Research Skill

Search for academic papers and references using the Perplexity MCP server.

Examples

• /research corporate bond measurement error bias -- broad literature search
• /research Blume Stambaugh 1983 -- find a specific paper
• /research recent working papers on [topic] -- recent work
• /research Smith Jones 2023 bibtex -- search and generate BibTeX

Tool Selection

• Use perplexity_research for broad literature surveys
• Use perplexity_search for specific paper/author lookups
• Use perplexity_ask for quick methodology questions
• Use perplexity_reason for analytical comparisons

Workflow

1. Parse the user's query from $ARGUMENTS
2. Choose the appropriate Perplexity tool based on query type
3. Execute the search
4. Format results:
   • Title, Authors, Year, Journal/Venue
   • DOI or URL when available
   • Brief summary of relevance to the current project (check guidance/paper-context.md for themes)
5. Verify each paper (MANDATORY before any BibTeX generation):
   • Run a second perplexity_search with the EXACT title in quotes
   • Confirm: all author names, year, journal, volume/pages if published
   • Check if paper already exists in the .bib file
   • If any detail cannot be confirmed, mark as UNVERIFIED
   • CRITICAL: For each field, only report what Perplexity explicitly returns. If search results confirm authors + title but DO NOT mention a journal, write "Journal: UNCONFIRMED" -- NEVER fill from training data.
6. If "bibtex" is in the query, generate verified BibTeX entries and offer to append to .bib
7. Note which of the project's themes each result relates to (check guidance/paper-context.md if available)

Output Format

**Title** (Year)
Authors: ...
Journal: ...
DOI/URL: ...
Status: VERIFIED / UNVERIFIED / PARTIAL
Relevance: [brief note on relation to the current project]