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Licensed AI-Based Search Tools

We have licensed Scite, Consensus, and SciSpace for the Uni/PH for a one-year trial period.
Although we have licensed these tools for the University of Lucerne and the Lucerne University of Teacher Education, we do not recommend them without reservation. AI-assisted research tools offer varous useful functions, but compared to traditional research tools, they also have certain limitations. Moreover, they are not equally suitable for all disciplines. If you have any questions, we recommend that you attend one of our training sessions on AI-assisted research tools or arrange an individual consultation with us.

Note: Remember that AI-supported results should always be critically reviewed and used with caution. Pay attention to data protection when entering information, and also consider any copyright notices provided in the description of the tools.

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Scite_

What is Scite?

Scite is an AI-powered multidisciplinary research tool designed to help researchers and students discover, evaluate, and manage scientific literature. The tool has indexed over 1.3 billion citations and collaborates with more than 30 major publishers to offer broad access to scientific literature.

Who can use Scite?

The University of Lucerne and the Lucerne University of Teacher Education have a campus licence for Scite, which allows all members of these institutions to use the full version from within the Uni/PH network or via VPN from outside it.

What can you do with it?

Scite Assistant

Scite Assistant was specifically developed for academic research. You can pose research questions in plain language and receive evidence-based answers supported by Scite’s unique Smart Citations database, reducing the risk of hallucinations and enhancing the reliability of information. It offers numerous filters and customization options to refine results.

Scite Assistant also offers detailed citation context, allowing you to see the exact text snipped used for each citation and provides direct links to the full text of cited publications. This enables you to verify sources, assess the accuracy of the information, and ensure the credibility of the references through transparent, traceable citations.

Smart Citation

Powered by deep learning, Smart Citation offers you contextual insights from citing papers, indicating whether a cited study supports, contrasts, or merely mentions a scientific claim. This helps you quickly assess how a paper fits within the broader field of study and identify related studies of potential interest.

Additionally, Smart Citation contains information on retractions, corrections, errata, or expressions of concern, ensuring you are aware of any issues affecting the credibility or reliability of a cited work.

Other key features:

  • Citation Reports: Scite provides dynamic reports and visualizations to reveal citation patterns, trends, and the influence of specific articles and authors within a field.
  • Researcher Accounts: You can create profiles to showcase your research, monitor citations, track conversations with the AI assistant, and connect with peers in your field.
  • Reference Check: Allows you to upload Word or PDF documents and assess the quality, accuracy, and reliability of the references they contain.
  • ai Browser Extension: A handy tool that allows you to instantly view Smart Citations while reading scientific articles on the web, adding context and reliability checks in real time.

Resources:

Websites:

Help & Tutorials

Scite Coverage

Videos:

How to search on Scite

Scite | AI for Researchers

How does Scite Assistant work?

Leave feedback on Scite.ai provided through ZHB

Consensus

What is Consensus?

Consensus is an AI-powered academic search engine that helps students and researchers find credible answers to research questions. It searches over 200 million peer-reviewed papers using advanced language models to summarize key findings. Drawing from the Semantic Scholar corpus, it provides evidence-based insights with traceable citations, ensuring access to high-quality academic content.

Who can use Consensus?

The University of Lucerne and the Lucerne University of Teacher Education have a campus licence for Consensus. Members of the institution can access the premium version by creating an account with their institutional email address.

Which functionalities does Consensus offer?

Research
Consensus streamlines research by searching, filtering, and analyzing peer-reviewed publications. Instead of listing links, it delivers direct, evidence-based answers, showing both supporting and opposing findings. Each result includes citations and links to abstracts, with full-text access when available. While keyword searches work, fully-formed questions perform better. Users are encouraged to use natural language queries, such as direct questions, concept relationships, or open-ended phrases, for more accurate and relevant results.

Deep search
Deep Search is a research tool that transforms user questions into a structured multi-step strategy, identifying key terms, related topics, counterarguments, and foundational studies. It analyzes up to 50 academic sources and delivers a concise report with only the most relevant, high-quality findings.

Ask the paper
This feature allows users to ask specific questions about individual academic papers and receive AI-generated answers from the content. Instead of reading entire texts manually, researchers can quickly extract relevant insights, streamlining the analysis of complex academic literature.

Additional features

  • Consensus Meter visually shows how much agreement exists across studies for yes/no questions, helping users quickly identify supporting or opposing evidence and evaluate claims more easily than traditional searches.
  • Study Snapshot shows whether seven key attributes (methods, outcomes, population, sample size, duration, location, and results) are present in each citation.
  • Search filters improve accuracy by letting users filter results by journal quality, date, study design, citations, and methods.
  • Reference management. Users can save search results and papers, generate citations in preferred styles, integrate with tools like Zotero, and export results in RIS or CSV format for easy organization.

Where can I find support?

 

SciSpace

What is SciSpace?

SciSpace is a multidisciplinary, AI-powered platform that supports researchers and students throughout the entire academic workflow: from identifying a topic to conducting literature searches, reading, summarising, and analysing sources, all the way to drafting initial texts.
One of its newest features is the AI Agent, which automates typical research tasks such as:

  • Creating reports
  • Extracting and visualising data
  • Generating PowerPoint presentations, posters, infographics, and video tutorials, and much more

According to the provider, its data foundation includes more than 200 million scholarly articles from sources such as OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, and Google Scholar.

Who can use SciSpace?

The University of Lucerne, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, as well as the Universities of Teacher Education in Lucerne, Schwyz, and Zug have a limited number of premium access slots for SciSpace.
Members of these institutions can use the premium version by contacting informationskompetenz@zhbluzern.ch. Access is granted on a first-come, first-served basis.

What functionalities does SciSpace offer?

Literature Review

SciSpace supports academic literature searches with three research modes:

  • Standard: Analyses around 250 articles and produces a compact summary based on 5 sources – suitable for a quick initial overview.
  • High Quality: Analyses around 400 articles and delivers a detailed summary of key themes and findings.
  • Deep Research: Analyses more than 1,000 articles and identifies research trends, gaps, and methods – suitable for researchers seeking a comprehensive and in-depth understanding.

Found literature and results can be saved and organised in folders and notebooks.
Filter options (year, publication type, journal, keywords, etc.) help refine searches.
Additionally, the AI generates structured summaries in categories such as methodology, results, and conclusions. This facilitates cross-reading and assessing relevance.

Tip for using the Literature Review: Literature reviews generated by SciSpace usually do not cover all scholarly literature on a given topic. For instance, SciSpace often lacks access to the complete texts of copyrighted publications. Therefore, the AI-generated results may differ from the assessments of recognised experts. We therefore recommend using SciSpace alongside traditional search tools, such as Swisscovery or a specialised subject database in your field. This ensures important licensed literature is taken into account, making your search as comprehensive as possible.

Chat with PDF

Another core function of SciSpace is interacting with selected documents.
The integrated copilot helps with reading and understanding literature by offering features such as:

  • Summarising texts
  • Answering comprehension questions
  • Explaining formulas and tables

The chat works in multiple languages. Up to 100 MB can be uploaded per session.
A Chrome extension enables use outside the SciSpace platform.

Additional Features

AI Agent

Automated creation of reports, presentations, infographics, and more.
The agent draws on different AI models, tools, and data sources.
Tips for experimenting:

  • Test the capabilities and limitations of the AI Agent using your own notes, concepts, and texts.
  • For individual research tasks, the Agent Prompting Guide provides helpful instructions.

AI Writer, Paraphraser & Citation Generator

Support for writing, paraphrasing, and citing in various styles.

Find Topics

AI-assisted brainstorming for research topics.

Zotero Integration

Simple import and export of literature between SciSpace and Zotero.

Where can I find support?