Research AI – User guide

1. Getting started

Research AI supports the whole path from a research question to a manuscript with trustworthy references:

The menu at the top gives access to Reference Checks, Search articles, History, My writings and Folders. Switch the language (English / Tiếng Việt) with the language button; your choice is remembered.

2. Your account

• Register with your e-mail address and a password (at least 8 characters). We send a verification link – click it within 48 hours to activate the account. No e-mail? Check your spam folder or use Resend verification e-mail on the sign-in page.
• Security code: the sign-in, registration and password forms show a code in an image. Type the characters (capitals do not matter); click for a new code.
• Forgot your password? Use the link on the sign-in page: you receive a link to choose a new password (valid for 1 hour, usable once).
• Change your password any time: account menu › Change password.
• If your account is suspended, the sign-in page shows the reason given by the administrators; your data is kept.

3. Searching for papers

Search articles searches an index of more than 200 million publications. Every result already shows its citation statements, journal ranking and editorial status.

The query

• Type keywords; combine them with AND, OR, NOT and use "exact phrases", e.g. "financial literacy" AND students NOT children.
• Fetch by relevance, date or number of citations, and choose how many results to fetch (first 200 … 10,000). Large sets arrive in parts of 1,000: the first part appears after a few seconds and you can work with it while the rest loads.
• Filters applied at the source (title, author, journal, publisher, years, DOIs, editorial status, citation counts…) narrow what is fetched. Changing them needs a new search.

Reading a result

History: every search is saved with its results. Opening it again from History (or repeating the same search) shows the results immediately and uses no credits. Search again fetches fresh results.

4. Filtering the results

The left column filters the fetched results instantly, without a new request (on a phone, open it with the Filters button). Counts next to each option follow the other filters, and active filters appear as chips above the results – click a chip to remove it.

• Year – click a bar of the chart (shift-click to extend) or type a range. Pale bars show all fetched results, solid bars the ones that pass your other filters.
• Journal ranking – e.g. only ABDC A*/A or Scopus Q1.
• Institution publications – show all, put one institution's papers first, or show only them.
• Exclusion list – hide flagged journals or show only them.
• Status (open access, retracted), citation counts, publication type and journal.
• Sort by relevance, best match, year, journal rank, citations or title.
• Export exactly the rows shown (filters and order applied) to Excel, CSV, RIS (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley) or JSON, including abstracts.

The page address keeps the search and the filters, so you can bookmark or share a filtered view.

5. Search within results

The first card of the filter column searches inside the fetched results – deep in titles and abstracts – to find the papers that really fit your question.

• Accents and capitals are ignored. Choose where to search: title + abstract, title only, abstract only or all fields.
• When you type a query, results are sorted by best match (a match in the title counts more than one in the abstract). Matches are highlighted and each paper shows how often it matched.

6. Folders

• Choose a folder in the results toolbar (or create one with New folder…), then click Add on any paper – one click. Add all shown adds every paper that passes your filters.
• A folder keeps a copy of each paper, so it stays available even when the search results expire.
• In Folders: open a folder to filter, sort, remove papers or export them (Excel, CSV, RIS, BibTeX, JSON – RIS and BibTeX import into Zotero, EndNote and Mendeley), and to write with AI from them.
• The Analyse menu of a folder offers three tools:
  • Literature matrix – AI fills objective, theory, method, sample, variables, main findings and limitations for every paper from its abstract, with a verbatim supporting passage that the system checks; download it as Excel for your literature review chapter.
  • Research gaps – opens AI writing with a gap template: contradictions between studies and under-researched areas, each cited with the original passage, like any AI text.
  • Citation map – which papers of the folder cite which, the root papers, the research branches and the foundational works outside the folder that several papers cite (reference lists from OpenAlex, matched by DOI).
• Journal finder (top bar): enter a manuscript title and abstract to get journals that publish similar recent research, with their ranking in the lists of the system; you may keep only journals of chosen lists and ratings, and journals on the exclusion list are left out. Optionally the AI rates how well each journal fits.
• Sharing: the Share button of a folder (or of a search result) sends it to another account by e-mail. A shared folder can be view-only or editable (add / remove articles); recipients find it under Shared with me in Folders or History and can save a copy of their own.

7. Finding the mainstream

The most-cited papers of a topic usually form its mainstream. After filtering the results, click Find mainstream:

1. Choose the number of papers (5–10 recommended), the citation measure (citing publications, citation statements or supporting citations) and, if you like, only the last N years – recent years show the current mainstream, all years lean towards the classics.
2. The preview lists exactly the papers that will be taken. Choose a new or existing folder.
3. Add to folder & write opens the writing page with a ready-made mainstream prompt (main research streams, theories and methods, agreed findings and debates, research gaps). Adjust it and click Write.

8. Writing with AI

From a folder, click Write with AI. Describe what to write (or start from a template: mainstream, literature review, research gap, hypothesis, discussion), then choose:

• Engine – Automatic or Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini (the ones set up by the administrators).
• Language, length and citation style: APA 7, Harvard, Chicago author-date, IEEE or Vancouver. The reference list can also be downloaded as RIS or BibTeX (button Cite).
• Articles used – the AI may only use these papers (title and abstract).

Verifiable citations

For every claim the AI must quote the passage of the paper that supports it. Research AI checks each quote against the paper's abstract:

• Hover over (or tap) a citation to see why it is cited and the original passage; click it to jump to its row in the appendix at the end, which lists every claim with its quote and reason.
• The reference list is built from the folder's own data, so no reference is invented.
• Read in full screen (Esc to leave), copy the text, or download it as Word (text, references and the evidence appendix).

9. My writings

Every text you write is saved in My writings, with its prompt, folder, date, number of articles cited and credits used. Opening one shows the saved text instantly (no new AI request). Texts are kept even if you delete their folder.

10. Reference Check

1. Upload your manuscript in Reference Checks: a .docx or text-based PDF (scanned PDFs cannot be read; save old .doc files as .docx).
2. Research AI finds the reference list and splits it into references (numbered and author–year styles such as APA or Harvard).
3. Each work is identified by its DOI – taken from your reference, or found via Crossref, arXiv or the index (accepted only when title, year ±1 and first author agree).
4. For every work the citation data, editorial notices and abstract are collected, and the sentences of your manuscript that cite it are compared with it.

The result page

• Summary cards: references found, found in the index, retracted, with editorial notices, contrasted, cited in the text. The coloured bar adds up the citation statements to all your references.
• Reference table: one row per reference with journal ranking, institution list, exclusion warning and publication type labels; retracted works are shown in red. No DOI identified (often books, reports, theses) and Not in index need a manual check; DOI via … shows how the DOI was found – check these matches. Open for details.
• Filter (search, found/not found, retracted, notices, contrasting, year, type, statement check…), sort by clicking a column heading, and export the references shown to Excel, CSV, JSON or RIS.

11. Citation statements explained

The sentence(s) around each citation in a citing paper – the citation statement – are classified by a machine-learning model:

Citing publications is the number of distinct papers citing the work (the usual citation count). It can be larger than the number of statements because the full text of every citing paper is not available.

12. Statement check & appendix

Citing a real paper is not enough – it must say what you claim. For every reference, the sentences of your manuscript that cite it are compared with the cited paper's abstract:

• Topic overlap (always): High Some Low – shared vocabulary between your sentence and the abstract. Low overlap is normal for citations of methods, software or definitions.
• AI assessment (when enabled): Supported Partially supported Cannot verify Not supported Contradicted, with a short explanation.

At the bottom of the result page, the appendix lists every citing statement of your manuscript with: the cited work, the author in APA style, the passage of the cited abstract that matches best (shared words highlighted) and the relevance measures. Download Word exports this table (landscape) to keep with your manuscript or send to co-authors.

13. Retractions & editorial notices

Retracted

Withdrawn by the publisher (serious errors, fabricated data, plagiarism, ethics). Remove or replace it; if you must cite it, say that it was retracted and cite the notice.

Withdrawn

Removed by the authors or publisher. Treat like a retraction.

Expression of concern

The editors have doubts (e.g. an investigation). Use with caution and mention it if you rely on the work.

Correction / Erratum

An error was corrected; check that it does not affect the part you cite.

14. Credits

New searches, reference checks and AI writing use credits. The counter 12.30 in the top bar updates live; click it to see your credits by feature and by day. Reopening saved searches and texts uses no credits. Each account has a credit quota (shown next to the counter, e.g. 12.30/50); when it is used up, paid features pause until an administrator raises it.

15. Limitations

• Reference extraction is automatic; unusual layouts (two columns, footnotes, tables) may split or merge references. Word files usually work best.
• Matches without a DOI are a best guess – check those marked “DOI via …”.
• Citation classification and AI assessments come from models and are not perfect.
• Coverage varies by field; books, Vietnamese-language and very recent papers often have little data.
• AI writing and quote checks use abstracts, not full texts. Verify important claims in the full paper.

16. For administrators

The Admin menu (administrators only) contains:

• Settings – general (registration, upload size), E-mail & security (SMTP server, test e-mail, e-mail verification, security code), Pricing & credits (cost per request / per million tokens, credit rate), the citation data service and the AI providers (keys, models, connection test).
• Branding – application name, short name, tagline, logo and the footer (rich text editor or HTML).
• Users – filter by role, status and credits used in a period; promote to administrator, suspend with a reason (the user is signed out immediately), reinstate, verify e-mail, reset password; export to CSV.
• Usage & costs – costs in US$ per user, service and day, and recent paid calls.
• Journal rankings, Exclusion list and Publication lists – import lists from CSV/Excel (templates provided); they are used for the badges and filters in search results and reference checks.