You can share Collections from My Library with other people so they can view or collaborate on the research you’ve saved.
Shared Collections make it easier to work with teammates, classmates, collaborators, or anyone else you want to give access to a specific group of papers.
How to share a Collection
Open My Library
Select the Collection you want to share
Click the Share button in the top right corner
Enter the email address(es) of the people you want to invite
Click the plus button
Click the email address to choose their role: Viewer or Editor
Click Send invite
The person you invited will receive an email notification letting them know they’ve been invited to your Collection.
What happens after you send an invite
If the person already has a Consensus account, they’ll automatically be added to the shared Collection.
They can access it in either of these ways:
Click the link in the email invite
Open My Library and click 'Shared with me' in the top left corner
If the person does not have a Consensus account yet, they’ll receive the invite by email and be prompted to create a free Consensus account before they can join or view the shared Collection.
Viewer and Editor access
When you invite someone to a Collection, you can choose whether they should be a Viewer or an Editor.
Viewers can:
View the papers inside the Collection and sub-Collections
Run searches on the Collection
Editors can collaborate more directly on the Collection. Editors can:
View the papers inside the Collection and sub-Collections
Rename the Collection
Add a sub-collection within the shared Collection
Add papers to the Collection
Remove papers from the Collection
Run searches on the Collection
Please note that if you uploaded papers into the Collection, the individuals you invite will also have access to those papers. Uploads are private to your account unless you share a Collection that includes them with someone else.
How to manage access to a shared Collection
You can view and manage who has access to your Collection at any time.
To manage sharing settings:
Open My Library
Select the shared Collection
Click the Share button in the top right corner
From there, you can:
Add more people
Change someone’s role to Viewer or Editor
Revoke someone’s access to the Collection
How to see Collections shared with you
To view Collections that other people have shared with you:
Open My Library
Click 'Shared with me' in the top left corner
This will show the Collections you’ve been invited to access.
FAQs
How can I tell if a Collection is shared?
If you’ve shared a Collection with others, you’ll see a person icon on that Collection. You can also open the Collection and click the Share button to see who currently has access.
How to see who added a paper?
In a shared Collection, you can see who added each paper by looking at the 'Added by' column. This helps you keep track of which collaborator added each item to the Collection.
Can I change someone’s access after inviting them?
Yes. Open the shared Collection, click the Share button, and update the person’s role to Viewer or Editor.
Can Editors delete my uploaded PDFs from my account?
Editors can remove papers from the shared Collection, but those papers will still remain in your My Library. Removing a paper from a shared Collection does not delete it from your account.
Are saved Threads included when I share a Collection?
Not yet. When you share a Collection, only the papers in that Collection are shared. Saved Threads in the Collection are not currently included. Our team is working on adding support for shared Threads in Collections soon.