Substantive referee-style review for academic manuscripts.
Produce a thorough, constructive review of an academic manuscript — the kind of report a top-journal referee would write.
Input: $ARGUMENTS — path to a paper (.tex, .pdf, or .qmd), or a filename in manuscripts/ or references/papers/.
Locate and read the manuscript. Check:
$ARGUMENTSmanuscripts/$ARGUMENTSreferences/papers/$ARGUMENTSmanuscripts/ and references/papers/request_user_input in Plan mode for a single-choice prompt; otherwise ask conversationally.
Read the full paper end-to-end. For long PDFs, read in chunks (5 pages at a time).
Spawn a default subagent for deep substance review (see below).
Evaluate writing quality and presentation (dimensions 5-6) — the skill handles these directly since the agent explicitly does not cover presentation.
After the agent completes, merge its findings with your writing/presentation evaluation. Generate 3-5 "referee objections" synthesized from both.
Produce the unified review report.
Save to quality_reports/paper_review_[sanitized_name].md
Read agents/domain-reviewer.md before spawning the subagent. Use it as the base review protocol.
Spawn a default subagent for the deep substance check. The prompt asks it to act as the domain-reviewer and apply 5 lenses that go deeper than broad dimensional evaluation — actual equation verification, derivation step checking, code-theory alignment, and backward logic tracing.
Subagent prompt: "You are the domain-reviewer agent. Review the manuscript at [path].
Research question: [from spec if available].
Apply all 5 review lenses:
1. Assumption stress test
2. Derivation verification
3. Citation fidelity
4. Code-theory alignment
5. Backward logic check
Also check cross-document consistency.
Follow the domain-reviewer agent instructions and return your full substance review report."
After the agent completes, collect its findings. These feed into the "Major Concerns" and "Referee Objections" sections of the final report.
The skill evaluates dimensions 5-6 directly (the agent does not cover these), then merges everything into the unified report format below.
# Manuscript Review: [Paper Title]
**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Reviewer:** review-paper skill
**File:** [path to manuscript]
## Summary Assessment
**Overall recommendation:** [Strong Accept / Accept / Revise & Resubmit / Reject]
[2-3 paragraph summary: main contribution, strengths, and key concerns]
## Strengths
1. [Strength 1]
2. [Strength 2]
3. [Strength 3]
## Major Concerns
### MC1: [Title]
- **Dimension:** [Identification / Econometrics / Argument / Literature / Writing / Presentation]
- **Issue:** [Specific description]
- **Suggestion:** [How to address it]
- **Location:** [Section/page/table if applicable]
[Repeat for each major concern]
## Minor Concerns
### mc1: [Title]
- **Issue:** [Description]
- **Suggestion:** [Fix]
[Repeat]
## Referee Objections
These are the tough questions a top referee would likely raise:
### RO1: [Question]
**Why it matters:** [Why this could be fatal]
**How to address it:** [Suggested response or additional analysis]
[Repeat for 3-5 objections]
## Specific Comments
[Line-by-line or section-by-section comments, if any]
## Summary Statistics
| Dimension | Rating (1-5) |
|-----------|-------------|
| Argument Structure | [N] |
| Identification | [N] |
| Econometrics | [N] |
| Literature | [N] |
| Writing | [N] |
| Presentation | [N] |
| **Overall** | **[N]** |