mcpField
N
novelty-assessment

novelty-assessment

github.com/lingzhi227Productivity4401.8k installsUpdated 35w ago
Repository

About novelty-assessment

novelty-assessment is a research skill for evaluating whether an idea is sufficiently distinct from existing literature. It guides iterative paper searches, overlap analysis, and positioning of ideas that appear novel.

Key features

  1. 01Structured research-idea analysis
  2. 02Multi-round literature search
  3. 03Novelty decision with confidence
  4. 04Similar-paper comparison and differentiation
  5. 05Minimum search rounds before a novel decision

Use cases

  1. 01Checking whether a proposed study overlaps prior work
  2. 02Finding related papers and articulating a research gap

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/lingzhi227/agent-research-skills --skill novelty-assessment

After installing, type/novelty-assessmentin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Bundled filesreferences/assessment-prompts.md

Details

From the project README

Novelty Assessment

Rigorously assess whether a research idea is novel through systematic literature search.

Input

  • $0 — Research idea description, title, or JSON file

Scripts

Automated novelty check
python ~/.claude/skills/idea-generation/scripts/novelty_check.py \
  --idea "Your research idea description" \
  --max-rounds 10 --output novelty_report.json
Literature search
python ~/.claude/skills/deep-research/scripts/search_semantic_scholar.py \
  --query "relevant search query" --max-results 10

References

  • Assessment prompts and criteria: ~/.claude/skills/novelty-assessment/references/assessment-prompts.md

Workflow

Step 1: Understand the Idea
  • Identify the core contribution
  • List the key technical components
  • Determine the research area and subfield
Step 2: Multi-Round Literature Search (up to 10 rounds)

For each round:

  1. Generate a targeted search query
  2. Search Semantic Scholar / arXiv / OpenAlex
  3. Review top-10 results with abstracts
  4. Assess overlap with the idea
  5. Decide: need more searching, or ready to decide
Step 3: Make Decision
  • Novel: After sufficient searching, no paper significantly overlaps
  • Not Novel: Found a paper that significantly overlaps
Step 4: Position the Idea

If novel, identify:

  • Most similar existing papers (for Related Work)
  • How the idea differs from each
  • The specific gap this idea fills

Harsh Critic Persona

Be a harsh critic for novelty. Ensure there is a sufficient contribution
for a new conference or workshop paper. A trivial extension of existing
work is NOT novel. The idea must offer a meaningfully different approach,
formulation, or insight.

Output Format

{
  "decision": "novel" | "not_novel",
  "confidence": "high" | "medium" | "low",
  "justification": "After searching X rounds...",
  "most_similar_papers": [
    {"title": "...", "year": 2024, "overlap": "..."}
  ],
  "differentiation": "Our idea differs because..."
}

Rules

  • Minimum 3 search rounds before declaring novel
  • Try to recall exact paper names for targeted queries
  • A paper idea is NOT novel if it's a trivial extension
  • Consider both methodology novelty AND application novelty
  • Check for concurrent/recent arXiv submissions

Related Skills

Comments

Markdown supported