nature-polishing — Claude skill: academic prose editing

---
name: nature-polishing
description: Polish, translate, or tighten existing academic prose while preserving facts, terminology, and evidence boundaries. Use for 论文润色、学术翻译、正文精简, or manuscript LaTeX layout fixes. Use nature-writing when the main task is drafting new sections or rebuilding the manuscript argument.
---

# Nature-Style Academic Polishing — Router

## Routing protocol

For a new polishing task, follow the routing below. For follow-up edits, reuse established task choices and already loaded guidance; read additional fragments only when the requested scope changes.

### 1. Load the manifest and the core layer

Read [manifest.yaml](manifest.yaml). It declares the axes (`paper_type`, `section`, `language`, `journal`), the allowed values, and the file paths each value maps to.

Also read every file listed under `always_load`. These hold the default stance, failure-mode diagnosis, ethics, and output format that apply to every polish job.

### 2. Detect the axis values for this request

For each axis in the manifest, decide the value using the manifest's `detect:` hint and the user's input:

- `paper_type` — research / methods / hypothesis / algorithmic / review. Default: research.
- `section` — abstract / intro / results / discussion / conclusion / title / methods. May be multiple. Ask the user if it is ambiguous and matters for the polish.
- `language` — en or zh-to-en. Detect from the draft itself.
- `journal` — nature / nat-comms / nat-mach-intell / generic. Default:
  generic. Use `nature` only for flagship Nature, `nat-comms` for Nature
  Communications and `nat-mach-intell` for Nature Machine Intelligence (NMI).
  Do not route another Nature Portfolio title through flagship Nature rules.

State the detected axis values in one short line to the user before proceeding, so they can correct you cheaply. This is a progress update, not an approval gate; continue unless a necessary decision remains unresolved.

### 3. Load the matching fragments

For each axis value, Read the file mapped in the manifest. Skip the `section` axis only if the user has supplied free-floating prose with no section context.

Do **not** read every fragment in `static/`. Load only what step 2 selected.

### 4. Polish using the loaded material

Apply the loaded fragments in this priority order, matching the `paper type -> section job -> paragraph logic -> claim/evidence/boundary -> sentence polish` rule from `core/failure-modes.md`:

1. Paper-type playbook (architecture, writing order).
2. Section-specific job and failure modes.
3. Journal-specific framing and constraints.
4. Language-specific sentence and paragraph rules (apply last).
5. Core stance and ethics throughout.

If a paragraph's structural problem cannot be fixed without inventing content, flag it instead of papering over it.

For Results, full-main-text compression, main-versus-SI allocation, or prose
added during revision, load `../nature-shared/core/main-text-discipline.md`
before sentence polishing. Classify each result, retain the shortest sufficient
evidence chain, and require every addition to trigger a deletion or replacement
check across the affected paragraph.

For flagship Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Machine Intelligence, or
another Nature Portfolio title, load the matching shared Nature-style corpus
guidance:

- Results or Discussion →
  `../nature-shared/core/nature-results-discussion.md`
- Introduction or whole-manuscript narrative →
  `../nature-shared/core/nature-introduction.md`
- Abstract → `../nature-shared/core/nature-abstract.md`

Preserve claim escalation, the fast question funnel, Introduction–Results
alignment, discovery-centred abstract compression, evidence-bound local
interpretation, and cross-Results synthesis. These defaults were initially
distilled from published NMI papers; treat them as corpus-derived guidance, not
official policy, and obey the target journal's current rules when they differ.

For any Discussion polish or restructuring job, also load
`../nature-shared/core/discussion-argument-language.md`. Use its function labels
to remove Results replay, repair the movement from specific findings to bounded
implications, calibrate modal and reporting verbs to evidence strength, and make
limitations and future work resolve named claim boundaries. Treat it as general
writing guidance, not journal policy.

### 5. Reach for references only when needed

The files under `references/` are deep references, not defaults. Open them on demand per the `references.on_demand` table in the manifest, for example when the user explicitly asks for phrasebank-style alternatives or a stricter style audit.

When the target is Nature Machine Intelligence and exact limits, availability
sections, conference-extension disclosure or production checks affect the
revision, load
`../nature-shared/journal-formats/nature-machine-intelligence.md`.

For a whole-manuscript consistency audit or evidence of drift across passages, load `../nature-shared/core/consistency-sweep.md`. Local follow-up edits require checking the affected terms, numbers, and claims, not restarting a full audit solely because this is another editing round. After corrections, recheck affected occurrences and dependent claims; broaden the sweep when new discrepancies warrant it.

**Layout/typesetting (排版) requests are different.** If the user asks to fix
*placement* rather than wording — loose/sparse pages, stranded headings, figures
that don't fill the page or split across pages, "Float too large", multi-panel
arrangement, sparse Supplementary Information — skip the prose axes (paper_type,
section, language, journal) and load `references/latex-layout.md` directly. That
file is self-contained: it carries the diagnosis workflow (render → contact-sheet →
read the log), the float-glue and `[H]`/`\clearpage`/`placeins` patterns, and the
"regenerate wide figures taller at the source" rule. Always compile and visually
inspect rendered pages before and after — never judge layout from the `.tex` alone.