# Research Ideation

Generate structured research questions, testable hypotheses, and candidate empirical...

- Repository: https://github.com/pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow (1676 stars)
- Category: Data and ML
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-09-27
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill research-ideation -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill research-ideation -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill research-ideation -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill research-ideation -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Generate structured research questions, testable hypotheses, and candidate empirical strategies from a topic, phenomenon, or dataset description. Use when user says "give me research ideas on X", "brainstorm questions about Y", "what could I study with this data?", "I'm looking for a paper idea on...", "generate hypotheses for...". One-shot generation, not multi-turn. For idea-refinement use `/interview-me`.

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

# Research Ideation

Generate structured research questions, testable hypotheses, and empirical strategies from a topic, phenomenon, or dataset.

**Input:** `$ARGUMENTS`, a topic (e.g., "minimum wage effects on employment"), a phenomenon (e.g., "why do firms cluster geographically?"), or a dataset description (e.g., "panel of US counties with pollution and health outcomes, 2000-2020").

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## Steps

1. **Understand the input.** Read `$ARGUMENTS` and any referenced files. Check `master_supporting_docs/` for related papers. Check `.claude/rules/` for domain conventions.

2. **Generate 3-5 research questions** ordered from descriptive to causal:
   - **Descriptive:** What are the patterns? (e.g., "How has X evolved over time?")
   - **Correlational:** What factors are associated? (e.g., "Is X correlated with Y after controlling for Z?")
   - **Causal:** What is the effect? (e.g., "What is the causal effect of X on Y?")
   - **Mechanism:** Why does the effect exist? (e.g., "Through what channel does X affect Y?")
   - **Policy:** What are the implications? (e.g., "Would policy X improve outcome Y?")

3. **Tag each RQ with a likely paper type** (drawn from `methods-referee.md`):
   - `reduced-form` (DiD, IV, RD, event study, synthetic control)
   - `structural` (estimation of a fully-specified model)
   - `theory+empirics` (formal model + empirical test of its predictions)
   - `descriptive` (measurement, data construction, pattern documentation)
   - `formal-theory` (pure theory, no empirical test in this paper)
   - `survey-experiment` (vignette, conjoint, list-experiment)
   - `unsure` (when multiple types are plausible, the user can pick later via `/interview-me`)

   Use `.claude/references/discipline-cards.md` to bias the distribution by field (econ vs poli-sci default frequencies differ, e.g., poli-sci skews more toward `survey-experiment` and `formal-theory` than econ does).

The rest: https://github.com/pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow/blob/HEAD/.claude/skills/research-ideation/SKILL.md