Creating Topic Synthesis

What Is Topic Synthesis?

Topic Synthesis is the process of systematically analyzing and synthesizing a group of related literature. It automatically extracts key information, identifies topic structures, and generates comprehensive analysis reports through AI workflows.

Topics Surface

On the Synthesis Workbench → Topics page, you can browse and manage all created topics. The Topics surface supports three view modes:

View	Description	Use Case
Graph View	Force-directed graph with topics as nodes and relationships as edges	Intuitively understand inter-topic associations
Grid View	Cards with title, paper count, summary, and action buttons	Browse and find topics
List View	Table view with columns: name, paper count, creation time, update date, status	Sorting and batch operations

Topic Management Operations

• Search: Search by topic name and description
• Sort: Sort by title, paper count, or update date
• Create New Topic: Click the create button to start the workflow pipeline
• Update Topic: Re-run the pipeline to update the topic analysis
• Delete Topic: Remove topics that are no longer needed

Creation Process

Topic creation is driven by workflows and is a multi-step automated pipeline:

1. create-topic-prepare
   → Collect literature data, build paper set
   
2. topic-synthesis-core-enrichment
   → Core enrichment: extract information, associate knowledge
   
3. topic-synthesis-finalize
   → Generate final analysis artifacts and reports

(update-topic-synthesis-prepare is used to update existing topics)

Prerequisites

• Skill-Runner backend configured
• Relevant papers in the library
• Papers have generated digests and citation analysis (optional, recommended)

This pipeline is orchestrated by the Topic Synthesis Creation workflow.

Topic Inspector

After creating a topic, click on it to enter the Topic Inspector. This is a multi-page reader containing 8 sub-pages, each presenting a different dimension of the topic.

Overview

• Topic name, description, importance score
• Core claims summary
• Statistics (paper count, category count, claim count, etc.)
• Associated Topic Graph location information

Taxonomy

Displays the hierarchical classification structure of the topic:

• Broader topics: Broader topic areas
• Narrower topics: More specific sub-topics
• Related topics: Other associated topics
• Position and hierarchy in the Topic Graph

Claims

Core claims and assertions extracted from the literature:

• Each claim includes original evidence citations
• Marks the papers from which claims originate
• Claim type (findings / hypotheses / conclusions, etc.)
• Number of papers supporting the claim

Compare

Comparison of viewpoints across different papers on the same topic:

• Comparison dimensions (methods, conclusions, datasets, etc.)
• Each paper's stance and arguments
• Visualization of consensus and divergence

Future Directions

Research gaps and future directions identified through literature analysis:

• Open questions
• Potential research directions
• Related challenges and recommendations

Coverage

Analyzes the degree to which the topic covers relevant literature:

• List of papers covered by the topic
• Paper completeness (whether digests/citation analysis artifacts exist)
• Aspects covered and aspects not covered

References

All references associated with the topic, including binding details:

• Zotero item link for each citation
• Citation role in the topic (support / contrast / background)
• Citation source and context

Report (Full Report)

The generated structured synthesis analysis report (in Markdown format):

• Complete topic analysis text
• Can be exported as Markdown or self-contained HTML
• Suitable for use as reference material in academic writing

Topic Graph

The Topic Graph is a hierarchical topic network showing relationships between topics:

Node Types

Type	Description
materialized	Structured topics that have been actually created
placeholder	Topic placeholders inferred to exist but not yet created

Edge Status

Status	Description
suggested	System-suggested relationships (pending review)
confirmed	User-confirmed relationships
rejected	User-rejected relationships
stale	Stale data, pending re-evaluation
deleted	Deleted relationships

Relationship Types

Relationship	Description
broader_than	A is a broader topic than B
related_to	Two topics are related
overlaps_with	Two topics overlap
contrasts_with	Two topics contrast with each other

Managing Topics

• Create New Topic: Click "Create" on the Topics page
• Edit Topic: Modify name, description, importance, etc.
• Associate Papers: Add or remove papers from a topic
• Browse Topic Graph: View the relationship network between topics

Related Workflows

• Topic Synthesis Creation — Workflow details for creating topics
• Manuscript Literature Framing — Write papers based on topic analysis