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Reading papers one at a time makes it hard to see the big picture. A quicker way in is to ask Consensus to sort the research into themes (groups of studies that take the same approach or reach similar conclusions), then check how strong each theme is.

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Step 1: Ask for the themes

Consensus searches, reads the strongest papers, and organizes the answer by theme, with the key claims and papers for each.
“Group by approach” works well for treatments and methods. You can also ask Consensus to group by population, by outcome, or by time period.

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Step 2: Rank them by strength of evidence

Consensus weighs each theme by how many papers support it and how strong those studies are. Look for a Claims & Evidence table in the answer.

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Step 3: Check the top papers yourself

For each theme, open the one or two papers Consensus leans on most. Hover the citations to see the quotes, and confirm the papers say what the answer claims. See Check a claim against the paper.

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Step 4: Write it in your own words

Close the answer and write one sentence per theme from memory. If you can’t, re-read that section. This is the step that turns Consensus’s summary into your own understanding.

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Try it on your topic

Ask for the main findings on your topic grouped by approach, then rank them.
You should now have: 3–5 themes, each with a one-sentence summary in your own words and 1–2 key papers.
If your field publishes a lot of new work, see Catch up on a fast-moving field for grouping recent evidence and comparing the strongest papers side by side.