LocalBridge

Research template - 5 to 8 tabs

Reading list scan prompt template

This is the triage pass. You are not trying to understand each source deeply yet. You are deciding which ones deserve a proper read.

The prompt

Below are several articles or papers. Do a triage scan, not a deep read.

For each one, give me exactly this, in under 80 words:
- Claim: the single main thing it argues.
- Basis: what it argues from (data, experiment, opinion, review of others).
- Limitation: the most important reason to be cautious about it.
- Relevance: high, medium or low for my question, with a five-word reason.

Then give me a shortlist: which two or three deserve a full read, in order, and what I should be looking for in each.

Do not summarise the abstracts back to me. If a source does not state its method, write "method not stated" rather than guessing.

My question: [WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO LEARN]

Why this prompt is written this way

A word limit per source is the single most effective instruction here. Without it the assistant writes the same length for a landmark paper and a blog post, which destroys the signal you are looking for.

Separating claim from basis catches the most common research mistake: treating a well-written opinion piece as evidence because it sounded like one.

The shortlist at the end converts the scan into a decision. A list of summaries is work; a ranked shortlist is an answer.

Getting more out of it

  • Say what you are trying to learn in one plain sentence. Relevance scoring is only as good as the question you give it.
  • Include the sources you already trust. The contrast helps the assistant calibrate what counts as high relevance.
  • If you get four high-relevance scores, your question is too broad. Narrow it and run the scan again.
  • Keep the output. It makes an excellent opening context block for the deep read afterwards.

Works best with

5 to 8 tabs open at once. Send them together rather than one at a time, so the assistant can compare them instead of forgetting the first by the time it reads the last. Sending tabs to Claude explains the options.

Common questions

Can this replace reading the sources?
No, and it is not meant to. It is a triage pass that tells you which two or three to read properly. Treat every line as a pointer to check, not a finding.
Does it work on paywalled papers?
Only on the text you can actually see. If the page shows an abstract, the assistant gets the abstract, so say so in your prompt rather than expecting full-text analysis.
What if the sources are about slightly different topics?
That is fine and often useful, but the relevance scores become the important column. Ask for the low-relevance ones to be listed separately so they do not clutter the shortlist.

Other templates

Stop pasting tabs one by one

LocalBridge sends the pages you have open into Claude or ChatGPT in one click, so this template gets the sources it needs.

See how it works