# Research Ideation

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

- Skill: `brycewang-stanford/research-ideation-5` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add brycewang-stanford/research-ideation-5`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/brycewang-stanford/research-ideation-5/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: brycewang-stanford (https://skillmd.com/u/brycewang-stanford)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/brycewang-stanford/research-ideation-5

---


## Research Ideation

Generate 3-5 research questions ordered from descriptive to causal.

### Steps

1. **Understand context**: Read CLAUDE.md and any relevant project files.

2. **Generate 3-5 research questions** ordered by type:
   - **Descriptive:** What are the stylized facts?
   - **Correlational:** What patterns exist in the data?
   - **Causal:** What is the effect of X on Y?
   - **Mechanism:** Through what channel does X affect Y?
   - **Policy:** What are the policy implications?

3. **For each question**, develop:
   - Testable hypothesis with expected sign/magnitude
   - Identification strategy (DiD, IV, RDD, synthetic control, matching, etc.)
   - Data requirements with availability assessment
   - Key assumptions and their plausibility
   - Potential pitfalls and how to address them
   - 2-3 related papers

4. **Rank questions** by feasibility and contribution in a summary table.

5. **Save output** to `quality_reports/research_ideation_[sanitized_topic].md`.

### Principles
- Be creative but grounded in what's feasible
- Think like a referee: what would make this convincing?
- Consider data availability realistically
- Suggest specific datasets (FRED, Census, PSID, BLS, central bank data, etc.)