Research Agent for Graduate Research and Teaching

Problem

Graduate students and faculty often get stuck turning a vague research interest into a defensible plan for literature reviews, proposal writing, research questions, method design, IMRaD structure, and journal selection. This skill acts as an upstream research-method scaffold: it does not write publishable manuscript sections, execute statistics, or fabricate data. It converts the input into a structured ResearchPlan with LiteratureMatrix, ResearchQuestions, DesignChecklist, PaperOutline, and JournalShortlist.

How It Works

• Literature review: decomposes topics, suggests Boolean search strings, classifies references by method, findings, limitations, and gaps, and drafts a review outline.
• Research questions: condenses observations into testable RQs using PICOT and labels them descriptive, causal, or explanatory.
• Design checklist: covers quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, and ethics-review requirements.
• Paper structure: builds an IMRaD outline with section notes and a figure/table list.
• Journal selection: matches themes, methods, audience, turnaround, and formatting constraints without promising acceptance.

Boundaries

Best for graduate students, faculty, and researchers preparing proposals or early-stage papers. Not for manuscript ghostwriting, regression/SEM coding, proofs, language polishing, or data fabrication. The output requires authors to verify every citation against the original source, because the assistant supports structure, not academic integrity.