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Once you’ve found an important paper, you need to understand it: who was studied, what was done, what was found, and what the weaknesses are. Consensus can read the paper with you and answer questions about it, pointing to the exact passage for each answer.

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Step 1: Attach the paper

There are three ways:
  • From a citation. Hover a citation in the answer and click Ask.
  • From your results. Tick the box next to a paper in the References panel.
  • From the search bar. Click +, then Attach papers or collections to pick papers from your Library, or Upload papers to add a PDF.
A citation card over the answer, showing the paper title, a supporting quote, and the Ask button highlighted

Hover a citation and click Ask to attach that paper.

The paper appears above the search bar and is ticked in the References panel. You can attach several papers at once to compare them.
A Consensus answer with one paper attached above the search bar, the same paper ticked in the References panel, and a bar offering Save and Extract to table

The attached paper sits above the search bar. Ticked papers can also be saved or extracted to a table.

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Step 2: Ask about it

Questions that work for almost any study:

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Step 3: Check the answer against the paper

Hover a citation in the answer to see the quote it came from. To read it in context, click the paper’s Supporting Quotes, open the Attachment tab to see the PDF, and pick a quote from the menu at the bottom to highlight it. Read the surrounding paragraph yourself. This is the habit that makes AI a learning tool rather than a shortcut.
Clicking a paper’s Supporting Quotes opens a paper panel. Its Snapshot tab pulls out the population, sample size, methods, and results at a glance, and its Evidence tab lists every quote the answer used.

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Try it on your topic

Attach one of the key papers from Read a Consensus answer and ask the five questions above.
You should now have: a 3-line summary of one key paper in your own words: what they did, what they found, and the main limitation.
Answers are best when Consensus has the full text. See Read the full paper for where full text comes from, and how to connect your university library for links to papers it subscribes to.