# Write Scientific Manuscript

Diagnose and repair the clarity and logic of manuscript prose, journal-agnostic.

- Repository: https://github.com/Boom5426/Nature-Paper-Skills (646 stars)
- Category: Data and ML
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-13
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add Boom5426/Nature-Paper-Skills --skill write-scientific-manuscript -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add Boom5426/Nature-Paper-Skills --skill write-scientific-manuscript -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add Boom5426/Nature-Paper-Skills --skill write-scientific-manuscript -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add Boom5426/Nature-Paper-Skills --skill write-scientific-manuscript -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Diagnose and repair the clarity and logic of manuscript prose, journal-agnostic. Use when a passage is technically correct but hard to follow: buried topic sentences, missing logical bridges, ambiguous referents, abstract noun chains, overloaded sentences, incomplete comparisons with no stated dataset or metric or direction, scope qualifiers placed too far from the claim, and invented or inflated terminology that should have been an ordinary word. Also covers writing for a broad scientific reader without losing precision, section-by-section logic patterns, paragraph-level reverse outlines, and keeping observation separate from interpretation. This is the layer between structure and punctuation: use manuscript-optimizer when the claim hierarchy itself is unstable, and scientific-prose-style for the final sentence-level pass.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Write Scientific Manuscripts

Make the science easy to follow before making the prose elegant. Optimize in this order: scientific logic, reader comprehension, evidential precision, then style.

## Where this sits

This skill owns clarity and logic diagnosis. It carries no house style and no punctuation budget.

- `manuscript-optimizer` when the problem is above the prose: the claim hierarchy, evidence chain,
  or figure logic is unstable. Fix that first. Polishing a paragraph whose scientific role is wrong
  wastes the edit.
- `scientific-writing` when a section needs drafting or rewriting into full paragraphs, or when the
  task names a citation style or a reporting guideline.
- `anti-defensive-writing` after the passage logic is settled, when the text reads like an audit
  report, a rebuttal or a self-critique.
- `scientific-prose-style` last, for punctuation and rhythm. This file deliberately carries no
  em-dash or semicolon rule. That skill owns both, and its cap for each is at most one per paragraph
  and none in the abstract.
- `results-section-revision` when only Results subsection flow and paragraph openings need repair.
- `review-article-architecture` when the piece is a Review, survey, or Perspective.
- `rebuttal-response` when the prose is a reply to reviewers rather than manuscript text. The
  claim-calibration ladder there is the same one used below.

## Establish the intended meaning

Before rewriting, determine:

1. What single point must the reader understand?
2. What information must the reader already know for that point to make sense?
3. What evidence supports it?
4. What inference is justified, and what remains uncertain?
5. Why does the point matter at this location in the manuscript?

Do not polish a sentence whose scientific role is unclear. If necessary, briefly diagnose the logic before drafting.

The rest: https://github.com/Boom5426/Nature-Paper-Skills/blob/HEAD/skills/core/write-scientific-manuscript/SKILL.md