Anti-Defensive Writing

A research paper argues from evidence. It does not keep an audit log of its own project, argue with an imagined reviewer, criticize itself, document its repository, or make promises. This skill removes those voices from every part of the paper, Supplementary Information included, and keeps everything a reader needs to understand, trust and reproduce the work.

The paper should feel controlled because the design is clear, not because the authors keep saying that it is controlled.

Read What stays before deleting anything, and Local integration for where this skill sits in the paper-workflow chain.

Rule zero: do not add it

Most audit and defensive text is added during editing, not during drafting: an edit fixes an ambiguity, answers a co-author or reviewer comment, or adds provenance "to be safe". While editing any text: