Scientific Critical Thinking

Apply systematic problem-solving techniques when stuck. Use for complexity spirals, innovation blocks, recurring patterns, assumption constraints, simplification cascades, scale uncertainty.

Structured manuscript/grant review with checklist-based evaluation. Use when writing formal peer reviews with specific criteria methodology assessment, statistical validity, reporting standards compliance (CONSORT/STROBE), and constructive feedback. Best for actual review writing, manuscript revision. For evaluating claims/evidence quality use scientific-critical-thinking; for quantitative scoring frameworks use scholar-evaluation.

Construct well-structured arguments using the hypothesis-argument-example triad. Covers formulating falsifiable hypotheses, building logical arguments (deductive, inductive, analogical, evidential), providing concrete examples, and steelmanning counterarguments. Use when writing or reviewing PR descriptions that propose technical changes, justifying design decisions in ADRs, constructing substantive code review feedback, or building a research argument or technical proposal.

Run a multi-perspective Mind Council deliberation on any question, decision, or creative challenge. Use this skill whenever the user wants diverse viewpoints, needs help making a tough decision, asks for a council/panel/board discussion, wants to explore a problem from multiple angles, requests devil's advocate analysis, or says things like "what would different experts think about this", "help me think through this from all sides", "council mode", "mind council", or "deliberate on this". Also trigger when the user faces a dilemma, trade-off, or complex choice with no obvious answer.

Use when challenging ideas, plans, decisions, or proposals using structured critical reasoning. Invoke to play devil's advocate, run a pre-mortem, red team, or audit evidence and assumptions.

Mixed methods research design and integration strategies for combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Use when planning convergent, explanatory sequential, exploratory sequential, embedded, transformative, or multiphase designs; when integrating diverse data sources through merging, connecting, or embedding; when constructing joint displays or meta-inferences; or when evaluating quality criteria specific to mixed methods research. Covers Creswell & Plano Clark frameworks, notation systems, and software tools for integration. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.