paper-analyzer

Extract 12 research elements from academic PDFs and Word files into Excel.

Updated Apr 17, 2026

Search Tags:#literature review #research methodology #pdf parsing #excel export #paper analysis #structured reading

Ready to run

npx skills add https://github.com/RenJW418/RenJW-Research_skill --skill paper-analyzer-renjw418

💬 Prompt for ChatGPT / Claude Chat▼

Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: paper-analyzer
Source: https://github.com/RenJW418/RenJW-Research_skill/tree/main/paper-analyzer
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/RenJW418/RenJW-Research_skill --skill paper-analyzer-renjw418

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill requires openpyxl, and includes scripts (resource) and references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve?

This Skill removes the slow, manual effort of reading a paper deeply by extracting 12 predefined research elements and organizing them into an easy-to-review Excel file.

Core Features & Use Cases

12-element structured paper breakdown: Extracts research background, research question (with type), conclusions, literature synthesis/critique, methods, theoretical perspective/framework, consistency and inconsistency findings, contribution, limitations, and future research outlook.
PDF/Word reading support with fallback: Uses document reading tools, and for PDFs that can’t be directly read it extracts text via pdftotext, optionally reading early pages first to understand structure.
Single or multi-paper Excel exports: Produces a per-paper worksheet and an optional cross-paper comparison summary for multiple papers.

Quick Start

Ask the agent to run paper-analyzer on your uploaded paper file path and generate an Excel breakdown saved into the same folder as the paper.

Frequently Asked Questions about paper-analyzer

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema

How do I extract research elements from academic papers into Excel for a literature review?▼

You can extract structured research elements from multiple PDFs into Excel by providing local file paths, letting the parser read each document, and generating a worksheet per paper alongside a cross-paper comparison summary to streamline your literature review.

Can I generate a cross-paper comparison summary when analyzing multiple PDFs?▼

Yes, multi-paper analysis supports generating an optional cross-paper comparison summary in Excel. It creates an individual worksheet for each parsed document and aggregates the 12 extracted research elements to help you compare findings across multiple academic papers efficiently.

What should I do if PDF text extraction fails on scanned or complex academic papers?▼

The paper analysis process uses a pdftotext fallback to extract text from complex PDFs that cannot be directly read. It optionally reads the early pages first to understand document structure before extracting the 12 research elements.

Does this paper analysis method support Word documents or only PDF files?▼

The paper analysis method supports both PDF and Word documents. It uses document reading tools to parse the provided local file paths and extract the 12 structured research elements before exporting the results to an Excel file saved next to the source.

What specific research elements are extracted during structured reading of a paper?▼

Structured reading extracts 12 specific research elements: research background, research question with type, conclusions, literature synthesis and critique, methods, theoretical framework, consistency findings, inconsistency findings, contribution, limitations, and future research outlook.