How do I install the Citation Survey skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add ultimatile/citation-survey in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Citation Survey safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Citation Survey?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Citation Survey free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Citation Survey?

ultimatile (@ultimatile) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Citation Survey by ultimatile — Agent Skill

Name: Citation Survey
Author: ultimatile

Citation Survey

Survey citing or referenced papers for a given seed paper using OpenAlex API. Use when the user asks to find follow-up papers, citing papers, references, or related literature for a specific paper identified by DOI or arXiv ID. Also use when asked to check prior work, search for related publications, or build a literature survey around a specific paper.

ultimatile da248fe 4 files · 6.4 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Citation Survey Skill

Survey citing or referenced papers using the OpenAlex API.

All paths below are relative to this skill's base directory. Construct the full path by prepending the base directory shown at the top of this skill's context.

Usage

Find papers that cite a given work

uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI>
uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --arxiv <ARXIV_ID>

Find references of a given work

uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py refs --doi <DOI>

Filter results by keywords in title/abstract

uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI> --filter "keyword1,keyword2"

Save results to JSON

uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI> --output results.json

Show abstracts

uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI> --verbose

Options

direction: citing (papers that cite this work) or refs (references of this work)
--doi: DOI of the seed paper
--arxiv: arXiv ID of the seed paper (alternative to --doi)
--filter: Comma-separated keywords to filter by title/abstract
--max-results: Maximum number of results (default: 2000)
--output: Save results to JSON file
--verbose: Show abstracts in output
--api-key: OpenAlex API key (supported, but leaks into shell history/process lists)
--api-key-file: Read OpenAlex API key from a file

Examples

Find papers citing Hackl et al. (2020) about Kähler geometry:

uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi 10.21468/SciPostPhys.9.4.048 --filter "variational principle,kähler,neural quantum"

Find references of a paper by arXiv ID:

uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py refs --arxiv 2004.01015

API Key

OpenAlex API requires an API key (free account at https://openalex.org/settings/api). Prefer OPENALEX_API_KEY or --api-key-file. --api-key is still supported, but command-line secrets may be visible in shell history or process listings. The script works without a key but with stricter rate limits.

Notes

Uses OpenAlex API (free tier available)
Rate limiting: 0.15s delay between paginated requests
Network, timeout, and HTTP errors are reported as short user-facing messages instead of Python tracebacks
Abstract reconstruction from inverted index (OpenAlex format)
For arXiv-only papers, DOI resolution may fail; use --arxiv instead

---name: citation-surveydescription: Survey citing or referenced papers for a given seed paper using OpenAlex API. Use when the user asks to find follow-up papers, citing papers, references, or related literature for a specific paper identified by DOI or arXiv ID. Also use when asked to check prior work, search for related publications, or build a literature survey around a specific paper.---# Citation Survey SkillSurvey citing or referenced papers using the OpenAlex API.All paths below are relative to this skill's base directory. Construct the full path by prepending the base directory shown at the top of this skill's context.## Usage### Find papers that cite a given work```bashuv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI>uv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --arxiv <ARXIV_ID>```### Find references of a given work```bashuv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py refs --doi <DOI>```### Filter results by keywords in title/abstract```bashuv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI> --filter "keyword1,keyword2"```### Save results to JSON```bashuv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI> --output results.json```### Show abstracts```bashuv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi <DOI> --verbose```## Options- `direction`: `citing` (papers that cite this work) or `refs` (references of this work)- `--doi`: DOI of the seed paper- `--arxiv`: arXiv ID of the seed paper (alternative to --doi)- `--filter`: Comma-separated keywords to filter by title/abstract- `--max-results`: Maximum number of results (default: 2000)- `--output`: Save results to JSON file- `--verbose`: Show abstracts in output- `--api-key`: OpenAlex API key (supported, but leaks into shell history/process lists)- `--api-key-file`: Read OpenAlex API key from a file## ExamplesFind papers citing Hackl et al. (2020) about Kähler geometry:```bashuv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py citing --doi 10.21468/SciPostPhys.9.4.048 --filter "variational principle,kähler,neural quantum"```Find references of a paper by arXiv ID:```bashuv run <base-dir>/scripts/citation_survey.py refs --arxiv 2004.01015```## API KeyOpenAlex API requires an API key (free account at https://openalex.org/settings/api).Prefer `OPENALEX_API_KEY` or `--api-key-file`.`--api-key` is still supported, but command-line secrets may be visible in shell history or process listings.The script works without a key but with stricter rate limits.## Notes- Uses OpenAlex API (free tier available)- Rate limiting: 0.15s delay between paginated requests- Network, timeout, and HTTP errors are reported as short user-facing messages instead of Python tracebacks- Abstract reconstruction from inverted index (OpenAlex format)- For arXiv-only papers, DOI resolution may fail; use --arxiv instead

Frequently asked questions