SearchAPI Scholar Search

Use this skill for paper-first retrieval. Prefer scholar-search.mjs when the user needs academic literature, candidate references, DOI clues, citation signals, or source verification for scholarly work.

This skill is especially good for: - discovering English-language papers from a topic or question - finding classic / highly cited papers quickly - building an initial literature pool for a review, thesis, proposal, or grant application - checking whether a paper title, source, year, or DOI is plausible - finding official landing pages, publisher pages, repositories, and supporting evidence on the web

What this skill can do

1) Scholar-based paper retrieval

Run:

node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "query"
node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "query" -n 10 --year-from 2020 --year-to 2026
node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "query" --mode review
node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "query" --mode verify
node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "query" --json

Returns, when available: - paper title - authors - publication summary / venue clues - year - best verification link - cited-by count - snippet - DOI / DOI URL when detected or enriched - likely paper type (review, systematic-review, primary-study) - search refinement suggestions - verification hints for downstream checking

Modes: - shortlist — default; gives a practical reading shortlist - review — emphasizes likely review/survey-style papers for literature review workflows using heuristic title/snippet detection - verify — emphasizes title/DOI/source verification for a likely candidate paper or claim

Use this first for: - literature discovery - related work exploration - title verification - DOI/source checking - identifying representative papers for a topic - getting better next-step search suggestions

2) Evidence-oriented web search

Run:

node {baseDir}/scripts/web-search.mjs "query"
node {baseDir}/scripts/web-search.mjs "query" --json

Use this after Scholar search to find: - publisher landing pages - DOI pages - institutional repositories - lab/project pages - author homepages - non-paper evidence related to a research topic

Recommended workflow

A. Build a candidate paper pool

Start with Scholar search using 1-3 focused queries. Example:

node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "large language models higher education" -n 8 --year-from 2021 --mode shortlist

Then refine queries with: - synonyms - narrower task terms - domain words - method names - population or setting constraints - review / systematic review when you need overview papers first

B. Verify promising items

For strong candidates, use Scholar verify mode or web search on: - exact paper title - "paper title" DOI - "paper title" publisher

This often surfaces the official landing page or repository page.

C. Normalize outputs for downstream use

After retrieval: - deduplicate by title / DOI - keep official or publisher links when possible - retain cited-by counts only as rough influence signals, not quality guarantees - convert the final shortlist into the citation format the user needs

Good query patterns

Use patterns like: - "topic keyword" method - "topic keyword" review - "topic keyword" systematic review - "topic keyword" site:doi.org via web search when verifying DOI presence - exact title queries in quotes for verification

Examples:

node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "intrusion detection deep learning review" -n 10 --year-from 2020 --mode review
node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs "large language models classroom teaching" -n 10 --year-from 2023 --mode shortlist
node {baseDir}/scripts/scholar-search.mjs '"Attention Is All You Need"' --mode verify
node {baseDir}/scripts/web-search.mjs '"Attention Is All You Need" DOI'

Environment variables

The scripts read the first available key from: - SERPAPI_API_KEY - SEARCHAPI_API_KEY

No custom base URL override is exposed in this public edition. The skill uses the default SerpApi endpoint for consistency and auditability.

Notes

• Prefer Scholar search for literature retrieval; use web search for source verification.
• Keep search batches small to avoid rate limits.
• DOI enrichment may query the public Crossref API when a DOI is not obvious in the search result.
• This skill is best used as the front end of a literature workflow: retrieve → verify → deduplicate → format citations.
• Review/survey detection is heuristic, so verify important claims on the destination page.
• For publication or academic writing tasks, do not treat search output as final truth without checking the destination page.