alterlab-scientific-thinking
From the author
Evaluate scientific claims and evidence quality using evidence grading frameworks (GRADE, Cochrane risk-of-bias tools such as RoB 2 and ROBINS-I), assessing experimental design validity and identifying biases, confounders, statistical pitfalls, and logical fallacies. Use when judging evidence quality, grading certainty of evidence, spotting design or causal-inference flaws, identifying biases or confounders, naming statistical fallacies, or teaching critical analysis. For writing a formal submittable peer review use alterlab-peer-review; for a multi-reviewer mock panel verdict use alterlab-paper-reviewer; for IRB/consent/conflict-of-interest ethics use alterlab-research-ethics. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.
Install
npx skills add AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills --skill alterlab-scientific-thinking -a claude-code
Installs to .claude/skills/alterlab-scientific-thinking/ · Each command fetches the skill straight from GitHub with the open skills CLI.
Byte-identical to the scanned commit, with the repository’s licence and a SOURCE.txt.
Want your agent to suggest skills while you type? See how to use skills from your IDE.
Safety checks on SKILL.md
No warnings.
Why 83
aiqbench computes the trust score from public signals. It is not a security audit, so read a skill before you install it.
Similar skills
Closest to this one by what they do and when they are used.
- alterlab-peer-reviewAlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-SkillsWrites structured, checklist-based single-reviewer reports for manuscripts and grant proposals — assesses methodology, statistical validity, reporting-standards compliance (CONSORT 2025, SPIRIT 2025, STROBE, PRISMA 2020, ARRIVE 2.0), reproducibility, and ethics, and gives constructive, prioritized feedback while respecting reviewer confidentiality and AI-use rules. Use when writing a formal referee report, responding to a journal or grant review invitation, or self-auditing a manuscript against reviewer criteria before submission. For evaluating claims/evidence quality prefer alterlab-scientific-thinking; for a multi-reviewer mock-panel verdict use alterlab-paper-reviewer; for quantitative rubric scoring use alterlab-scholar-eval; to revise a paper in response to reviews use alterlab-paper-writer. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.Engineering★ 78
- alterlab-scientific-brainstormAlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-SkillsCreative research ideation and exploration for open-ended brainstorming, surfacing interdisciplinary connections, challenging assumptions, and identifying research gaps. Use when starting early-stage research planning with no specific observations yet — for open-ended brainstorming sessions, exploring cross-disciplinary connections, or finding gaps. For formulating testable hypotheses from observations or data use alterlab-hypothesis-gen; for grading evidence or spotting design flaws use alterlab-scientific-thinking. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.Science★ 78
- scientific-critical-thinkingK-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skillsEvaluates scientific claims and evidence quality. Applies to experimental design validity, biases and confounders, statistical interpretation, evidence grading frameworks (GRADE, Cochrane Risk of Bias), and teaching critical analysis. Supports evidence appraisal and identifying flaws; formal peer review writing belongs to peer-review.Science★ 54.4K
- alterlab-hypothesis-genAlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-SkillsFormulates structured, testable hypotheses from experimental observations using a scientific-method framework — derives predictions, proposes mechanisms, and designs experiments to test them, then renders a LaTeX report. Use when turning observations or data into falsifiable, mechanistic hypotheses, competing-explanation sets, testable predictions, or experimental designs. For a standalone systematic literature review or evidence synthesis (not a means to hypotheses) use alterlab-literature-review; for open-ended brainstorming before any specific observation use alterlab-scientific-brainstorm; to evaluate an existing manuscript use alterlab-peer-review. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.Testing★ 78
- alterlab-social-science-methodsAlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-SkillsGuides advanced social science research methods — discourse analysis (Fairclough CDA, Gee), conversation analysis, quantitative content analysis, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), process tracing, archival research, participatory/community-based research (PAR, CBPR), Delphi and Q methodology, social network analysis (SNA), bibliometrics and scientometrics, systematic mapping reviews, and program/policy evaluation. Use when designing or conducting any of these studies — choosing a specialized method, building a coding scheme, establishing causal mechanisms in case studies, mapping relational or subjective data, or applying an evaluation framework. For interpretive coding (thematic analysis, grounded theory, IPA, ethnography) use alterlab-qualitative-methods; for qual+quant integration use alterlab-mixed-methods; to run QCA, SNA, or text-as-data analyses on data use alterlab-qca, alterlab-sna, or alterlab-text-as-data. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.Science★ 78
- alterlab-scientific-writingAlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-SkillsWrites scientific manuscripts in full flowing paragraphs (never bullet points) via a two-stage process — section outlines with key points using alterlab-research-lookup, then conversion to prose — applying IMRAD structure, citations (APA/AMA/Vancouver), figures/tables, and current reporting guidelines (CONSORT 2025, STROBE, PRISMA 2020, TRIPOD+AI). Use when drafting or revising a research paper section by section (abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion), tightening scientific prose, or writing professional/technical reports. For the end-to-end multi-agent paper pipeline (APA 7 LaTeX/DOCX output, bilingual abstracts, reviewer-driven revision roadmap) use alterlab-paper-writer; for a specific venue's LaTeX template and house style use alterlab-venue-templates; to build a BibTeX bibliography use alterlab-citation-mgmt. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.Science★ 78
Ratings & reviews
—
no reviews
Tried this skill? Rate it to help others. Sign in
Discussion
Join the discussion. Sign in