── README.md                              # This file
├── SKILL.md                               # Skill definition (universal agent framework)
└── references/
    └── academic_paper_templates.md         # Detailed templates for all sections

Citation Format Support

• APA 7th Edition
• MLA
• Chicago
• Harvard
• IEEE
• Vancouver

(Reference formatting guides included in references/)

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Feel free to:

• Add discipline-specific templates (e.g., for chemistry, law, medicine)
• Improve section templates
• Add language-specific guides
• Report issues or suggestions

Resources

Based on best practices from:

• APA Publication Manual (7th Edition)
• Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab)
• UNC Writing Center
• UCSD Psychology Writing Resources

License

MIT License - Free to use, modify, and distribute.

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Scholarly—where research takes shape.