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Comparing interventions across studies usually means hours of pulling values out of PDFs. This tutorial builds a side-by-side table in two searches, using RCTs on CBT, IPT, and digital interventions for adolescent depression. You’ll learn how to:
  1. Run parallel searches across multiple interventions in one query
  2. Extract sample size, session count, follow-up duration, and effect sizes into a structured table
  3. Use the table to spot the strongest intervention and evidence gaps at a glance

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Step 1: Search several interventions at once

Research Agent runs three searches in parallel, one per intervention, each with a randomized controlled trial filter applied. It finds over 300,000 papers, deduplicates them, and shortlists the 20 most relevant. The answer already includes a table of populations, interventions, and key findings.
Click the filter button in the search bar to see every study-type filter: RCT, case study, in vivo, in vitro, human studies only, and more.

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Step 2: Ask for the exact columns you need

Consensus loads the papers from the previous thread, reads the full text where available (or the abstract), narrows to 10 studies, and returns the exact table with a link to each paper. A checkmark next to a citation means the full text was used. Click the PDF button to read the study inside Consensus.

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Step 3: Ask a paper about itself

Attach a paper to the search bar and ask a follow-up:
Consensus reads the entire full text. Hover a citation in the answer to see the quote it came from, then click Show in paper to open the PDF at the highlighted passage.
If Consensus doesn’t have the full text, attach the PDF yourself or import your Zotero library. Uploads are private to you.

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Table view: the built-in comparison

You don’t always need a prompt. Open References on the right and click the Table view button to extract study attributes side by side for every paper in the results: key takeaway, population, methods, results, outcomes, sample size, study count, duration, and country. Fields Consensus can’t extract are left blank.
Search results in table view with Paper, Answer, and Population columns

Table view, toggled from the buttons at the top right of the results.

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Attach papers straight from the results

Tick the boxes next to specific papers in the results list and ask your question in the search bar at the bottom. Only those papers are used, and Consensus reads their full text where available.
Search results with two papers checked and attached to the follow-up search bar

Selected papers appear as chips above the search bar.

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Export the table or the papers

  • The answer — scroll to the bottom and click Export for Copy text, Copy with citations (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, LaTeX, AMA/Numeric), or Export as PDF. Tables survive a paste into Word, Docs, Notion, or Obsidian.
  • The papers — click the download arrow at the top of the results for CSV, RIS (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley), or a Bibliography.
The export menu on the results panel with CSV, RIS, and Bibliography options

Filter by quality

Review a manuscript for missing citations