Academic Review Decksmith

Use this skill to turn a scholarly review draft and its source papers into a defensible academic presentation or review-support artifact. The goal is not to decorate content, but to make the research argument readable: background, mechanism, structure/method, modeling/theory, control/analysis, applications, limitations, and outlook.

Operating Principles

• Read the supplied draft, outline, template, and source papers before writing conclusions. If sources are local PDFs or DOCX/PPTX files, inspect them directly.
• Preserve the target template unless the user asks for a redesign. Reuse master style, logos, margins, page numbers, and academic color language.
• Build around technical objects, not vague slogans. Prefer variables, constraints, mechanisms, structures, algorithms, evaluation metrics, and experimental settings.
• Keep citations traceable. Use author-year labels, figure captions, or source notes; never invent references or silently claim unsupported results.
• Keep text audience-facing. Do not include process notes such as "user requested", "from the paper library", "AI-generated", "screenshot later", or production instructions inside final slides.
• Treat figures and formulas as teaching devices. Every essential image or equation needs a short explanation of how to read it and why it matters.

Workflow

1. Inventory inputs

   • Identify the review draft, paper folder, PPT template, logos, previous slide versions, and required output path.
   • Extract existing slide text or DOCX headings when modifying an artifact.
   • Build a source map: platform images, mechanism diagrams, formulas, experimental results, and tables.

2. Rebuild the academic narrative

   • Convert chapter headings into a natural argument rather than a mechanical chapter-by-chapter copy.
   • Use this default progression when suitable: research background -> biomimetic mechanism -> structure/drive -> modeling/theory -> control -> applications/limitations.
   • Merge repetitive sections. Keep only subdivisions that help compare methods, explain mechanisms, or support evaluation.

3. Draft slide-level content

   • Each slide should contain one core claim plus two to four compact evidence points, tables, or figure annotations.
   • Avoid decorative jargon and "trend" packaging unless the claim is tied to a concrete method, metric, or system.
   • For 30-45 minute academic talks, prefer 24-32 slides with deeper treatment of the theory/control or methods section.

4. Handle figures, formulas, and tables

   • Classify each visual as a literature figure, controlled redrawn figure, generated text-free schematic, or editable PPT component.
   • Use literature figures for real platforms, experimental sequences, apparatus, and published results.
   • Redraw process diagrams, control architectures, matrices, and modeling logic when labels must remain editable or bilingual.
   • Add a visible "read this figure/table/formula" note for key visuals, especially theory and method slides.
   • See references/figure_formula_guidelines.md when formulas, captions, or visual source notes matter.

5. Design the deck

   • Use sober academic styling: restrained palette, high-weight titles, generous margins, consistent tables, and clear image frames.
   • Keep figures serious and source-grounded. Avoid fake 3D icons, mascot-like drawings, decorative gradients, and meaningless pipeline graphics.
   • Make PPT components editable when they express logic, classification, or comparison. Use raster images only for literature figures or final render-safe illustrations.

6. Export and verify

   • Export all slides to PNG and inspect for overflow, cropping, image compression, missing source notes, low contrast, and collisions.
   • Search final text for process phrases, unsupported claims, and banned filler terms defined by the task.
   • Fix, re-export, and re-check affected slides. Do not declare success from an unrendered PPTX.
   • Use scripts/scan_ppt_text.py for text screening and scripts/make_overview_assets.py when preparing GitHub gallery assets.

Quality Bar

• The final artifact should answer: what problem is studied, what mechanisms govern it, how structures implement those mechanisms, how models describe the system, how controllers act on model/state variables, and where the approach succeeds or fails in real scenes.
• A reviewer should be able to trace every technical statement to a source, a figure, a formula, or a clearly stated inference.
• A listener should understand each key image or formula without needing to read the original paper during the presentation.

Resource Guide

• references/academic_review_deck_workflow.md: detailed end-to-end workflow for turning a scholarly review into a presentation.
• references/figure_formula_guidelines.md: rules for captions, figure categories, formula explanation boxes, and source traceability.
• references/review_language_rules.md: wording rules for removing AI-like filler and strengthening academic prose.
• assets/templates/: optional PPT templates or sample deck shells to copy into new projects.
• assets/gallery/: preview images for README or user-facing examples.