# Academic Research Agent Skill > Conduct comprehensive academic research, discover relevant papers, and perform literature reviews efficiently. Streamline your research workflow and retrieve scientific knowledge with ease. - Canonical: https://nanoskill.ai/skills/academic-research-skill - Markdown: https://nanoskill.ai/skills/academic-research-skill.md - Author: NousResearch - Published: 2026-06-04T06:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-15T13:35:29.836Z - Language: en - Source type: github - Popularity signal: 356 ## Sources - https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent ## Install ```shell npx skills add https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/tree/main/skills/research ``` ## About This skill is engineered to revolutionize your approach to academic research, offering powerful capabilities for paper discovery, literature review, and scientific knowledge retrieval. It empowers researchers, students, and professionals to efficiently navigate vast academic landscapes, ensuring access to the most relevant and up-to-date information for their studies and projects. Beyond traditional search, this tool excels in domain reconnaissance and market data retrieval, providing a holistic view of any subject area. It helps users quickly grasp the core concepts of new fields and monitor content for emerging trends, making it an invaluable asset for strategic planning and informed decision-making. Whether you are compiling a comprehensive literature review, seeking specific scientific data, or exploring a new academic discipline, this skill streamlines your workflow. It reduces the time spent on manual searching and increases the accuracy of your information gathering, allowing you to focus more on analysis and synthesis. ## Key features - **Paper Discovery**: Quickly find and access academic papers relevant to your field of study, ensuring you stay updated with the latest research. - **Literature Review Automation**: Automate the tedious process of literature reviews, identifying key themes, authors, and findings across multiple sources. - **Domain Reconnaissance**: Gain a comprehensive understanding of new domains by identifying key players, trends, and foundational knowledge. - **Market Data Retrieval**: Access and analyze market data to inform strategic decisions and understand industry landscapes. - **Scientific Knowledge Retrieval**: Efficiently retrieve specific scientific knowledge and data points from a vast array of academic sources. ## Use cases - **Conducting Academic Research**: Researchers can use this skill to find relevant studies, analyze data, and build a strong foundation for their academic work. - **Performing Literature Reviews**: Students and academics can efficiently compile and synthesize existing literature for theses, dissertations, or research papers. - **Monitoring Industry Trends**: Businesses and analysts can track market developments and competitor activities through targeted content monitoring. ## Result preview See a literature review on the impact of social media use on college students' mental health generated by this Agent Skill, including key findings, research gaps, future directions etc. ![the demo of Academic Research Agent Skill](https://file.nanoskill.ai/Academic-Research-demo-1.png) ![the demo of Academic Research Agent Skill](https://file.nanoskill.ai/Academic-Research-demo-2.png) ![the demo of Academic Research Agent Skill](https://file.nanoskill.ai/Academic-Research-demo-3.png) ![the demo of Academic Research Agent Skill](https://file.nanoskill.ai/Academic-Research-demo-4.png) ## Result walkthrough ### Step 1：Install Add the skill to your agent. ![a simple demonstration of the first step in using Academic Research agent skill](https://file.nanoskill.ai/Academic-Research-step-1.png) ### Step 2：Provide Research Task Describe your research topic or question. ![a simple demonstration of the second step in using Academic Research agent skill](https://file.nanoskill.ai/Academic-Research-step-2.png) ### Step 3：Review Outcome Get a structured and comprehensive academic research report. ![a simple demonstration of the third step in using Academic Research agent skill](https://file.nanoskill.ai/Academic-Research-step-3.png) ## Skill definition # Research Agent Skill Help your AI agent search papers, track blogs, build a knowledge base, check prediction market data, and assist with research writing. ## What It Does Research Agent Skill is a research toolbox for AI agents. In simple words, it helps your agent do research work more systematically. Instead of asking the AI to randomly search and summarize things, this skill gives it a set of research workflows. It can look for academic papers, monitor blogs, organize knowledge into markdown notes, check market probabilities, and support long-form research writing. ## Why It Is Useful Most people use AI research like this: Search this topic → summarize it → forget everything next time This skill helps the agent work more like this: Find sources → organize notes → compare ideas → keep useful knowledge → reuse it later That makes it useful for anyone who needs to understand a topic deeply over time. ## Included Research Abilities This skill package includes several sub-skills. ### 1. arXiv Research Search academic papers from arXiv. Good for: - Finding AI / ML papers - Searching papers by keyword - Searching by author - Looking up a specific arXiv paper ID - Reading abstracts - Finding related academic work Example use cases: Find recent papers about AI agents and tool use. Search arXiv papers about reinforcement learning from human feedback. Find papers by Andrej Karpathy. ## 2. Blogwatcher Track blogs, RSS feeds, and new articles. Good for: - Following engineering blogs - Tracking AI company updates - Watching competitor blogs - Monitoring research labs - Collecting new article links - Marking articles as read or unread Example use cases: Track new posts from the OpenAI blog and Anthropic blog. Show me unread articles from the blogs I follow. Scan my tracked blogs and list what is new. ## 3. LLM Wiki Build a long-term markdown knowledge base. This is like giving your agent a research notebook. It can save important sources, create topic pages, link related ideas, and keep everything organized as markdown files. Good for: - Building a personal research wiki - Organizing AI papers - Creating a startup research database - Tracking competitors - Turning scattered notes into structured knowledge - Building an Obsidian-style knowledge base Example use cases: Create a wiki for AI video generation research. Add this article to my knowledge base and summarize the key ideas. What does my wiki already know about AI agents? ## 4. Polymarket Research Query public prediction market data from Polymarket. Good for: - Checking market-implied probabilities - Looking up public prediction markets - Seeing how likely traders think an event is - Tracking changes in market sentiment - Reading price and volume data Example use cases: What does Polymarket think about this event? Find prediction markets related to the US election. Show the current probability and trading volume for this market. Important note: This skill is read-only. It can query public market data, but it does not place trades. ## 5. Research Paper Writing Assist with writing academic or technical research papers. Good for: - Literature review - Experiment planning - Paper structure - Abstract writing - Related work writing - Research framing - Reviewer-style self-review - Submission preparation Example use cases: Help me turn this experiment into a research paper outline. Write a related work section based on these papers. Review this paper draft like a NeurIPS reviewer. ## Best For This skill is best for people who often need to research, compare, track, or write about complex topics. It is especially useful for: - AI researchers - Indie hackers doing market research - SEO researchers - Growth marketers - Content researchers - Startup founders - Students - Technical writers - People building a personal knowledge base ## Common Use Cases ### Academic Research Use it to search papers, read abstracts, compare methods, and build a literature review. Find 10 recent papers about retrieval augmented generation and summarize the main directions. ### Market Research Use it to track blogs, competitors, public signals, and prediction markets. Monitor competitor blogs and summarize important product updates. ### Knowledge Management Use it to turn scattered articles, papers, and notes into a structured markdown wiki. Create a knowledge base about AI SEO and organize my notes into topics. ### Writing Support Use it to help structure long-form research articles, whitepapers, reports, or academic papers. Help me write a research report about AI agent skills. ## How a Beginner Can Understand It Think of this skill as a research assistant with five jobs: | Job | What It Means | |---|---| | Paper Finder | Finds academic papers | | Blog Tracker | Watches blogs and RSS feeds | | Knowledge Librarian | Organizes notes into a markdown wiki | | Market Signal Reader | Reads prediction market data | | Research Writer | Helps write structured research papers | ## What Problem It Solves Without this skill, AI research can become messy. You ask a question, get an answer, then the context disappears. With this skill, the agent has a better research workflow: 1. Find useful sources 2. Extract useful information 3. Save important knowledge 4. Link related ideas 5. Reuse previous research later 6. Help turn findings into reports or papers ## Example Workflow A typical research workflow could look like this: 1. Search arXiv for recent AI agent papers 2. Pick the most relevant papers 3. Save key findings into an LLM Wiki 4. Track related blogs for future updates 5. Compare different methods 6. Write a research summary ## Beginner Friendly Examples ### Example 1: Research a new topic Research AI agents for SEO. Find useful papers, blog posts, and organize the key ideas. ### Example 2: Track an industry Track major AI company blogs and tell me when there are new updates. ### Example 3: Build a knowledge base Create a markdown wiki for my AI growth research notes. ### Example 4: Write a report Help me write a structured report about the current state of AI video generation. ### Example 5: Find academic support Find papers that support the claim that tool-using agents improve task completion. ## Requirements Some sub-skills work with simple web APIs and do not need API keys. Some features may require command line tools, local files, or extra setup depending on how you use them. For most beginners, the easiest way to start is: npx skills add https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/tree/main/skills/research Then ask the agent to use the research skill for a specific task. ## Good Prompts to Try Use the research skill to find recent papers about AI agents. Use the research skill to create a beginner-friendly summary of this topic. Use the research skill to build a small markdown knowledge base from these links. Use the research skill to compare these three papers. Use the research skill to monitor these blogs and summarize new updates. ## Limitations - It still needs good prompts from the user. - Research quality depends on the quality of sources. - Some workflows require command line tools. - It may need extra setup for blog tracking or local wiki management. - It does not automatically guarantee truth. Important claims still need source checking. - Polymarket support is read-only and cannot place trades. ## Best Simple Description Research Agent Skill turns an AI agent into a more organized research assistant. It can find papers, track useful sources, build a markdown knowledge base, check public market signals, and help turn research into structured writing. ## FAQ ### What kind of academic research can this skill assist with? This skill is designed to assist with various types of academic research, including paper discovery, literature reviews, and scientific knowledge retrieval across diverse fields. ### How does this skill help with literature reviews? It streamlines the literature review process by helping you discover relevant papers, identify key themes, and synthesize information from multiple sources efficiently. ### Can I use this for market data analysis? Yes, the skill supports market data retrieval, allowing you to gather and analyze information relevant to market trends and industry insights. ### Is this skill suitable for scientific knowledge retrieval? Absolutely. It is specifically designed for efficient retrieval of scientific knowledge and data from academic and research databases. ### What is 'domain reconnaissance' in the context of this skill? Domain reconnaissance refers to the process of exploring and understanding a new or unfamiliar field, identifying key concepts, influential works, and foundational knowledge. ### How does this skill ensure I find the most relevant papers for my academic research? The skill is designed to intelligently discover academic papers, helping you pinpoint the most pertinent research for your specific inquiry, ensuring you stay current with advancements.