research-methodology

Research Methodology

Professional research process for a subagent. Three tracks based on the type of research:

• Journalistic — investigative pieces, primary source research, source-heavy narrative work
• Industry analysis — market research and strategy, signal detection
• Academic/Comprehensive — deep systematic research when depth matters most

All three share the same lifecycle (Scope → Gather → Evaluate → Analyze → Synthesize → Report) but differ in evidence standards, speed, and output format.

Media evidence is a technical-verification extension, not a fourth operational track. This skill owns research scope, source evaluation, claim closure, sampling-completeness audits, exclusions, and durable preservation. The ffmpeg skill owns FFmpeg commands, media probes, extraction, editing, rendering, and target verification; human or capable reviewers own semantic/editorial observations and approval. Load references/media-evidence-routing.md whenever a research conclusion depends on media tooling, sampled frames/audio/transcripts, or editorial judgment.

When not to use

Do not load this skill for:

• A single factual lookup or a quick answer — respond directly; a full research lifecycle adds cost without adding credibility.
• Direct implementation work that needs no investigation — build and verify the change instead (backend-engineering, frontend-engineering).
• Operating a specific retrieval or capture tool — load that tool's skill for runbook-level configuration and diagnostics.
• Raw capture of web content without evaluation or synthesis — the capture tool's own skill covers fetching; this skill starts where source evaluation begins.
• Structuring already-gathered findings into durable summaries, analysis files, and evidence dossiers — use artifact-pyramids for the output architecture.
• Persisting captured sources into durable notes across a repeated research-to-note sequence — use research-and-vault.

The Research Lifecycle