From scimesh
Use when finding related papers through citation analysis (forward and backward snowballing). TRIGGERS: snowball, citations, citacoes, forward citations, backward citations, references, quem cita, citado por, referencias
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/scimesh:snowballingThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Citation-based paper discovery through forward and backward snowballing.
Citation-based paper discovery through forward and backward snowballing.
Expand a systematic review by following citation chains from key papers.
Forward snowballing: Find papers that CITE a key paper (newer work building on it) Backward snowballing: Find papers CITED BY a key paper (foundational work it builds on)
uvx scimesh workspace snowball {review_path}/ "10.1234/key-paper" --direction in -n 50
uvx scimesh workspace snowball {review_path}/ "10.1234/key-paper" --direction out -n 50
uvx scimesh workspace snowball {review_path}/ "10.1234/key-paper" --direction both -n 50
uvx scimesh workspace snowball {review_path}/ "DOI" \
--direction in|out|both \ # Citation direction
-p openalex,semantic_scholar \ # Providers (default: both)
-n 50 \ # Max results per direction
--scihub # Enable Sci-Hub for PDFs (optional)
| Provider | Forward | Backward |
|---|---|---|
| openalex | Yes | Yes |
| semantic_scholar | Yes | Yes |
| scopus | Yes (in only) | No |
| arxiv | No | No |
After screening, identify 3-5 highly relevant papers to use as seeds:
{
"question": "Which papers should we use as seeds for snowballing?",
"header": "Seeds",
"options": [
{"label": "Top cited (Rec)", "description": "Use 5 most-cited included papers"},
{"label": "Most relevant", "description": "Choose based on relevance to RQ"},
{"label": "Seminal works", "description": "Known foundational papers"}
],
"multiSelect": False
}
BEFORE running snowballing, ask about connectivity and Sci-Hub:
{
"questions": [
{
"question": "Are you connected to institutional VPN?",
"header": "VPN",
"options": [
{"label": "Yes, VPN active", "description": "Better access + Scopus citations"},
{"label": "No VPN", "description": "Will use Open Access only"},
{"label": "Wait, connecting...", "description": "Pause for VPN connection"}
],
"multiSelect": False
},
{
"question": "Enable Sci-Hub for PDF downloads?",
"header": "Sci-Hub",
"options": [
{"label": "No (Rec)", "description": "Only legal Open Access sources"},
{"label": "Yes", "description": "Use --scihub flag (at your own risk)"}
],
"multiSelect": False
}
]
}
--scihub flag to snowball commandsFor each seed paper:
# Forward: who cites this?
uvx scimesh workspace snowball {review_path}/ "DOI" --direction in -n 100
# Backward: who does this cite?
uvx scimesh workspace snowball {review_path}/ "DOI" --direction out -n 50
# Both at once
uvx scimesh workspace snowball {review_path}/ "DOI" --direction both -n 50
The workspace snowball command automatically:
papers.yamlsearches.yaml with type: snowball, seed_doi, directionsearch_idsUse scimesh:screening to screen the newly added papers.
For comprehensive reviews, repeat snowballing on newly included papers until saturation (no new relevant papers found).
digraph snowball {
rankdir=LR;
seeds [label="Seed papers\n(5 included)"];
forward [label="Forward\ncitations"];
backward [label="Backward\ncitations"];
screen [label="Screen\nnew papers"];
include [label="Newly\nincluded"];
seeds -> forward;
seeds -> backward;
forward -> screen;
backward -> screen;
screen -> include;
include -> forward [label="iterate"];
include -> backward [label="iterate"];
}
User: "Let's do snowballing on the included papers"
Agent: Lists included papers, identifies top 5 by citation count
Agent: For each seed:
uvx scimesh workspace snowball ./review/ "DOI" --direction both -n 50
Agent: Reports: "Added 127 new papers (89 forward, 38 backward, 23 duplicates removed)"
Agent: [Uses scimesh:screening to screen new papers]
Snowballing typically happens AFTER initial screening:
npx claudepluginhub gabfssilva/scimesh --plugin scimeshTraverses backward (references) and forward (citing papers) citations via Semantic Scholar API, with query-relevant filtering, scoring, and deduplication. Use after finding relevant papers or for related work.
Builds systematic literature databases for sociology research using OpenAlex API. Guides through scope definition, initial search, screening, snowballing, annotation, and synthesis with user pauses.
Searches PubMed, Semantic Scholar, and bioRxiv/medRxiv with API-verified citations to prevent hallucinations. Generates BibTeX entries for medical research literature.