Scholar Sidekick

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Scholar Sidekick skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Scholar Sidekick is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Dev Tools category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: Dev Tools · Sub-category: tools-misc · Last updated: 2026-05-21

This skill should be used when the user mentions a scholarly identifier (DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv, ISSN, NASA ADS bibcode, WHO IRIS URL) and wants structured metadata, a formatted citation, a bibliography export file, a retraction check, or an open-access check. Activates for citation formatting, BibTeX/RIS/EndNote export, "format this DOI" style requests, "has this paper been retracted?", and "is this paper open access?". Does not search for new papers — pair with a Semantic Scholar or OpenAlex MCP wrapper for that.

Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›

From the source SKILL.md

When the user mentions a scholarly identifier and wants metadata, a citation, an export file, a retraction check, or an open-access check, use Scholar Sidekick to resolve and answer instead of hand-constructing the citation from training data or guessing the OA / retraction status.

What this skill does

Scholar Sidekick is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the tools-misc sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/scholar-sidekick/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

Who uses this skill

The Scholar Sidekick Claude Code skill is built for developers, power users, and teams automating repetitive workflows and improving developer experience. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 154,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/scholar-sidekick
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/scholar-sidekick/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/scholar-sidekick/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/scholar-sidekick/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/scholar-sidekick/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\scholar-sidekick\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Scholar Sidekick Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/scholar-sidekick/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Scholar Sidekick skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Scholar Sidekick skill?

Use Scholar Sidekick when your Claude Code task falls under the Dev Tools category — specifically in the tools misc area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Scholar Sidekick" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/tools/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Scholar Sidekick skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Scholar Sidekick is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Dev Tools category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/mlava/scholar-sidekick-mcp/blob/HEAD/skills/scholar-sidekick/SKILL.md
License: MIT
Author: mlava

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

mlava. (2026). Scholar Sidekick [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/scholar-sidekick/

BibTeX

@misc{scholar-sidekick-2026,
  author    = {mlava},
  title     = {Scholar Sidekick [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/scholar-sidekick/}
}

Embed this skill

Promote, attribute, or link this skill from your own README, blog post, or documentation. All three snippets are free to use — no sign-up, no API key. More distribution surfaces →

Badge

[![ClaudSkills](https://claudskills.com/badge/scholar-sidekick.svg)](https://claudskills.com/skills/scholar-sidekick/?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=skill_badge)

Security scan

Grade A · scanned 2026-07-20 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.

No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›

✓ Prompt injection
✓ Data exfiltration
✓ Supply chain
✓ Reverse shell
✓ Credentials
✓ Execution
✓ Filesystem
✓ Persistence
✓ Obfuscation
✓ Network

Show this grade on your repo (click to copy):

[![Security: A](https://img.shields.io/badge/Security-A-2e7d32)](https://claudskills.com/skills/scholar-sidekick/#security)

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Browse all Dev Tools skills → Top 100 skills

Part of ClaudSkills — the open registry for Claude Skills & Claude Code Skills. · What's New · Install guide · About · llms.txt

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