> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kalarislabs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Writing a PhD thesis or dissertation with AI agents

> How PhD and master's students can use research agent skills to plan, write, cite and format a thesis or dissertation responsibly, including literature review chapters, APA or LaTeX formatting and removing AI slop.

# Thesis and dissertation writing

A thesis is long, cumulative and judged on your own intellectual contribution. Use agents for structure,
consistency, literature management and editing. The ideas, analyses and final wording must be yours,
and your university's AI policy applies.

## Chapter plan

| Chapter | Skills that help |
| - | - |
| Literature review | `literature-review`, `systematic-review-prisma` (for systematic chapters), `research-knowledge-graph` (map the field), `paper-corpus-rag` (search your PDFs with citations) |
| Methods | `experimental-design`, `statistical-power`, `statistical-analysis`, domain skills for your data |
| Results | `scientific-visualization`, `matplotlib`/`seaborn`, `statistical-analysis` |
| Published-paper chapters | journal-format skills, `reproducibility-statement` |
| Discussion and conclusion | `scientific-critical-thinking`, `unslop-academic-writing` |
| References across chapters | `reference-manager-interop` (Zotero/Mendeley), `bibtex-hygiene`, `citation-verification` |

## Workflow

1. **Get the rules.** Graduate school formatting guide, citation style (often APA 7 in social sciences, numbered in STEM),
   word limits, AI-use policy, and whether published papers can be included as chapters.
2. **Set up one reference library** (Zotero with Better BibTeX recommended) and one `.bib`, auto-exported, for all chapters.
3. **Write chapter by chapter** with the agent as an editor: outline → your draft → agent feedback on structure, clarity and
   consistency of terminology across chapters.
4. **Keep your voice.** Give `unslop-academic-writing` a sample of your own earlier writing so edits stay in your style.
5. **Verify every reference** before each supervisor draft (`citation-verification`).
6. **Format** with the university LaTeX class or Word template. For APA theses use the `apa7` skill.

## Integrity checklist

* [ ] AI use is permitted for this purpose by your institution and disclosed as required
* [ ] Every claim and number traces to your data or a verified source
* [ ] No passage is copied from sources without quotation and citation
* [ ] Your supervisor has seen the chapters in your own words


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