Study & Research

Understand English papers and organise the literature fast

You have to read lots of English papers for an assignment or thesis; you read slowly, struggle with jargon, and don't know where to start.

3 top picks

1

SciSpace

Paragraph-by-paragraph explanations
PaidTo be verified

Open a PDF, select any paragraph and have it explained; ask about terms and formulas too.

Free: To be verified

2

Elicit

Organising the literature
FreePaid

Finds related papers and extracts methods and findings from several papers into a comparison table.

Free: Free plan available

3

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)

Revise from your own sources
FreePaid

Ask questions about the papers you've read; answers come only from them, with citations.

Free: Free for personal use (standard limits, up to 50 sources per notebook)

How to combine them

  1. 1

    Enter your research question in Elicit, find 5–10 relevant papers and export the comparison table.

  2. 2

    Open the most important ones in SciSpace and have hard paragraphs explained one by one.

  3. 3

    Upload the papers to Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) and revise by asking questions and finding common threads.

  4. 4

    Always check the original before citing; AI summaries can be wrong.

How far the free plans go

Elicit has a free plan; Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is free for personal use; SciSpace's free allowance is to be verified. Partly to be verified

Prices and limits change often. Data checked on 2026-10-27; the official sites are the final word.

Not for

  • Having AI write your paper for you (most schools treat this as misconduct)
  • Paywalled full texts you don't have access to

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