Elicit is an AI-powered research assistant that helps you find, analyze, summarize, and organize academic papers and scientific evidence.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Open the Elicit Website
Go to the official Elicit website and click Sign Up.
You can create an account using Google, GitHub, or email/password.
What to do:
- Open Elicit.
- Click Sign Up.
- Choose Google, GitHub, or email.
- Complete the registration.
Step 2: Log In to Your Elicit Account
If you already have an account, choose Sign In instead.
The login page provides Google/GitHub options as well as email and password login.
Tip: Use the same login method you used when creating your account.
Step 3: Start a New Research Search
After logging in, look for the research/search area.
Enter a research question, rather than just a short keyword.
Example:
What are the effects of social media on student academic performance?
Elicit uses semantic search, meaning it can find relevant papers based on the meaning of your question rather than relying only on exact keyword matches.
Step 4: Review the Search Results
Elicit will return relevant research papers in a table.
You can normally see information such as:
- Paper title
- Authors
- Publication information
- Citations
- Abstract/content availability
- Additional extracted information
Elicit says its search can surface and analyze large numbers of papers, with deeper relevance processing for the most relevant results.
Step 5: Refine and Filter Your Results
If you receive too many papers, refine your search.
You can use Elicit’s filtering and customization features to narrow the results.
For example, you could focus on:
- Recent studies
- Particular research areas
- Specific study characteristics
- Relevant papers
- Clinical trials
Step 6: Open and Analyze a Paper
Select a paper that looks relevant.
Elicit can provide information from the paper and help you understand its contents. Depending on availability, you may be able to access the paper’s full text or abstract.
You can also use Elicit’s paper-chat functionality to ask questions about selected papers. Elicit’s current Basic plan includes chat with papers when full text is available.
Example questions
What is the main finding of this paper?
What methodology did the researchers use?
What were the limitations of this study?
Step 7: Compare Multiple Papers
One useful Elicit workflow is analyzing multiple papers together.
You can select relevant papers and compare information such as:
| Information | Example |
|---|---|
| Research question | What was studied? |
| Methodology | How was it studied? |
| Sample | Who participated? |
| Findings | What did researchers find? |
| Limitations | What weaknesses were reported? |
Elicit’s Notebooks workflow was designed to combine papers, summarize them, and allow users to chat with selected papers.
Step 8: Save Papers to Your Library
When you find useful papers, save them to your Elicit Library so you can organize and revisit them later.
Elicit describes its Library as an AI-first reference manager for organizing research papers.
You can organize research around topics and collections, making it easier to return to useful sources later.
Step 9: Generate a Research Report
For deeper research, you can use Research Reports.
Enter your research question and let Elicit analyze relevant sources and generate a structured literature review.
Elicit’s Reports feature is designed to synthesize evidence from multiple sources, with sentence-level citations attached to claims.
Example prompt
What does current research say about the impact of AI tools on university students’ learning outcomes?
Review the generated report carefully and check the cited papers before using its conclusions in academic work.
Step 10: Use Elicit for Advanced Research
Once you’re comfortable with basic search, you can explore more advanced workflows.
Current Elicit features include:
- Research Agent
- Research Reports
- Systematic Reviews
- Paper Search
- Paper Chat
- Data Extraction
- Research Library
Quick Elicit Workflow
Sign Up → Log In → Ask Research Question → Search Papers → Filter Results → Analyze Papers → Compare → Save to Library → Generate Report → Verify Sources
Example workflow
Question:
What are the effects of remote learning on university students?
Then:
- Search the question in Elicit.
- Review relevant papers.
- Filter the results.
- Open important papers.
- Ask questions about the papers.
- Compare findings.
- Save useful papers.
- Generate a research report.
- Check the original sources.
- Use the verified information in your research.