Est Literature Positioning

---
name: est-literature-positioning
description: Use when positioning an Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) manuscript against prior work across environmental chemistry, engineering, toxicology, and policy. ES&T is multidisciplinary, so the paper must engage the right literatures and state the knowledge gap it closes. It frames the gap and citations; it does not fabricate references.
---

# Literature Positioning (est-literature-positioning)

ES&T draws a multidisciplinary readership, and editors decline work that does not engage the relevant
literature or that re-derives what is already known. This skill positions the contribution: what is
known, what is missing, and why this paper closes the gap for a real environmental problem.

## When to trigger

- Writing the introduction or the "knowledge gap" framing
- Building a **Critical Review** or **Perspective** that must map a whole field
- A reviewer said the work "ignores relevant literature" or "is not novel"
- Deciding which adjacent fields (chemistry, engineering, tox, policy) to cite

## How to position for ES&T

1. **State the gap as a process question.** Frame what is unknown about fate, transport,
   transformation, exposure, toxicity, treatment, or management — not just "few studies have looked."
2. **Engage across sub-fields.** Cite the analytical, mechanistic, engineering, and (where relevant)
   policy literatures the broad ES&T audience expects, including prior ES&T/ES&T Letters work.
3. **Differentiate, don't dismiss.** Say precisely how your concentrations, matrices, mechanisms, or
   scale advance beyond the closest prior studies.
4. **Use authoritative sources.** Prefer peer-reviewed work, agency datasets (EPA, NIST), and primary
   measurements over secondary summaries; use ACS numbered citation style.
5. **For Reviews/Perspectives**: organize around an analytical framework, surface contradictions, and
   identify the open questions — synthesis, not annotated bibliography.

## Anti-patterns

- A wall of citations with no articulated gap
- Ignoring an obvious adjacent literature (e.g., citing chemistry but not the engineering or tox work)
- "First study to…" claims that a quick search would falsify
- Citing only your own group; missing key prior ES&T papers reviewers will know
- A "review" that summarizes papers in sequence instead of synthesizing them

## Output format

```
【Known】2–3 lines on the state of the art
【Gap】the specific process/exposure/treatment question left open
【This paper closes it by】mechanism / scale / matrix / concentration advance
【Literatures engaged】chemistry / engineering / tox / policy (which apply)
【Citation style】ACS numbered, primary sources
【Next】est-study-design
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — reference databases and managers; ACS style
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — ES&T scope and article-type expectations