Scite
About SciteScite is a smart research tool that helps you see if scientific papers are supported or questioned by other experts. It uses AI to analyze millions of articles, ensuring the information you find is reliable and accurate.
What is Scite?
Scite is an AI-powered platform designed to help researchers, students, and professionals evaluate the reliability of scientific papers. Unlike traditional search engines that only show how many times a paper has been cited, Scite uses Smart Citations to show how a paper was cited. By using advanced machine learning, it analyzes the context of each citation to determine if a subsequent study provides supporting evidence, mentions the work, or offers contrasting results. This allows users to quickly verify the credibility of claims and see the consensus of the scientific community on any given topic.
Key Features of Scite
- Smart Citations: Displays whether a citation supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim.
- Assistant (AI Chat): A research-focused chatbot that answers questions using only verified, peer-reviewed literature with direct citations.
- Reference Check: Allows users to upload their own drafts to see if any of their references have been retracted or heavily contested.
- Scite Index: A dashboard to track the reliability of journals, universities, or specific authors based on citation types.
- Browser Extension: Integrates directly with sites like PubMed, Google Scholar, and various journal pages to show citation data instantly.
Who Can Use Scite?
- Students: To find credible sources for essays and ensure they aren’t citing outdated or debunked research.
- Researchers & Academics: To stay updated on their field and verify the reproducibility of studies they rely on.
- Journalists: To fact-check scientific claims before publishing news stories.
- Medical Professionals: To see the latest clinical evidence and trial results for specific treatments.
- R&D Professionals: To vet new technologies and scientific theories before investing company resources.
Why is it Better Than Its Competitors?
- Context over Quantity: Competitors like Google Scholar only show citation counts; Scite shows the sentiment and context of those citations.
- Accuracy: While ChatGPT often hallucinates or makes up sources, Scite Assistant only uses a database of 1.2 billion+ citation statements.
- Retraction Alerts: It proactively warns users if they are reading or citing a paper that has been retracted or has a notice of concern.
- Verification Speed: It saves hours of manual reading by summarizing how the rest of the scientific world views a specific paper.
English
Scite is a next-generation research tool that transforms the way we interact with scientific literature. It moves beyond the traditional Impact Factor and provides a Reliability Factor. By indexing millions of full-text articles, Scite extracts the specific snippets of text where a paper is mentioned, categorizing them into supporting or contrasting evidence. It acts as a digital truth-layer for the internet’s scientific data, ensuring that anyone, from a first-year student to a seasoned PhD, can navigate the complex world of academia with confidence and precision.
2018
Brooklyn, New York
Private
Scite.ai is a Brooklyn-based startup backed by leading investors and organizations like the National Science Foundation. The company was founded with the mission to increase the reliability and reproducibility of science. By bridging the gap between big data and human understanding, the Scite team has created a suite of tools used by top universities, pharmaceutical companies, and individual researchers worldwide to promote better, more transparent scientific communication.
Personal
$20
MonthlyOrganization
Custom
Is Scite free to use?
There is a limited free version, but a paid subscription is required for full access to the AI Assistant and detailed citation analysis.
Does Scite replace Google Scholar?
No, it works best as a companion to Google Scholar by adding a layer of verification to the search results.
How does Scite know if a paper supports or contrasts another?
It uses deep learning models trained on millions of manually labeled citation snippets to understand the language of the authors.
Can I use Scite for non-scientific topics?
Scite is best for sciences (medicine, biology, physics) and social sciences, as it relies on peer-reviewed journals.
Is the Scite Assistant like ChatGPT?
It is similar in interface, but much safer for research because it cannot create fake references, every claim it makes is linked to a real paper.
Can I check my own thesis on Scite?
Yes, the Reference Check feature allows you to upload a PDF or Word document to see if your citations are in good standing.
Scite is the most significant evolution in citation analysis in the last thirty years. It solves the blind trust problem in academia by forcing transparency onto how research is used. It is an essential tool for maintaining scientific integrity in an era of information overload.
Pros
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Provides deep context that no other search engine offers.
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The AI Assistant provides cited, verifiable answers.
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Excellent browser extension that works on almost any research site.
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Helps avoid the embarrassment of citing retracted papers.
Cons
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The monthly subscription can be expensive for students.
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Not all journals allow Scite to access their full text yet.
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The AI can sometimes misclassify a citation if the author’s language is very sarcastic or complex.
Final Verdict
Scite is a game-changer for anyone serious about evidence-based research. It effectively eliminates the guesswork involved in vetting sources, making it a must-have tool for modern academics and professionals who value accuracy over speed.
CA Tushar Makkar
