scite: AI-Powered Research Discovery and Evaluation Platform

Introduction

Scite (scite.ai) is an AI-powered platform designed to help researchers, students, academics, and institutions discover, understand, and evaluate scientific literature more effectively. Its core mission is to make science more reliable by providing deeper insights into how research papers are cited. Unlike traditional citation indexes that merely count citations, scite analyzes the context of citations, classifying them as supporting, contrasting, or simply mentioning the cited work. This allows users to quickly gauge how a study has been received and built upon by the scientific community.

Developed with a focus on enhancing research workflows, scite leverages artificial intelligence, including large language models (LLMs), to offer tools like Smart Citations, an AI Research Assistant, Reference Checking, and customizable Dashboards. It aims to provide a more nuanced and efficient way to navigate the vast landscape of scientific publications.

Key Features

Scite offers a unique suite of features for advanced research analysis:

• Smart Citations:
  • Contextual Citation Analysis: Shows the actual sentence(s) from the citing paper where another paper is referenced.
  • Citation Classification: AI algorithms classify each citation statement as "supporting," "contrasting," or "mentioning" the claims of the cited paper.
  • Confidence Scores: Often provides a confidence level for the AI's classification of the citation type.
• scite Assistant (AI Research Assistant):
  • A conversational AI tool, powered by LLMs (like GPT-4), that can answer research questions, synthesize information from multiple papers, draft literature reviews, and help users explore topics.
  • Provides answers grounded in scite's database of research papers, often with citations.
• Reference Check:
  • Allows users to upload a manuscript, list of references, or PDF to automatically check the reliability of the cited sources.
  • Identifies if cited papers have been retracted, have corrections, or have received significant contrasting citations.
  • Provides citation metrics for each reference.
• Advanced Search & Discovery:
  • Search a vast database of over 200 million research articles, book chapters, preprints, and datasets, with over 1.2 billion citation statements analyzed.
  • Filter search results by Smart Citation type (supporting, contrasting), publication year, journal, author, study type, journal SJR quartiles, and more.
  • Discover how specific methods, arguments, results, claims, or datasets are being used and cited across the literature.
• Dashboards (for Individuals, Groups & Institutions):
  • Create custom dashboards to track and analyze citation trends for specific sets of articles, authors, journals, or institutions.
  • Monitor how research from an institution or by specific researchers is being supported or contrasted in the literature.
• Custom Alerts:
  • Set up notifications for new citations to specific papers, authors, or saved searches, helping users stay updated on relevant research.
• Browser Extension (Chrome, Edge):
  • Allows users to see Smart Citation data (supporting, mentioning, contrasting counts) directly on publisher websites, PubMed, Google Scholar, Zotero, and other academic platforms while Browse.
• Integrations:
  • Reference Managers: Connects with tools like Zotero and Paperpile for importing and checking references. Supports RIS export.
  • Other Tools: Offers various ways to integrate its data and insights into research workflows.
• scite Index:
  • A metric that can be used to evaluate journals based on the proportion of supporting versus contrasting citations their articles receive.
• Visualizations: Tools to explore citation networks and understand the relationships between papers.
• Study Snapshots: (Integrated into search results) Quickly view key information about a paper, such as its population, sample size, methods, and main outcomes, often extracted by AI.

Specific Use Cases

Scite is designed to support various aspects of the research lifecycle:

• Evaluating Research Credibility & Impact: Quickly assess how a research paper has been received by the scientific community by looking at the context and classification of its citations (supporting, contrasting).
• Conducting Thorough Literature Reviews: Efficiently identify key papers, understand the nuances of how they cite each other, and find supporting or contrasting evidence for specific claims.
• Validating Research Findings: Discover studies that support or challenge particular findings or theories.
• Checking Reference Lists: Before submitting a manuscript or relying on a source, use Reference Check to identify potential issues like retracted papers or heavily contrasted findings in the bibliography.
• Staying Updated on Research Trends: Use alerts and dashboards to monitor new citations and discussions around important papers or topics in a field.
• Identifying Expert Reviewers: Find researchers who have actively engaged with (cited, supported, or contrasted) specific research areas.
• Grant & Funding Applications: Demonstrate the impact and support for one's own research by showcasing supporting citations.
• Academic Writing Support: Use the scite Assistant to get help drafting sections of a paper, summarizing literature, or formulating research questions based on existing evidence.
• Institutional Research Assessment: Universities and funding bodies can use scite Dashboards to track the citation impact and reception of research produced by their organizations or grantees.

Usage Guide

Using scite effectively involves leveraging its unique citation analysis tools:

1. Sign Up/Log In:
   • Go to https://scite.ai/.
   • Create an account (free accounts have limited access; various paid plans are available). You can often sign up with email, Google, or ORCID.
2. Searching for Papers:
   • Use the main search bar to search by keywords, DOIs, author names, or article titles.
   • Apply filters on the search results page (e.g., publication date, journal, study type, Smart Citation counts) to refine your search.
3. Interpreting Smart Citations:
   • On a paper's "scite report" page or in search results, you'll see citation counts broken down into:
     • Supporting Citations: Publications that provide evidence supporting the claims of the paper.
     • Contrasting Citations: Publications that provide evidence contradicting the claims of the paper.
     • Mentioning Citations: Publications that mention the paper without strongly supporting or contrasting its findings.
   • Click on these counts to view the actual citation statements (the surrounding text from the citing paper) to understand the context.
4. Using the scite Assistant:
   • Access the AI-powered chat interface.
   • Ask research questions in natural language (e.g., "What does the literature say about the impact of X on Y?", "Summarize the main arguments for Z").
   • The Assistant will provide answers synthesized from scite's database, with references to the source papers.
5. Using Reference Check:
   • Upload a PDF of a manuscript or a list of DOIs/references.
   • Scite will analyze the bibliography and provide a report showing Smart Citation counts for each reference, highlighting any retractions, corrections, or editorial concerns.
6. Creating Dashboards & Alerts:
   • (Typically a premium feature) Create custom dashboards to track groups of papers.
   • Set up email alerts for new citations to specific articles or for new results matching a saved search query.
7. Using the Browser Extension:
   • Install the scite browser extension (available for Chrome and other browsers).
   • When viewing research articles on publisher sites, preprint servers, or databases like PubMed, the extension will display Smart Citation badges and counts, providing immediate context.
8. Managing Your Library & Lists (Premium):
   • Save papers to custom lists for organization and future reference.
   • Export citation data (e.g., to CSV or RIS for reference managers).

Pricing & Plans

Scite offers a free tier and several paid subscription plans for individuals, groups, and institutions:

• Free Plan:
  • Cost: $0/month.
  • Features: Limited access to search, view Smart Citation tallies, and potentially a very limited number of full citation statement views or Assistant queries.
• Premium Plan (for Individuals):
  • Cost: Around $12-$20/month (e.g., $19.99/month, or discounted rates like $100-$144/year when billed annually). Student pricing is often available at a significant discount.
  • Features: Unlimited searches, unlimited Smart Citation views (seeing the contextual snippets), unlimited Scite Assistant usage, Reference Check capabilities, ability to create custom dashboards and alerts, save unlimited lists, export data.
  • A 7-day free trial for the Premium plan is often available.
• Groups / Labs Plan:
  • Cost: Tiered pricing based on the number of users (e.g., for small teams).
  • Features: Includes all Premium features for each member, often with shared functionalities and centralized management.
• Institutions / Enterprise Plan:
  • Cost: Custom pricing (contact sales).
  • Features: Site-wide access for universities, research institutions, or companies. Includes all Premium features, advanced administrative dashboards, custom data rules, integrations (e.g., library systems), dedicated support, and potentially API access for large-scale analysis.

Note: Specific pricing, feature inclusions, and usage limits (e.g., number of Reference Checks, API call limits if applicable) are subject to change. Always check the official scite.ai pricing page (https://scite.ai/pricing) for the most current details.

Commercial Use & Licensing

• Scite provides access to and analysis of existing scholarly literature. The copyright of the original articles remains with their respective authors and publishers.
• Scite's own generated content (like Smart Citation classifications, syntheses from the Assistant) is for the user's research and evaluation purposes.
• The terms for using scite for commercial decision-making or in commercial products would be governed by their Terms of Service, particularly for enterprise or API usage.

Users should consult scite's official Terms of Service for definitive information on usage rights and any restrictions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What is scite.ai? A1: Scite.ai is an AI-powered research platform that helps users discover and evaluate scientific articles by showing how they have been cited. Its core feature, "Smart Citations," classifies citations as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning, and provides the surrounding text for context.

Q2: How do "Smart Citations" work? A2: Scite uses AI and machine learning models to analyze the full text of research papers and identify where citations are made. It then extracts the surrounding sentences (the "citation snippet") and classifies the intent of that citation – whether it supports, disputes, or merely mentions the cited work.

Q3: What is the scite Assistant? A3: The scite Assistant is an AI-powered chat tool within the platform. Users can ask research questions, and the Assistant will provide answers synthesized from scite's database of scientific literature, complete with references to the source papers.

Q4: How does Reference Check help researchers? A4: Reference Check allows users to upload a list of references (e.g., from a manuscript) and scite will analyze them, showing Smart Citation counts for each, and highlighting if any have been retracted, received significant corrections, or have been heavily contrasted by subsequent research.

Q5: Is scite.ai free to use? A5: Scite.ai offers a free plan with limited access to its features, allowing users to perform some searches and see basic citation tallies. For full access to Smart Citation contexts, unlimited Assistant usage, Reference Checks, and other premium features, a paid subscription is required.

Q6: What data sources does scite.ai use? A6: Scite has a vast database of over 1.2 billion citation statements extracted from over 187 million articles, book chapters, preprints, and datasets. It accesses full-text articles through indexing agreements with publishers and Open Access content providers, linking this with metadata from sources like Crossref and PubMed.

Q7: How accurate is scite's AI in classifying citations? A7: Scite aims for high accuracy in its AI-driven citation classification and often provides confidence scores. However, as with any AI system, interpretations can sometimes require manual verification, and users are encouraged to read the citation contexts to form their own judgments. Scite itself notes that classifications can sometimes be inaccurate.

Q8: Does scite.ai have a browser extension? A8: Yes, scite offers a browser extension (for Chrome, Edge, etc.) that displays Smart Citation information directly on publisher websites, Google Scholar, PubMed, and other academic platforms, allowing users to quickly see how an article has been cited as they browse.

Data Privacy, Security, and Responsible AI

• Data Privacy: Scite has a Privacy Policy detailing how user data is collected, used, and protected. They state that user search query text is logged (anonymized where possible) to improve the search engine, with options for enterprise clients to have custom data handling.
• Security: They implement security measures to protect their platform and user data.
• Responsible AI & Limitations:
  • Scite aims to provide tools for more robust research evaluation but cautions that AI interpretations (like citation classifications or Assistant summaries) should complement, not replace, critical human judgment.
  • Users should be aware of potential biases in AI and always verify important claims by reading the source material.
  • The platform is designed to help discover and evaluate evidence, not to make definitive judgments on behalf of the user.

Related Links

• scite Official Website: https://scite.ai/
• scite Pricing: https://scite.ai/pricing
• scite Help Center & FAQ: https://help.scite.ai/en/ (or help.consensus.app/en/ was found in previous search for Consensus, which now owns scite. It's possible the help center is unified or linked. Will use the scite specific one if distinct). Self-correction: Consensus acquired Scite in late 2023/early 2024. The help center link for Consensus was previously found. It is likely that some resources are being integrated. I will use the most direct link I can find for scite or note the integration. The previous search did point to help.consensus.app/en/articles/10087865-subscription-plans for Consensus, but let's try to find a more direct scite.ai help link or confirm the unification. A search result for How to Use - Scite.ai Guide - Research Guides at The Florida State University indicates separate resources did exist. The scite.ai/organization-license-getting-started also points to scite.ai resources. The help.scite.ai/en/ URL seems most appropriate for scite-specific help if still active post-acquisition.
• scite Blog: https://scite.ai/blog
• scite API Information: https://scite.ai/apiterms and potentially more detailed docs for API subscribers.
• Terms of Service: https://scite.ai/terms
• Privacy Policy: https://scite.ai/policy
• About scite: https://scite.ai/about