Paper Mentor Skill

Turn vague paper questions into advisor-grade AI conversations.

paper-mentor is a Codex skill for students and researchers who want practical guidance from idea to submission: prompt coaching, paper health checks, contribution mapping, literature review structure, methods audits, reviewer simulation, and rebuttal planning.

It does not try to replace the student or fabricate a better-looking paper. It helps the student ask sharper questions, see risks earlier, and revise with a plan.

Try This First

Copy this into a new Codex chat after installing the skill:

Use $paper-mentor in Paper Health Check mode.

Field:
Target venue or reader:
Artifact: abstract / introduction / idea / full draft
Claimed contribution:
My biggest concern:

Text:
[paste your text here]

You will get a compact diagnosis, risk scorecard, blocking issues, next three actions, and better prompts to ask next.

Why People Star This

• It gives students a reusable way to talk to AI about papers.
• It turns weak prompts like "help me improve my paper" into useful research prompts.
• It simulates an advisor group instead of producing generic writing advice.
• It separates writing polish from scientific validity.
• It includes copy-paste prompts for real academic workflows.
• It keeps academic integrity explicit: no fake citations, no invented results, no hidden limitations.

Modes

Mode	Use it for
Prompt Clinic	Turn a vague research question into strong AI prompts
Paper Health Check	Quickly diagnose an idea, abstract, intro, or draft
Contribution Mapper	Clarify gap, claim, novelty, evidence, and audience fit
Section Surgeon	Improve abstract, introduction, related work, method, or discussion
Literature Map	Organize scattered papers into a useful Related Work structure
Methods Audit	Check whether experiments and metrics support the claims
Reviewer Simulation	Produce a skeptical pre-submission review
Rebuttal Planner	Respond to reviewer comments with evidence and restraint

Copy-Paste Prompts

See PROMPTS.md for a ready-to-use prompt pack.

Popular starters:

Use $paper-mentor in Prompt Clinic mode.
Rewrite this vague question into three better AI prompts:
"Help me improve my related work."

Use $paper-mentor in Reviewer Simulation mode.
Target venue:
Claimed contribution:
Here are my abstract and introduction:
[text]

Use $paper-mentor in Rebuttal Planner mode.
Reviewer comment:
[comment]
Actual evidence I have:
[evidence]
Manuscript changes I can make:
[changes]

Install

Clone this repository, then copy the paper-mentor folder into your Codex skills directory.

Windows PowerShell:

git clone https://github.com/YuzeLumos/paper-mentor-skill.git
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$env:USERPROFILE\.codex\skills"
Copy-Item -Recurse -Force ".\paper-mentor-skill\paper-mentor" "$env:USERPROFILE\.codex\skills\"

macOS or Linux:

git clone https://github.com/YuzeLumos/paper-mentor-skill.git
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
cp -r paper-mentor-skill/paper-mentor ~/.codex/skills/

Temporary Trial

The skill is configured for manual invocation by default:

policy:
  allow_implicit_invocation: false

That means it should only run when you explicitly use $paper-mentor.

To remove it after testing:

Windows PowerShell:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:USERPROFILE\.codex\skills\paper-mentor"

macOS or Linux:

rm -rf ~/.codex/skills/paper-mentor

Example

Weak prompt:

Help me improve my paper.

Better prompt:

I am writing a paper in [field] for [venue or reader]. My claimed contribution is [claim]. Below is my abstract and introduction. Please evaluate whether the motivation, gap, contribution, and evidence chain are clear. Give feedback as Advisor, Reviewer 2, Method Auditor, and Writing Coach. End with the top three revision actions and better prompts I should ask next.

Repository Structure

paper-mentor-skill/
  PROMPTS.md
  README.md
  README.zh-CN.md
  paper-mentor/
    SKILL.md
    agents/openai.yaml
    references/
      contribution-map.md
      experiment-audit.md
      literature-map.md
      paper-health-check.md
      prompt-coach.md
      rebuttal-guide.md
      review-rubric.md
      writing-workflow.md
  examples/
    ...

License

MIT