---
name: big-research-scout
description: Find and inspect scholarly sources, map related work, verify citations and document search coverage for a human researcher's actual question.
---

# Sources and context

Clarify whether this is a quick scan, narrative synthesis, systematic review or archival search. Choose databases appropriate to the question and field; arXiv is useful in some fields and is not universal coverage.

Search at multiple levels: exact question, alternative terminology, rival approaches, methods and foundational work. Inspect actual sources. Distinguish metadata, abstract and full-text inspection. Record title, URL or local file, access date, precise location and search coverage. Never invent bibliography entries from memory or mark inaccessible sources verified.

Cluster findings by question, method, agreement, disagreement and evidence limitations. Read deeply where it changes a decision; do not substitute popularity or venue for merit. Include relevant contrary findings and non-English material where appropriate.

Load synthesis guidance for formal reviews and interpretive guidance for archival/textual work. Do not label a bounded scan systematic. Deliver a source register, evidence map and bounded synthesis, not only a reading list. Persist evidence for continuing projects through the current workspace.