Research Agent is your AI research assistant in Consensus. It powers searches in Consensus and helps answer complex, multi-step research questions in a single conversation.
Instead of running one search at a time, Research Agent can reason across multiple tools, chain them together, and return citation-backed answers grounded in peer-reviewed research.
Research Agent can help with workflows like citation crawling, DOI lookup, author search, similar papers, study comparisons, gap analysis, and more.
How to use Research Agent
Go to consensus.app
Type your question or topic in the search bar
Send your search
Research Agent will automatically choose the right tools and steps for your question
Key features
🔎 Apply advanced filters in plain language: Stack recency, journal quartile, citation count, sample size, and study type in plain language. Research Agent understands your criteria and applies the right filters automatically.
👥 Author & co-author tracing: Give Consensus a DOI, paper title, or author name to explore related authors, co-authors, influential papers, and how the research has developed over time.
✂️ Exclude what you don’t want: Filter out studies that don’t fit your question, such as the wrong population, methodology, publication type, or author.
🧵 Carry context between searches: Follow-up questions build on the previous search, so you can refine, pivot, and synthesize across a research topic without starting over.
What Research Agent can do
Research Agent is built to help with deeper research workflows, including:
Understanding messy prompts, precise research questions, or Boolean-style queries
Planning and running multiple sub-searches when needed
Using tools like citation crawling, DOI lookup, author search, and similar papers
Applying academic filters such as study type, recency, journal quality, sample size, and population
Reading and comparing papers to surface relevant findings
Building comparison tables across studies
Finding gaps in a Library collection or set of papers
Returning citation-backed answers grounded in peer-reviewed research
YouTube Tutorials
How to Find High Quality Recent Research Papers: https://youtu.be/wn0xzpsqbm8?si=zSdStuuzR9hi4AVz
Finding the Seminal Papers in a Field: https://youtu.be/bb6rox8IrZg?si=__njKdUrrh6yDjrw
How to Build a Comparison Table of Research Studies in Minutes: https://youtu.be/WTe9XsY1lNs?si=WP0QUy9tX31JGb4o
How to Trace Citations Forward and Backward From Any Research Paper: https://youtu.be/KVCVOqndX2U?si=H9axnXZVflx3ZZLd
How to Snowball From One Research Paper to a Full Reading List: https://youtu.be/YvrcZbLCips?si=LRid1ZssbQrnnxCQ
How to Map the History of a Research Field: https://youtu.be/GmbNdGGwMpo?si=O3o6vwRap3y34vcy
How to Catch Up on a Fast Moving Research Field in 5 Minutes: https://youtu.be/ktINOSj8Kv0?si=HExm9hTwPyd1TcDX
How to Find Gaps in Your Literature Review and Fill Them Automatically: https://youtu.be/ZH_0W6BSYvM?si=4KzLzPfHKVaaVry0
How to Research an Author's Body of Work and Most Influential Papers: https://youtu.be/7aoHQoOv0JY?si=_xVPH3tVRa1HV44d
How to Connect a Method From One Research Field to Applications in Another: https://youtu.be/Qw4e1-kKZBo?si=SDKJbUZKtCp4AkTx
Example Searches
FAQs
Where is Research Agent available?
Research Agent is available in Pro and Deep search modes. If you run out of credits, consider upgrading to a paid subscription for higher limits.
Is Research Agent the same as Scholar Agent?
Research Agent is the new and improved version of what we previously called Scholar Agent. It has been rebuilt to be more intelligent, more capable, and better at handling complex, multi-step research workflows.