name: search_skill description: Academic literature search skill for finding papers from arXiv, Semantic Scholar, and HuggingFace version: 1.0.0 author: PaperAgent Team
Academic Literature Search Skill
This skill enables you to search for academic papers and literature from multiple sources. Use this skill when you need to find relevant research papers for a topic.
Available Tools
You have access to the following search tools (registered in the Toolkit):
1. search_arxiv
Search for papers on arXiv preprint server.
Parameters:
query(str, required): The search query stringmax_results(int, optional): Maximum number of results (default: 10, max: 50)sort_by(str, optional): Sort by "relevance" or "date"
Returns: List of papers with title, authors, abstract, URL, year, and categories.
Example:
search_arxiv(query="large language models", max_results=10, sort_by="relevance")
2. search_semantic_scholar
Search for papers on Semantic Scholar with citation information.
Parameters:
query(str, required): The search query stringmax_results(int, optional): Maximum number of results (default: 10)year_from(int, optional): Filter papers from this yearyear_to(int, optional): Filter papers to this year
Returns: List of papers with title, authors, abstract, URL, year, citation count, and venue.
Example:
search_semantic_scholar(query="transformer architecture", max_results=20, year_from=2020)
3. search_huggingface_papers
Search for papers on HuggingFace Papers.
Parameters:
query(str, required): The search query stringmax_results(int, optional): Maximum number of results (default: 10)
Returns: List of papers with title, authors, abstract, and URL.
Example:
search_huggingface_papers(query="multimodal learning", max_results=15)
4. academic_search
Multi-source academic search that combines results from multiple sources.
Parameters:
query(str, required): The search query stringsources(list[str], optional): Sources to search (default: ["arxiv", "semantic_scholar"])max_results_per_source(int, optional): Max results per source (default: 5)
Returns: Combined and deduplicated list of papers from all sources.
Example:
academic_search(query="neural networks", sources=["arxiv", "semantic_scholar"], max_results_per_source=10)
Search Strategies
Topic-based Search
For exploring a research topic:
- Start with broad query terms
- Use
academic_searchto get papers from multiple sources - Identify key papers and refine search based on terminology found
Author-based Search
For tracking specific researchers:
- Include author name in query:
"Author Name" topic - Use Semantic Scholar for better author disambiguation
Citation-based Search
For finding related work:
- Search for seed papers on the topic
- Use citation tools to trace references and citing papers
Time-based Search
For finding recent advances:
- Use
year_fromparameter in Semantic Scholar - Use
sort_by="date"in arXiv
Best Practices
- Formulate precise queries: Use specific technical terms
- Combine sources: Different databases have different coverage
- Filter by year: For up-to-date research, filter recent papers
- Check citation counts: High citation papers are often foundational
- Read abstracts first: Quickly assess relevance before deep reading
- Save search results: Keep track of found papers for later reference
Output Format
Search results are returned in markdown format with:
- Paper title
- Authors (first 3 + "et al." if more)
- Publication year
- Citation count (when available)
- Venue (when available)
- Abstract (truncated to 500 chars)
- URL/DOI link