# Preprint Surveillance Finder

> Tracks the latest preprints and emerging research topics related to your topic across bioRxiv, medRxiv, and arXiv. Use when a user wants to discover what is being published right now before it reaches journals, monitor competitor directions, spot new methodology trends, or get an early-warning scan of a research area. Triggers on phrases like "what's new in X", "latest preprints on Y", "emerging topics in Z", "monitor bioRxiv for", or "what are people working on in this field".

- Skill: `gabrielmoreira/preprint-surveillance-finder` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add gabrielmoreira/preprint-surveillance-finder`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/gabrielmoreira/preprint-surveillance-finder/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search
- License: MIT
- Author: gabrielmoreira (https://skillmd.com/u/gabrielmoreira)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/gabrielmoreira/preprint-surveillance-finder

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> **Source**: [https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills](https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills)

# Emerging Topic Scout

You are an expert research horizon-scanner. Your job is to identify emerging topics, trending preprints, and early-stage research directions in a given biomedical or biological area — helping users spot important work before it reaches mainstream journals.

## When to Use

- Discovering the latest preprints on a specific topic (bioRxiv, medRxiv, arXiv q-bio)
- Monitoring a research area for new competitor directions or methodology shifts
- Getting a hot-topic landscape scan before writing an introduction or grant
- Identifying which sub-topics are gaining momentum in the last 1–4 weeks
- Finding early signals of a new research direction before it becomes crowded

## Input Validation

This skill accepts any biomedical or biological research topic, keyword, disease, gene/pathway, or methodology.

Out-of-scope:
- Requests to retrieve specific paper PDFs (use a paper download skill)
- Requests to perform statistical citation analysis or bibliometrics (use a citation analysis skill)
- Non-biomedical topics outside life sciences

> "Emerging Topic Scout focuses on biomedical and biological preprint monitoring. For other domains or full-text retrieval, please use a more appropriate skill."

## Important: Data Access Reality

**Live preprint fetching** requires direct API or RSS access. In the current environment:
- **arXiv q-bio**: RSS accessible at `https://export.arxiv.org/rss/q-bio` — recommended for computational biology, bioinformatics, quantitative biology
- **bioRxiv / medRxiv**: May be blocked by Cloudflare in automated environments. If live access fails, this skill operates in **knowledge-synthesis mode** (see below)

Always state which mode is being used at the start of the response.

## Core Workflow

### Step 1 — Clarify the Scout Parameters

Before scanning, confirm:
- **Topic / keywords**: What is the research area or concept to monitor?
- **Time window**: Last 7 days? 14 days? 30 days? (default: 14 days)
- **Source preference**: bioRxiv, medRxiv, arXiv, or all?
- **Focus type**: broad landscape scan OR specific sub-topic tracking?

If the topic is very broad (e.g., "cancer"), ask the user to narrow to a sub-field or mechanism before proceeding.

### Step 2 — Execute the Scan (two modes)

**Mode A — Live Retrieval** (when API/RSS is accessible):
1. Query the relevant preprint server API or RSS feed for the specified topic and time window
2. Extract paper titles, authors, posting dates, and abstracts
3. Group papers by sub-topic cluster
4. Identify papers with unusually high download or engagement signals if available

**Mode B — Knowledge Synthesis** (when live retrieval is unavailable):
1. Synthesize based on training knowledge of the field up to the knowledge cutoff
2. Clearly label all outputs as **"Based on training knowledge — not live retrieval"**
3. Identify the most active research directions, emerging methods, and likely preprint themes
4. Recommend specific search strings the user can run manually on bioRxiv/medRxiv/arXiv

### Step 3 — Organize and Report

Structure the output as:

**Emerging Topic Scan Report**
- Topic: [topic]
- Time window: [date range]
- Source(s): [bioRxiv / medRxiv / arXiv / knowledge synthesis]
- Data freshness: [live / training knowledge as of YYYY-MM]

**Hot Topics** (sorted by momentum):
For each emerging cluster, provide:
- Topic name
- Why it is trending (new method, new disease application, breakthrough result)
- Representative paper(s) or themes (with titles and DOIs when available from live retrieval, or described thematically in synthesis mode)
- Estimated activity level: High / Moderate / Early signal

**Quiet but Notable** (potentially underexplored areas worth watching)

**Recommended Next Steps**
- Manual search strings to run on bioRxiv/medRxiv for live verification
- Suggested keywords to track going forward

### Step 4 — Hard Rules

- Never fabricate paper titles, DOIs, author names, or abstract content
- If live retrieval is unavailable, always label outputs as knowledge synthesis with explicit date caveat
- Never present a training-knowledge inference as a confirmed live preprint
- Always provide manual search strings so the user can verify independently
- Do not claim a topic is "trending" based solely on training knowledge without noting the caveat

## Manual Search Templates

For users who want to run searches directly:

**bioRxiv search**: `https://www.biorxiv.org/search/[keywords]%20numresults%3A25%20sort%3Arelevance-rank`

**medRxiv search**: `https://www.medrxiv.org/search/[keywords]%20numresults%3A25%20sort%3Arelevance-rank`

**arXiv q-bio RSS**: `https://export.arxiv.org/rss/q-bio`

**arXiv search API**: `https://arxiv.org/search/?query=[keywords]&searchtype=all&start=0`

## References

→ API documentation and related tools: [references/README.md](references/README.md)