lit-review

Literature Review

Conduct a structured literature search and synthesis on the given topic.

Input: $ARGUMENTS — a topic, paper title, research question, or phenomenon to investigate.

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Steps

1. Parse the topic from $ARGUMENTS. If a specific paper is named, use it as the anchor.

1. Search for related work using available tools:

• Check master_supporting_docs/supporting_papers/ for uploaded papers
• Use WebSearch to find recent publications (if available)
• Use WebFetch to access working paper repositories (if available)
• Read any existing .bib file for papers already in the project

1. Organize findings into these categories:

• Theoretical contributions — models, frameworks, mechanisms
• Empirical findings — key results, effect sizes, data sources
• Methodological innovations — new estimators, identification strategies, inference methods
• Open debates — unresolved disagreements in the literature

1. Identify gaps and opportunities:

• What questions remain unanswered?
• What data or methods could address them?
• Where do findings conflict?

1. Extract citations in BibTeX format for all papers discussed.

1. Save the report to quality_reports/lit_review_[sanitized_topic].md

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Output Format

# Literature Review: [Topic]

**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Query:** [Original query from user]

## Summary

[2-3 paragraph overview of the state of the literature]

## Key Papers

### [Author (Year)] — [Short Title]
- **Main contribution:** [1-2 sentences]
- **Method:** [Identification strategy / data]
- **Key finding:** [Result with effect size if available]
- **Relevance:** [Why it matters for our research]

[Repeat for 5-15 papers, ordered by relevance]

## Thematic Organization

### Theoretical Contributions
[Grouped discussion]

### Empirical Findings
[Grouped discussion with comparison across studies]

### Methodological Innovations
[Methods relevant to the topic]

## Gaps and Opportunities

1. [Gap 1 — what's missing and why it matters]
2. [Gap 2]
3. [Gap 3]

## Suggested Next Steps

- [Concrete actions: papers to read, data to obtain, methods to consider]

## BibTeX Entries

@article{...}

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Important

• Be honest about uncertainty. If you cannot verify a citation, say so.
• Prioritize recent work (last 5-10 years) unless seminal papers are older.
• Note working papers vs published papers — working papers may change.
• Do NOT fabricate citations. If you're unsure about a paper's details, flag it for the user to verify.