Agent skill

Arsoc Literature Synthesis

by brycewang-stanford in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

A skill your agent uses when systematically gathering, reading, and synthesizing a large body of sociological research for an Annual Review of Sociology (ARSoc) review — coverage discipline and…

MITAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Arsoc Literature Synthesis

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill arsoc-literature-synthesis -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills arsoc-literature-synthesis --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/Annual-Review-of-Sociology-Skills/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis .claude/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
arsoc-literature-synthesis
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
589 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2,387
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when systematically gathering, reading, and synthesizing a large body of sociological research for an Annual Review of Sociology (ARSoc) review — coverage discipline and…

  • Works in 6 steps: Seed set. Start from the field's… → Forward + backward snowball. Backward:… → Database + keyword sweep. Search… → …
  • Systematically gathering
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, Coverage discipline: read the…, From reading to synthesis (not… and Checklist, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Arsoc Literature Synthesis is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when systematically gathering, reading, and synthesizing a large body of sociological research for an Annual Review of Sociology (ARSoc) review — coverage discipline and avoiding citation gaps across theoretical traditions. Builds the evidence corpus and synthesis notes; it does not impose the analytical spine (arsoc-organizing-framework) or write prose (arsoc-writing-style).

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Research & Science, covering Brand voice and tone and Citation management. The repository describes itself as: Journal-specific Claude Code/Codex skill packs covering mainstream journals — AER, QJE, Nature, Cell, 管理世界, 经济研究 & 200+ more — your fast track to getting published. | 覆盖主流期刊的… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Systematically gathering
  • Tasks that involve Brand voice and tone
  • Tasks that involve Citation management

Example prompts

  • “/arsoc-literature-synthesis”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Seed set. Start from the field's canonical pieces and the references behind the commissioned topic.
  2. Forward + backward snowball. Backward: every study's reference list. Forward: who cites the seeds (Google Scholar / Web of Science /…
  3. Database + keyword sweep. Search Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, Scopus, JSTOR, and Google Scholar by topic keywords and by the…
  4. Mind-the-modes coverage. Deliberately sweep for qualitative and ethnographic work, computational / big-data studies, demographic analyses…
  5. Recent + adjacent. Include recent papers and forthcoming work (the frontier) and the bordering literatures the subfield draws on, or…
  6. Saturation log. Record when each search stops yielding new must-cite work — this is your documented evidence of comprehensiveness for…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 932eb23. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Arsoc Literature Synthesis loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 102 tokens; SKILL.md has 589 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~102
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills at commit 932eb23, republished under its MIT licence (© brycewang-stanford). 589 words, ~1,443 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
arsoc-literature-synthesis
description
Use when systematically gathering, reading, and synthesizing a large body of sociological research for an Annual Review of Sociology (ARSoc) review — coverage discipline and avoiding citation gaps across theoretical traditions. Builds the evidence corpus and synthesis notes; it does not impose the analytical spine (arsoc-organizing-framework) or write prose (arsoc-writing-style).

Literature Synthesis (arsoc-literature-synthesis)

When to trigger

  • The topic was commissioned and it is time to read the subfield thoroughly
  • Reading feels unsystematic; you fear missing important contributions or a whole tradition
  • You have many studies but no way to weigh, compare, or reconcile their findings
  • A Committee/referee at ARSoc is likely to ask "why did you omit X / the Y literature / the qualitative work?"

Coverage discipline: read the subfield, not a convenience sample

An ARSoc review's credibility rests on the reader's belief that you read everything that matters across methods and schools. Sociology spans quantitative, qualitative, computational, and theoretical work, and reviewers notice when one mode is slighted. Build coverage systematically rather than from memory:

  1. Seed set. Start from the field's canonical pieces and the references behind the commissioned topic.
  2. Forward + backward snowball. Backward: every study's reference list. Forward: who cites the seeds (Google Scholar / Web of Science / Scopus). Iterate until new searches stop turning up unseen important work (saturation).
  3. Database + keyword sweep. Search Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, Scopus, JSTOR, and Google Scholar by topic keywords and by the names of the rival theoretical traditions, to catch work indexed under adjacent labels.
  4. Mind-the-modes coverage. Deliberately sweep for qualitative and ethnographic work, computational / big-data studies, demographic analyses, and the theoretical statements, not only the quantitative articles you know best — siloing by method is a recurring ARSoc referee complaint.
  5. Recent + adjacent. Include recent papers and forthcoming work (the frontier) and the bordering literatures the subfield draws on, or referees will flag staleness and siloing.
  6. Saturation log. Record when each search stops yielding new must-cite work — this is your documented evidence of comprehensiveness for arsoc-comprehensiveness-and-balance and arsoc-transparency-and-reproducibility.
Show full SKILL.md (308 more words)Show less

From reading to synthesis (not summary)

Summarizing is restating each study; synthesizing is making the studies talk to each other. Maintain an evidence matrix as you read:

ColumnWhat to capture
Studyauthor–year, the result you will cite it for
Question/claimexactly what it argues or measures (so non-comparable studies are not pooled)
Method/datadesign, sample, mode (quant / qual / computational / theoretical) — so you can weight credibility
Findingdirection + magnitude, or the central claim (for who-found-what tables)
Traditionwhich theoretical school / school it speaks for
Credibilityidentification strength, sample, analytic transparency — your appraisal, since ARSoc runs no new analysis
Tensionwhich other studies it agrees/conflicts with, and why

This matrix is the raw material for the organizing framework, the summary tables, and the even-handed treatment of debates. Crucially, you appraise primary studies (you are the subfield's referee-of-record for the wider discipline); you do not re-analyze them.

Checklist

  • Seed set drawn from canonical pieces + the commissioned topic's references
  • Forward and backward snowball iterated to saturation
  • Sociological Abstracts / Web of Science / Scopus / JSTOR / Scholar swept by keyword and by tradition
  • Qualitative, computational, demographic, and theoretical modes all deliberately covered (no method silo)
  • Recent/forthcoming work and adjacent literatures included (no staleness, no silo)
  • Saturation log records where searches stopped yielding new must-cites
  • Evidence matrix captures claim + method/mode + finding + tradition + credibility appraisal + tensions
  • Non-comparable studies flagged as such (not pooled into a false consensus)
  • No major author/school/method whose omission a referee could name

Anti-patterns

  • Citing from memory or from a personal reading list (predictable coverage gaps)
  • Summarizing study-by-study instead of synthesizing across studies
  • Covering only the quantitative literature and ignoring the qualitative/theoretical work (method silo)
  • Pooling studies that measure different objects into one "the literature finds…" claim
  • Ignoring forthcoming work (looks stale) or ignoring adjacent subfields (looks siloed)
  • Re-analyzing or "correcting" primary studies — an ARSoc review appraises, it does not re-estimate

Output format

text
【Seed set】<canonical + commissioned-topic references>
【Snowball status】backward/forward iterated to saturation? Y/N
【Databases swept】Sociological Abstracts / WoS / Scopus / JSTOR / Scholar — by keyword + tradition? Y/N
【Mode coverage】quant + qual + computational + demographic + theoretical all swept? Y/N
【Frontier + adjacency】recent/forthcoming work and bordering literatures included? Y/N
【Saturation evidence】<where searches stopped yielding new must-cites>
【Evidence matrix】rows ready with claim / method / finding / tradition / appraisal / tension? Y/N
【Coverage risks】<any author/school/method an omission referee could name>
【Next step】→ arsoc-organizing-framework (impose the analytical spine on the matrix)

© brycewang-stanford, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in Annual-Review-of-Sociology-Skills/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

Compare with similar skills

Arsoc Literature Synthesis next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

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Inno Paper WritingLigphiDonk/Oh-my--paper739—~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Cg Paper Writingjaccen/Awesome-Gaussian-Skills161—~4.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Artbull Writing Style And Citationfranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~848Automated safety check: PassNone
Io Writing Stylefranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassNone

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Questions about Arsoc Literature Synthesis

What does Arsoc Literature Synthesis do?

A skill your agent uses when systematically gathering, reading, and synthesizing a large body of sociological research for an Annual Review of Sociology (ARSoc) review — coverage discipline and…. Arsoc Literature Synthesis is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when systematically gathering, reading, and synthesizing a large body of sociological research for an Annual Review of Sociology (ARSoc) review — coverage discipline and avoiding citation gaps across theoretical traditions.

When should I use Arsoc Literature Synthesis?

Arsoc Literature Synthesis fits situations like: systematically gathering; tasks that involve Brand voice and tone; tasks that involve Citation management.

How do I install Arsoc Literature Synthesis in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill arsoc-literature-synthesis -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (Annual-Review-of-Sociology-Skills/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .claude/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Arsoc Literature Synthesis in Codex?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill arsoc-literature-synthesis -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (Annual-Review-of-Sociology-Skills/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .agents/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Arsoc Literature Synthesis in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill arsoc-literature-synthesis -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis, .gemini/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis, .github/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis and .opencode/skills/arsoc-literature-synthesis in your project.

What does Arsoc Literature Synthesis need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Arsoc Literature Synthesis is instructions for the agent only.

Does Arsoc Literature Synthesis access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Arsoc Literature Synthesis safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Arsoc Literature Synthesis use?

Arsoc Literature Synthesis is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Arsoc Literature Synthesis use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Arsoc Literature Synthesis?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Arsoc Literature Synthesis: Research Paper Writer (ailabs-393/ai-labs-claude-skills, 455 stars), Inno Paper Writing (LigphiDonk/Oh-my--paper, 739 stars), Cg Paper Writing (jaccen/Awesome-Gaussian-Skills, 161 stars) and Artbull Writing Style And Citation (franklee16/academic-research-skills, 223 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Arsoc Literature Synthesis?

brycewang-stanford (a GitHub user) maintains it in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, which has 1,231 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2,387 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.