Scientific Writing Skill for Journal-Ready Manuscripts

Where this fits

You have an agent that can run analyses or search literature, but when asked for a manuscript section it returns bullet points or a loose summary. This skill covers the step between research output and journal submission: turning deep-research results into structured, citation-aware scientific prose. Use it when building a research copilot or an automated pipeline that must produce documents reviewers accept.

Why agents benefit

• Two-stage drafting: generate a section outline with key points from research-lookup, then rewrite it as flowing prose. Separates evidence gathering from writing and reduces hallucinated citations.
• Enforces full paragraphs, not bullets, at the document level; Methods and Results get narrative structure instead of generic chat output.
• Applies citation formats (APA, AMA, Vancouver) and updates in-text references and bibliographies to journal requirements.
• Loads reporting guidelines (CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA) so the agent checks required elements before the draft is complete.
• Treats figures and tables as first-class objects, deciding placement and in-text references.

Practical scenarios

Drafting a PRISMA-compliant methods section

A researcher has a list of screened studies. The agent uses scientific-writing to map the PRISMA checklist into an outline, verifies each flow item with research-lookup, then writes paragraphs covering databases, date ranges, and screening criteria.

Turning clinical output into STROBE-compliant prose

A data scientist has coefficient tables and baseline characteristics. Instead of a results dump, the agent drafts an IMRAD paper with a STROBE-compliant Methods section and narrative Results that reference each table.

Resubmitting with a different citation style

An author switches from APA to Vancouver. The agent regenerates the reference list, updates in-text citations, and adjusts formatting while preserving the manuscript outline.

Add it to your agent workflow

Install the skill with npx:

npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill scientific-writing

Then instruct your agent: Use the scientific-writing skill to create an IMRAD outline from these analysis files, cite in APA, and convert the outline into full paragraphs without bullet points.

Compare before adopting

Compare this skill against generic writing prompts by examining output quality on a known paper, repository maintenance, and workflow fit. Verify it supports the reporting guideline and citation style your target journals need, and check recent commits and open issues. Also confirm it integrates with your existing research-lookup and file-writing tools.

Why it is worth tracking

At 3,651 stars under an MIT license, scientific-writing shows real community demand for agents that produce scholarly documents rather than summaries. Track it if your roadmap includes journal-ready drafts, systematic reviews, or clinical study reports. A quick evaluation is cheap: install it, run one section of a real paper, and compare the outline-to-prose workflow against your current behavior. For a curated view of this skill and similar research-agent capabilities, see the OpenAgentSkill entry at https://www.openagentskill.com/skills/brycewang-stanford-scientific-writing.