Nature Social Science Topic Workbench
Guides social-science thesis topic selection, literature mapping, and argument self-checks in structured steps.
- Repository
- Yuan1z0825/nature-skills
- Stars
- 51,827
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Files
- 14 files
What it does
Once installed, the agent walks a PhD or master's student through a structured eight-step process for choosing and stress-testing a research topic in social science and related humanities. It maps the literature, separates interest from a real unresolved problem, proposes evidence routes, simulates reviewer attacks, and checks feasibility. It also flags overclaiming and terms used loosely, and insists on recording unknowns instead of guessing. It does not pick a 'correct' topic for you.
Great for
- PhD or master's students in social sciences who need to narrow a vague interest into a research question
- Students preparing a proposal or thesis topic who want a self-check against reviewer-style objections
- Supervisors or students preparing advisor-meeting materials
Skip it if
- Anyone expecting a guaranteed novel topic, acceptance, funding or publication, which the skill explicitly disclaims
- Fields outside social sciences and humanities, since the content is scoped to them
- Replacing an advisor, ethics board or human literature review; the skill itself says sensitive or high-stakes cases must go to a real person
Try asking
- “Help me turn my interest in urban migration into a researchable question for my thesis.”
- “Map the literature landscape on informal labour in Southeast Asia and tell me which questions are unresolved.”
- “Attack my draft research question the way a tough Reviewer 2 would.”
- “Check whether the conclusions in my literature review overstate what the sources show.”
Install in 3 steps
- 1
Download the skill
The ZIP contains the 14 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.
nature-social-science.zip - 2
Add it to your agent
Claude Code (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip nature-social-science.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)
mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip nature-social-science.zip -d .claude/skills/Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.
- 3
Ask for the task
No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.
Get better results
- Work through one step per session and carry forward only the Current Research State, as the skill recommends, rather than a long chat history.
- Write the actual outputs into the provided worksheets and verify every citation yourself; the skill forbids invented sources but cannot check them.
- Expect the agent to answer 'unknown' often; treat those gaps as tasks to verify with your supervisor or the literature.
What's inside
- agents/openai.yaml
- manifest.yaml
- README_EN.md
- README.md
- references/01-foundations.md
- references/02-workflow-steps1-3.md
- references/03-workflow-steps4-5.md
- references/04-workflow-steps6-8.md
- references/05-prompt-library.md
- references/06-worksheets.md
- references/07-status-terminology.md
- references/08-usage-handoff.md
- references/09-academic-expression.md
- SKILL.md
Redistributed unmodified from Yuan1z0825/nature-skills under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.