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Research Case Studies

Real-world examples of Claude Code in academic research workflows - from raw data to publication

25 min
8 min read

Research Case Studies

See Claude Code in action with complete academic workflows. These aren't toy examples—they're the kinds of tasks that eat up your research time.

Case Study 1: From Raw Data to Publication Figure

Scenario: You have messy field data and need a publication-ready figure for a journal submission deadline.

The Problem

Bash
Raw data: 847 observations across 12 sites
Issues: Mixed date formats, missing values coded differently, outliers
Deadline: Reviewer comments due in 3 days

The Workflow

Step 1: Assess the mess

Bash
claude "Read data/field_observations.csv and give me a data quality report:
- Missing values by column
- Date format inconsistencies
- Potential outliers
- Any obvious data entry errors"

Claude examines your data and returns:

Bash
Data Quality Report for field_observations.csv:
MISSING VALUES:
- temperature: 23 missing (2.7%)
- salinity: 8 missing (0.9%)
- depth: 0 missing
- species_count: 45 missing (5.3%) ← mostly from Site_07
DATE ISSUES:
- Rows 1-234: MM/DD/YYYY format
- Rows 235-847: YYYY-MM-DD format
- 3 rows have "unknown" as date
OUTLIERS (>3 SD):
- temperature: 2 values (89°C, 91°C) ← likely Fahrenheit not Celsius
- species_count: 1 value (9,847) ← likely typo, check field notes
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Convert temperature outliers: (F-32)*5/9
2. Investigate Site_07 missing species counts
3. Standardize dates to ISO format

Step 2: Clean with audit trail

Bash
claude "Create a cleaning script that:
1. Fixes the issues you identified
2. Logs every change made (row, column, old value, new value)
3. Saves cleaned data with '_cleaned' suffix
4. Generates a cleaning report I can include in supplementary materials
Use pandas. Make it reproducible."

Step 3: Generate the figure

Bash
claude "Create a publication-ready figure showing:
- Species count by site (x-axis) vs temperature (y-axis)
- Color by depth category (shallow/medium/deep)
- Include regression line with 95% CI
- Error bars showing standard error
Style requirements:
- 300 DPI for print
- Sans-serif fonts (Nature style)
- Colorblind-friendly palette
- Panel dimensions: 180mm x 120mm
Save as both PNG and PDF."

Time Comparison

| Task | Traditional | With Claude Code | |------|-------------|------------------| | Data quality assessment | 45 min | 3 min | | Cleaning script | 2-3 hours | 15 min | | Publication figure | 1-2 hours | 10 min | | Total | 4-5 hours | ~30 min |


Case Study 2: Responding to Reviewer 2

Scenario: Reviewer 2 wants a sensitivity analysis you didn't plan for. Your co-author's original analysis code is... creative.

The Problem

"The authors should test whether their results are robust to excluding the three sites with incomplete temporal coverage. Additionally, a bootstrap analysis would strengthen confidence in the reported effect sizes."

Your co-author's code: 847 lines of R with variable names like temp2, df_final_FINAL, and # TODO: fix this later.

The Workflow

Step 1: Understand the existing analysis

Bash
claude "Read analysis/main_analysis.R and explain:
1. What statistical tests are being performed
2. What the key results are
3. Where I would need to modify to exclude specific sites
4. Any concerns about the current approach
Be specific about line numbers."

Step 2: Create the sensitivity analysis

Bash
claude "Based on your understanding of main_analysis.R, create a new script sensitivity_analysis.R that:
1. Runs the original analysis (baseline)
2. Re-runs excluding sites 3, 7, and 11 (incomplete temporal coverage)
3. Performs bootstrap analysis (1000 iterations) on the main effect
4. Generates a comparison table showing:
- Original effect size and CI
- Sensitivity analysis effect size and CI
- Bootstrap effect size and CI
Format the output table for easy copy-paste into Word.
Add comments explaining each step for the reviewer."

Step 3: Generate reviewer response

Bash
claude "Based on the sensitivity analysis results, draft a response to Reviewer 2:
- Acknowledge their valid concern
- Describe the sensitivity analysis approach
- Present the results (effect sizes remained significant)
- Reference the new supplementary table
Use academic tone but be concise."

Result

Markdown
**Response to Reviewer 2, Comment 3:**
We thank the reviewer for this suggestion to test robustness. We conducted
a sensitivity analysis excluding sites 3, 7, and 11 (those with <80% temporal
coverage). The main effect remained significant (β = 0.34, 95% CI [0.21, 0.47],
p < 0.001), compared to the full dataset (β = 0.31, 95% CI [0.19, 0.43]).
Additionally, we performed bootstrap analysis (n = 1,000 iterations) which
yielded consistent estimates (β = 0.32, 95% CI [0.20, 0.44]). These results
are presented in new Supplementary Table S4.
We have added a statement regarding robustness to the Results section
(lines 234-238).

Case Study 3: Inheriting a Grad Student's Code

Scenario: Your grad student defended and left. Now you need to re-run their analysis for a follow-up paper. The code "worked on their laptop."

The Problem

  • Code references absolute paths (/Users/alex/Desktop/thesis/...)
  • Missing dependency versions ("it just needs pandas")
  • Cryptic error: KeyError: 'treatment_group'
  • No documentation

The Workflow

Step 1: Forensic analysis

Bash
claude "Analyze the code in legacy_analysis/:
1. List all Python files and their apparent purpose
2. Identify all dependencies being imported
3. Find all hardcoded paths that need updating
4. Identify where 'treatment_group' should come from
5. Create a dependency list with likely version requirements
Be thorough—I need to get this running without the original author."

Step 2: Create reproducible environment

Bash
claude "Based on your analysis:
1. Create a requirements.txt with pinned versions
2. Create a setup script that:
- Sets up a virtual environment
- Installs dependencies
- Creates necessary directories
3. Update all hardcoded paths to use relative paths or config file
4. Add the missing 'treatment_group' column based on the data patterns you see"

Step 3: Document for posterity

Bash
claude "Create documentation for this project:
1. README.md explaining what the analysis does
2. Add docstrings to all functions
3. Create a flowchart of the analysis pipeline
4. Add inline comments for non-obvious code
This needs to be understandable by the next grad student."

Case Study 4: Multi-Author Analysis Integration

Scenario: Three co-authors analyzed different aspects of the same dataset. One used R, one used Python, one used Stata. You need to integrate their results.

The Problem

Bash
Author 1 (R/tidyverse): Descriptive statistics, demographic analysis
Author 2 (Python/statsmodels): Main regression models
Author 3 (Stata): Robustness checks, instrumental variables
All analyzing: survey_data_2024.csv
Output formats: .rds, .pkl, .dta

The Workflow

Step 1: Standardize outputs

Bash
claude "I have analysis outputs in three formats:
- author1_results/ contains .rds files (R)
- author2_results/ contains .pkl files (Python)
- author3_results/ contains .dta files (Stata)
Create a script that:
1. Reads all result files
2. Extracts key statistics (coefficients, SEs, p-values, CIs)
3. Standardizes to a common format
4. Outputs a combined results table
Handle the different statistical object structures appropriately."

Step 2: Create master results table

Bash
claude "Using the standardized results, create:
1. A master regression table (Table 2 format) combining all models
2. Export as:
- LaTeX (for manuscript)
- Word-compatible format (for co-authors who don't use LaTeX)
- CSV (for supplementary materials)
Use APA formatting for statistics."

Step 3: Verify consistency

Bash
claude "Cross-check the three analyses:
1. Do sample sizes match where they should?
2. Are baseline descriptives consistent?
3. Flag any discrepancies between authors' results
4. Create a verification report I can share with co-authors"

Case Study 5: BCO-DMO Data Documentation

Scenario: NSF requires you to submit your data to BCO-DMO. You need comprehensive metadata documentation.

The Workflow

Bash
claude "I need to prepare my dataset for BCO-DMO submission.
Read data/coral_survey_2024.csv and create:
1. A data dictionary with:
- Variable names
- Data types
- Units
- Allowed values/ranges
- Missing value codes
- Collection methods (I'll fill these in)
2. Methods documentation covering:
- Sampling design
- Data collection protocols
- Quality control procedures
- Known limitations
3. A README following BCO-DMO guidelines
Format everything in their required template structure."

Quick Reference: Research Prompts That Work

Data Cleaning

Bash
"Read [file] and identify data quality issues. For each issue, suggest a fix and explain the tradeoff."

Statistical Analysis

Bash
"Run [specific test] on [variables] and interpret the results as I would for a Methods section. Include effect sizes."

Visualization

Bash
"Create a [plot type] suitable for [journal]. Use [specific style guide] formatting. Make it colorblind-accessible."

Code Documentation

Bash
"Add documentation to [file] that would let a new grad student understand and modify it. Include example usage."

Reviewer Response

Bash
"Based on [analysis results], draft a response to this reviewer comment: [paste comment]. Be diplomatic but defend our approach where appropriate."

What These Cases Have in Common

  1. Real deadlines — Not "exploring data for fun" but "reviewer response due Friday"
  2. Messy inputs — Data and code are never as clean as tutorials assume
  3. Audit trails — Academic work requires documentation of every decision
  4. Multiple formats — Journals want LaTeX, co-authors want Word, repos want Markdown
  5. Reproducibility — Someone else needs to run this code in 5 years

Next Steps