documenting-with-sources

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Common conventions for writing Markdown documents that cite external sources (survey reports, paper explainers, and any deliverable that surfaces facts from outside). Defines mandatory citation, in-text reference format, quotation-versus-prose separation, the ban on fabricated associations, and the source-list format. Referenced by survey, paper-details, and any skill that produces sourced output.

3installs

Sourcemathbullet/skills

Added on2026-08-26

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add mathbullet/skills documenting-with-sources

SKILL.md Content

View Translation Comparison →

Documenting with Sources

Common conventions for writing Markdown documents that pull from outside sources. Apply to any deliverable that surfaces facts taken from elsewhere — survey reports, paper explainers, and similar.

Cite every factual claim

Every factual claim in the deliverable must carry a citation. A claim with no citation cannot be verified, and is worthless as a documented finding. If a claim cannot be tied to a source, mark it explicitly (e.g. "citation not confirmed"). Do not slip uncited claims in silently.

Reference format

In-text references take the shape
```
[label (YYYY/MM), location]
```
. How to fill the
```
label
```
slot (publication name, author short-form, position-only for the paper under review, etc.) is decided by the calling skill.
Do not use bare numeric references such as
```
[1]
```
or
```
[2]
```
. Numbers alone force the reader to bounce between text and source list; readability drops.
For the formatting of quotation blocks themselves (code-block fencing, original-and-translation pairing, where to place the source reference, anti-patterns), follow the
```
writing-quotation
```
skill. Read
```
writing-quotation
```
before drafting.

Quotation vs prose

Keep quotations and prose (the writer's own summary or interpretation) visually and structurally separate. Even when not quoting, write in a way that prevents the source's claim and the writer's interpretation from blending.
When quoting a source written in a language other than the writer's working language, place the translation alongside the original inside the same code block (see
```
writing-quotation
```
).

No fabricated associations or interpretations

Do not write interpretations, speculation, or associations that the source itself does not contain.

Do not invent connections such as "this relates to X", "this could be applied to Y", or "this suggests Z" when the source does not say so.
Do not import context from the surrounding conversation or the calling project into the body of the document. Descriptions of a source must stay within the source's own content.
Good: "Main criticism: even with flipped labels, accuracy does not always drop, and the text-gradient is mathematically distinct from classical gradient descent" (states what the source actually says).
Bad: "Relation to AI writing improvement: feedback-based improvement is mathematically different from gradient descent..." (the source does not say this; the connection is fabricated from conversation context).

Source-list format

The source list at the end of the document uses this format:

[label, YYYY/MM] Author. "Title." Publication. URL

Do not use the

- [n]

list format.