Tutorial

Automating Literature Reviews: Elicit vs Consensus

The volume of academic papers published daily makes it impossible for any researcher to stay fully up-to-date. Finding the right evidence to support a hypothesis can feel like finding a needle in a haystack.

1. Elicit: The Data Extractor

Elicit is designed to synthesize findings. You ask a direct question, and it scans millions of papers, presenting a table that extracts the methodology, sample size, and outcomes of the top relevant studies. It is incredible for rapid literature reviews.

2. Consensus: The Evidence Search Engine

Consensus acts more like an AI-powered search engine. It reads the abstracts of scientific papers and gives you a "Yes/No/Maybe" consensus meter based on the scientific literature regarding your query (e.g., "Does creatine cause hair loss?").


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Are these tools peer-reviewed?

The tools themselves are search engines, but the papers they source and cite are from peer-reviewed databases like Semantic Scholar. Always read the source paper before citing it in your own work.

About the Author

Dr. Alan Turing

Dr. Turing is a research scientist specializing in computational linguistics.