brycewang-stanford/review-paper-light

You are coordinating a fast pre-submission check of an economics paper. You will run 2 agents in parallel and consolidate their output into a short, prioritized report.

Phase 1: Discover the Paper

If a file path is provided in $ARGUMENTS, use it as the main LaTeX file. Otherwise, auto-detect:

1. Use Glob with pattern **/*.tex to list all .tex files (exclude _minted-*, build/, output/).
2. Identify the main document: the .tex file containing \documentclass or \begin{document}.
3. Read the main file and extract all \input{}, \include{}, and \subfile{} references.
4. Read all component .tex files.
5. Use Glob to find table files: **/Tables/**/*.tex, **/tables/**/*.tex, root-level *table*.tex.

Record:

• Full path of each .tex file
• Paper title, authors, and abstract

Phase 2: Launch 2 Agents in Parallel

In a single message, launch both agents using the Agent tool with subagent_type: "general-purpose".

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AGENT A — Contribution, Identification & Required Analyses

You are a demanding associate editor at a top economics journal. Read all .tex files completely. Produce a focused evaluation of whether this paper is worth sending to referees.

Part 1 — The Central Contribution

• State in one sentence what the paper claims to contribute.
• Is this finding genuinely new, or is it a replication of known results in a new setting?
• What is the closest prior paper? What does this paper add beyond it?
• Does this finding change how economists think about the topic?
• Rate the contribution: [Transformative | Significant | Incremental | Insufficient for a top field journal]
• Justify in 2–3 sentences.

Part 2 — Identification and Credibility

• What variation does the paper use to identify its main result?
• Is this variation plausibly exogenous? What are the main threats?
• Does the paper adequately address these threats?
• Is the main finding causal, correlational, or descriptive? Does the paper claim the right thing?
• What would a skeptical econometrician at a seminar say?

Part 3 — Required Analyses

List up to 5 analyses whose absence is a blocker for acceptance. For each: state what it is, why its absence undermines credibility, and what a positive result would do for your view. If nothing is missing, write "None — the paper adequately addresses the main concerns."

Tag each required analysis [CRITICAL].

Part 4 — Pointed Questions to the Authors

Write 3–5 specific, pointed questions that get at the paper's weakest points. Frame them as a referee would.

Output format:

## Agent A: Contribution & Identification

### Part 1 — Central Contribution
[assessment + rating]

### Part 2 — Identification and Credibility
[assessment]

### Part 3 — Required Analyses
[numbered list: [CRITICAL] Analysis | Why absence matters | What a positive result would do]

### Part 4 — Questions to the Authors
[numbered list of 3–5 questions]

The .tex files to review are: [LIST ALL TEX FILE PATHS HERE]

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AGENT B — Causal Overclaiming & Unsupported Claims

You are a skeptical econometrician enforcing "claim discipline." Read all .tex files and flag every place where the paper overstates its evidence.

What to check:

1. Causal language without causal identification: Flag every specific sentence where causal language ("causes", "leads to", "drives", "determines", "because of", "due to", "results in") is applied to the main findings without genuine causal identification. Quote the exact sentence and explain why the language exceeds what the identification supports.

2. Mechanism claims stated as facts: When the paper explains why a result holds, flag every instance where a proposed mechanism is asserted rather than framed as a hypothesis.

3. Generalization beyond the sample: Claims that extend findings beyond the data's scope without adequate caveats (e.g., claiming broad policy implications from a single country; claiming current relevance for historical results without acknowledging context changes).

4. Missing caveats: Places where a reader would naturally ask "but what about...?" and the paper doesn't address it. Focus on the most obvious threats to internal validity for the specific research design: selection, reverse causality, measurement error, omitted variables.

5. Statistical vs. economic significance: Places where statistical significance is reported but economic significance is not discussed, or where "significant" is used as if it means "important."

6. Unverified priority assertions: "No prior study has examined X" or "We are the first to show Y" — flag every such claim. Authors must verify before submission.

Tag every issue [CRITICAL], [MAJOR], or [MINOR].

Output format:

## Agent B: Causal Overclaiming & Unsupported Claims

### Causal Overclaiming
[numbered list: [CRITICAL] or [MAJOR] Section | "Exact quoted text" | Why it overclaims | Fix]

### Mechanism Claims Stated as Facts
[numbered list: [MAJOR] or [MINOR] same format]

### Missing Caveats
[numbered list: [CRITICAL] or [MAJOR] Topic | Where to address it | Suggested fix]

### Other Issues
[numbered list: [MAJOR] or [MINOR] same format]

The .tex files to review are: [LIST ALL TEX FILE PATHS HERE]

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Phase 3: Consolidate and Save

After both agents return, consolidate into a single report.

Check whether QUICK_REVIEW_[YYYY-MM-DD].md already exists. If so, append -v2 (or -v3, etc.).

Save to: QUICK_REVIEW_[YYYY-MM-DD].md

Report structure:

# Quick Pre-Submission Check

**Paper**: [Title]
**Authors**: [Authors]
**Date**: [Today's date]

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## Overall Assessment

[2–3 sentences: (1) what the paper does; (2) contribution rating from Agent A; (3) the single most pressing issue from the Priority Items below.]

**Preliminary Recommendation**: [Send to referees | Revise before sending to referees | Desk reject] — copy exactly from Agent A Part 1 rating logic; do not paraphrase.

---

## 1. Contribution & Identification

[Agent A output]

---

## 2. Causal Overclaiming & Unsupported Claims

[Agent B output]

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## Priority Action Items

Collect all tagged items and rank: `[CRITICAL]` first (identification and causal overclaiming items before others), then `[MAJOR]`, then `[MINOR]`.

**CRITICAL** (could cause desk rejection or major objections):
1. ...

**MAJOR** (will likely be raised by referees):
4. ...

**MINOR** (polish):
8. ...

After saving, report to the user:

1. Path to the saved report
2. Preliminary recommendation
3. Top 3 priority action items
4. Issue counts by severity