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Research · Version 1.3.0 · Reviewed 2026-08-02

Research Synthesis Writer

Produce defensible evidence for evidence synthesis and competing hypothesis comparison with evidence, explicit trade-offs, and a verification plan.

4 method steps 4 documented failure modes 4 diagnostic checks 7 quality gates

Turns a cited evidence corpus into findings, competing explanations, limitations, and decision-ready recommendations. It grounds the decision in the research question, evidence table, source quality, negative cases, stakeholder constraints, and decision criteria and explicitly prevents a polished narrative averaging contradictory evidence or presenting missing data as support for the preferred option.

₹199 one-time

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What this skill helps you do

  • Evidence synthesis
  • Competing hypothesis comparison
  • Research recommendation writing

How Research Synthesis Writer works

You provide

Sources, method notes, and the question being answered

It inspects

Evidence strength and negative cases for evidence synthesis

It decides

A competing hypothesis comparison synthesis with limitations named

You verify

Findings reproducible from the cited evidence alone

What it checks first

Research Synthesis Writer turns a cited evidence corpus into findings, competing explanations, limitations, and decision-ready recommendations. It grounds the decision in the research question, evidence table, source quality, negative cases, stakeholder constraints, and decision criteria and explicitly prevents a polished narrative averaging contradictory evidence or presenting missing data as support for the preferred option. Use it when the work involves Evidence synthesis, Competing hypothesis comparison, Research recommendation writing.

  1. Sample size, selection method, and who was excluded, since these bound every conclusion.
  2. Whether a finding is supported by observed behavior or by what participants said they would do.
  3. Disconfirming cases, which are the fastest test of whether a theme is real.
  4. Whether the question the research answers is the question the decision actually needs.

Failure modes it recognizes

  • Themes derived from the loudest participants rather than from the sampled distribution.
  • Leading questions producing agreement that disappears under neutral phrasing.
  • Survivorship bias from studying only current customers or successful accounts.
  • Coding drift where the same excerpt would be categorized differently later in the process.

Answers it will reject

  • Reporting percentages from a small qualitative sample, which implies precision that does not exist.
  • Treating a synthesized theme as a finding without the excerpts that support it.
  • Stopping at the first pattern that confirms the pre-existing hypothesis.

Decision rules it applies

  • State the sample, the method, and the limitation alongside every finding.
  • Actively seek disconfirming evidence before accepting a theme.
  • Separate what was observed, what was reported, and what was inferred.

Evidence it asks for

  • Attach verbatim excerpts to each theme so a reader can audit the interpretation.
  • Check coding consistency by re-coding a subset and comparing.
  • Report counts with denominators rather than percentages alone.

The method inside

  1. Define the research question and unit of analysis
  2. Create a transparent coding or extraction framework
  3. Preserve source traceability and negative evidence
  4. Separate findings, interpretation, limitations, and applicability

Deliverables

  • Evidence synthesis evidence table
  • Competing hypothesis comparison findings with negative cases
  • Research recommendation writing limitations and next-research plan

Evidence requirements

  • Source documents, transcripts, data, and research question
  • Sampling method, population, and collection context
  • Known limitations, contradictory cases, and analysis criteria

Quality gates

  • Every material claim traces to supplied evidence or is labeled as a hypothesis.
  • The response follows the declared deliverable contract.
  • No execution, access, measurement, or verification is invented.
  • Secrets and personal data are redacted rather than repeated.
  • The user receives a concrete independent verification step.
  • The relevant failure modes in this domain were considered rather than only the reported symptom.
  • No listed anti-pattern was recommended as a solution.

Example task

Input

Apply the research synthesis writer to our current evidence synthesis work. We need a concrete decision, bounded changes, and evidence that the result is correct.

Expected output

Start with the research question, evidence table, source quality, negative cases, stakeholder constraints, and decision criteria. The highest-risk failure is a polished narrative averaging contradictory evidence or presenting missing data as support for the preferred option. Separate facts, interpretations, and recommendations while weighting sources by relevance and reliability. Verify the result by reconstructing each conclusion from cited evidence and checking how the recommendation changes under key uncertainties.

Boundaries and compatibility

Ideal for

  • Evidence synthesis: produce a decision or artifact grounded in supplied evidence.
  • Competing hypothesis comparison: produce a decision or artifact grounded in supplied evidence.
  • Research recommendation writing: produce a decision or artifact grounded in supplied evidence.

Out of scope

  • Fabricating sources, participants, or findings
  • Claiming representativeness without a sampling basis

Agent compatibility

  • GitHub Copilot Agent Skills
  • Cursor Agent Skills
  • Claude Code Skills
  • OpenAI Codex Skills
  • JetBrains Junie Skills

Tool policy: Advisory by default. No tools are assumed. If the host provides tools, use read-only evidence gathering unless the user explicitly approves a scoped write or execution action.