Transparent Methods Reporter Agent Skill

Check methods reporting against CONSORT, JARS, DA-RT standards.

Context cost
8.5k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
4 files · 33.9 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
Source-availablethe author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Check methods reporting against CONSORT, JARS, DA-RT standards.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

data science
Filed under

Research

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md18.9 kB · preview
--- name: methods-reporting argument-hint: "[paste your methods section or describe what to audit]" ---
7# Transparent Methods Reporter
8
9## Instructions
10
11### 1. Design Documentation and Pre-Registration
12This section covers upstream documentation that makes transparent reporting possible. A well-documented bad design is still a bad design; transparency tools are necessary but not sufficient (Druckman 2022).
13
14- **Design Document:** Before data collection, create a comprehensive document recording all decisions and their rationale -- motivation, stimuli, outcome measures, predictions, analysis plans, and logistics. This "design document" is the upstream practice that enables downstream transparent reporting (Druckman 2022, Ch. 5).
15- **Pre-Registration vs. Pre-Analysis Plan:** Distinguish between *study registration* (basic: recording the study's existence, hypotheses, and population in a public repository) and a *pre-analysis plan* (detailed: specifying exact statistical tests, evidence thresholds, and contingency plans). Require the latter for confirmatory experiments. Name the repository used (OSF, EGAP, or AsPredicted) and provide the registration ID. For PAP structure, cross-reference the pre-registration-writing skill; for estimand, SESOI, and primary/secondary/exploratory classification, cross-reference hypothesis-building.
16- **Six Core Pre-Registration Elements (Lakens's JARS-aligned summary):** For preregistered experiments, ensure the following six elements are specified, following Lakens's (2025) summary of the APA Journal Article Reporting Standards for quantitative research (JARS-Quant; Appelbaum et al. 2018): (1) randomization procedure, (2) inclusion/exclusion criteria, (3) sampling procedures and expected participation rate, (4) sample size justification with power analysis or precision rationale, (5) data diagnostics (exclusion criteria, missing data handling, outlier definitions, assumption checks), and (6) analytic strategy organized into primary, secondary, and exploratory tiers. The primary JARS-Quant tables (Appelbaum et al. 2018, *American Psychologist*; incorporated into APA 2020, *Publication Manual*, 7th ed., ch. 3) contain a longer branching item set covering observational, clinical-trial, longitudinal, replication, and N-of-1 designs; the six elements above are Lakens's pedagogical condensation, not JARS-Quant in full. For the broader reproducibility context in which JARS sits, see Munafò et al. (2017, "A Manifesto for Reproducible Science").
17- **Minimal vs. Complete Pre-Registration.** Waldron and Allen (2022) show that minimal pre-registrations (hypotheses only, or under-specified analysis plans) re-admit exploratory researcher degrees of freedom under a confirmatory banner. A pre-registration that lists hypotheses but leaves variables, exclusion rules, or model specifications open is closer to a public hypothesis than a confirmatory PAP. Require complete specification (items 1--6 above) when a study will be reported as confirmatory.
18- **Analysis Code:** The gold standard is to preregister analysis code that runs on a simulated dataset, eliminating ambiguity about all analytical decisions (Lakens 2025). For conjoint analyses, provide the regression specification in code form (e.g., R lm() or feols() call).
19- **Pilot Documentation:** Document all pilot studies, including not just manipulation check results but also response rate data, recruitment language testing, and any modifications made as a result (Druckman 2022, Ch. 5). For conjoints, pilot whether respondents attend to all attributes, find combinations plausible, and process the display as intended.
20
21### 2. Subjects, Recruitment, and Setting
22- **Eligibility:** Explicitly state who was eligible to participate and the criteria for subject selection.
23- **Target Population:** State the target population to which inference is intended. This includes the units, contexts, measures, and outcomes (Druckman 2022, Ch. 6). Distinguish between the sampling frame (who could be reached) and the target population (who the theory applies to).
24- **Timeline:** Report the exact dates of the recruitment period and when the experiments were conducted, including any repeated measurements or follow-ups. For "firehouse studies" conducted in response to real-world events, document the lag between the event and data collection (Mutz 2011).
25- **Provider Details:** For survey experiments, identify the survey firm used and describe their recruitment methods if they are not universally known. Note whether the sample is probability-based or nonprobability (quota-matched online panel) and the implications for generalizability.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md2,554 words
Files4
LicenceSource-available
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈50
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
8,425
on trigger
The instruction body and 3 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
4.2%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 42% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

8.5k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

4 files, 33.9 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md18.9 kB
  • reference/checklist.md5.1 kB
  • reference/conjoint-reporting.md2.5 kB
  • reference/example-methods-paragraph.md7.4 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 4 files you can review in full before installing. The Source-available licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Transparent Methods Reporter · 8.5k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/transparent-methods-reporter/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/transparent-methods-reporter" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter ] || { mv .claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/transparent-methods-reporter" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add brycewang-stanford/transparent-methods-reporter

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/transparent-methods-reporter/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/transparent-methods-reporter" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/transparent-methods-reporter" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/transparent-methods-reporter/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where. It appears as methods-reporting in Gemini CLI, Codex, Copilot and Grok (its own name); Claude Code lists it by the folder name, transparent-methods-reporter.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencebrycewang-stanford/transparent-methods-reporter

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

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