Research Superpowers: Literature Search & Review
Give Claude Code superpowers for systematic literature searching and review. Search PubMed, screen papers, extract data, traverse citations, and synthesize findings.
Focus: Finding and reviewing scientific papers, not lab work or data analysis.
What You Get
A complete toolkit for systematic literature reviews:
- Literature Search - PubMed and Semantic Scholar integration
- Smart Paper Screening - Abstract scoring + deep dive for relevant data extraction
- Screening Rubrics - Build and test custom relevance criteria collaboratively
- ChEMBL Integration - Check if medicinal chemistry papers have curated SAR data (~99k papers)
- Open Access Finding - Unpaywall API to find free versions of paywalled papers
- Citation Traversal - Intelligent backward and forward citation following
- Large-Scale Screening - Parallel subagent processing for 50+ papers
- Research Orchestration - End-to-end workflow from query to synthesized findings
Quick Start
Option 1: Install from Marketplace (Recommended)
# In Claude Code, add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/kthorn/research-superpower
# Install the plugin
/plugin install research-superpowers@research-superpowers-marketplace
# Start asking literature search questions!
# Example: "Find papers on BTK inhibitor selectivity with IC50 data"
# Example: "Review literature on CRISPR gene editing in cardiomyocytes"
# Example: "What's known about MmpL3 inhibitors for tuberculosis?"
Option 2: Manual Installation
# Clone to your config directory
git clone https://github.com/kthorn/research-superpower ~/.config/research-superpowers
# Start Claude Code and tell it your literature search question
Note: These skills help you find and review papers. For analyzing experimental data or designing experiments, you'll need other tools.
How It Works (Literature Review Workflow)
- Parse your literature question - Extract keywords, data types, constraints
- Build screening rubric - Define what makes papers relevant (optional, for large searches)
- Search PubMed - Find candidate papers
- Screen abstracts - Score papers for relevance (0-10)
- Deep dive on promising papers - Fetch full text, extract specific data and methods
- Traverse citations - Follow relevant references and citing papers (via Semantic Scholar)
- Synthesize findings - Organize results in SUMMARY.md with structured extraction
- Track everything - Maintain research session folder with findings, PDFs, and deduplication
Project Structure
research-superpowers/
├── skills/
│ ├── getting-started/ # Introduction and workflow overview
│ └── research/
│ ├── answering-research-questions/ # Main orchestration
│ ├── searching-literature/ # PubMed search
│ ├── evaluating-paper-relevance/ # Abstract screening + deep dive
│ ├── checking-chembl/ # ChEMBL SAR data lookup
│ ├── traversing-citations/ # Citation network traversal
│ └── finding-open-access-papers/ # Unpaywall integration
├── scripts/
│ └── find-skills # Search for relevant skills
└── hooks/
└── session-start.sh # Auto-load at Claude Code startup
Research Session Output
Each research query creates a folder:
research-sessions/2025-10-11-btk-inhibitor-selectivity/
├── SUMMARY.md # Main findings organized by relevance
├── papers-reviewed.json # Deduplication tracking
├── papers/
│ ├── 10.1234_example.pdf
│ └── ...
└── citations/
└── citation-graph.json # Citation relationships
Skills Library
Literature Search & Review Skills
- answering-research-questions - Main orchestration workflow (search → screen → extract → synthesize)
- building-screening-rubrics - Collaborative rubric design with test-driven refinement
- searching-literature - PubMed API integration with query optimization
- evaluating-paper-relevance - Two-stage relevance filtering (abstract + deep dive)
- subagent-driven-review - Parallel screening for large searches (50+ papers)
- checking-chembl - ChEMBL database lookup for medicinal chemistry papers
- traversing-citations - Smart citation following via Semantic Scholar
- finding-open-access-papers - Unpaywall API for finding free full text
- cleaning-up-research-sessions - Safe cleanup of intermediate files after research complete
Philosophy
These skills focus on systematic literature searching and review:
