# academic-humanizer

Edits AI-assisted scientific papers and grant proposals into clear academic prose. It keeps citations and numbers intact without casualizing the text.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 539 installs · ★ 2662
- Author: AIScientists-Dev
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer/tree/HEAD/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-07-03
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/academic-humanizer

## What it does

The skill processes academic texts in four stages: reading the manuscript, auditing patterns without immediate edits, rewriting the prose, and generating a change log. It distinguishes research papers from grant proposals like NSF Project Descriptions or NIH Specific Aims. For proposals, forward-looking statements and project ambition remain intact.

Its rules target typical LLM vocabulary such as *pivotal* and *intricate*, while removing em-dashes and breaking apart clause-heavy sentences. The skill tempers over-claiming verbs like "proves" into measured claims tied directly to tables and test metrics. It also flags empty intensifiers, formulaic openers, and citation dumps.

This tool will break casual blog posts or marketing copy because it explicitly forbids humor, first-person opinions, and colloquialisms. It never touches numbers, empirical metrics, or citations, and it is not built to evade AI detection.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer --skill academic-humanizer -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/academic-humanizer/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/academic-humanizer/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer --skill academic-humanizer -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/academic-humanizer/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer --skill academic-humanizer -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/academic-humanizer/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer academic-humanizer
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/academic-humanizer/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer --skill academic-humanizer -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/academic-humanizer/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer --skill academic-humanizer -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/AIScientists-Dev/academic-humanizer/tree/HEAD/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- remove LLM vocabulary and tells from manuscript drafts
- align overstated empirical claims with tables and data
- edit NIH and NSF grant proposals while preserving research vision
- split clause-stacked sentences and prune citation dumping

## Example prompts
- Audit paper.tex with academic-humanizer and list detected patterns before editing
- Edit the Specific Aims section for an NIH proposal using academic-humanizer
- Clean up the Related Work section without altering any citation keys

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: eaa351b5be43cf14.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE eaa351b5be43cf14
```text
---
name: academic-humanizer
version: 0.3.3
description: |
  Improve the clarity and voice of AI-assisted academic writing (papers, theses, rebuttals) and
  funding proposals (NSF Project Summary/Description, NIH Specific Aims): preserve scholarly
  conventions, match claims to evidence (and, for proposals, claims to feasibility), and match the
  author's own voice. It never changes a number, result, or citation, and it is not for evading
  AI-use disclosure. Use when editing AI-assisted academic prose or grant proposals.
license: MIT
compatibility: claude-code codex morphmind opencode
allowed-tools: [Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, AskUserQuestion]
---

# Academic Humanizer

Improve the clarity and voice of AI-assisted *academic* writing while keeping the precise,
evidence-bound voice that scholarship requires and matching the author's own style. It preserves every
number, result, and citation, and it is not a tool for evading AI-use disclosure.

## When to use
Editing or reviewing academic prose: paper sections, abstracts, rebuttals, related work, and **funding
proposals** (NSF Project Summary/Description, NIH Specific Aims, fellowship and foundation proposals;
see Layer 6). **Not** for blogs, marketing, or personal essays, and **never** inject opinion, humor, or
first-person "personality" into a manuscript. For technical writing, neutral and precise *is* the human
voice. One caveat for proposals: their register is different from a paper's, since they are sold on
vision and feasibility, so the ambition language a paper would trim is appropriate there; apply Layer 6,
not the paper layers' stricter trimming, to vision statements.

## Core principle
Academic writing already has a correct human voice: neutral, precise, third-person plural ("we"), every
claim tied to its evidence. The job is to (1) strip the AI *tells* without casualizing, and (2) enforce
the discipline a general humanizer misses: **every claim earns its number, figure, or citation, and no
verb is stronger than its evidence.**

## Process
1. **Read** the manuscript and any author writing sample; note the document type (paper vs. funding
   proposal) and the target venue or funding agency. For proposals, also apply Layer 6 and preserve
   appropriate vision.
2. **Audit** (do not edit yet): list each detected pattern with its location and proposed fix, and each
   empirical claim's evidence status.
3. **Rewrite**: same structure and content, all claims and citations preserved, tells removed, over-claims
   matched to evidence, legitimate hedging kept.
4. **Report**: cleaned text plus a short change log (patterns removed, claims softened or given evidence
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE eaa351b5be43cf14

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