Searching within Consensus

Consensus is built to adapt to the way you search to help you find, understand, and synthesize peer-reviewed research.

There is no single “correct” way to search in Consensus. You can use keywords, natural language questions, Boolean queries, enter a specific paper or author, or more detailed research instructions.

For best results, keep a research question, topic, or paper at the center of your query.

How to search

Access consensus.app/search/
Type a query in the search bar
Select your search mode
- By default, you will run in a Pro message. To run a more in-depth analysis, click Deep to turn your message into a Deep Review.
Open the Corpus dropdown to choose where you’d like to search:
- All: search our full database of 220+ million research papers
- Medical mode: search a curated subset of ~8M papers and 50,000 clinical guidelines from the top 1,000 medical journals.
- My Library: search within papers you’ve uploaded or saved
Submit your search

Search Modes

Consensus offers three ways to search depending on how much analysis you need.

🔍 Paper search: Provides a list of relevant papers for your query without an AI summary, making it useful for quickly browsing sources (located under Tools in the bottom-left corner).

🔭 Pro: Analyzes up to 20 papers, providing a more thoughtful summary and connections between findings.

🔬 Deep: Conducts a comprehensive literature review across up to 50-100 papers, best for in-depth exploration of complex topics.

Best practices for writing your search

1. Start with a clear question or topic

Both simple topics and natural-language questions work well.

Try it: Does creatine improve cognition?

Yes-or-no questions can generate the Consensus Meter, which shows the level of agreement or disagreement across the research.

2. Add criteria to narrow your search

Include important requirements directly in your query, such as publication date, study type, population, sample size, or journal quality.

Try it: Does magnesium improve sleep quality in adults? Focus on randomized controlled trials from the past 5 years.

Research Agent can recognize many of these instructions and apply the appropriate filters automatically. You can also apply filters manually using Advanced Search Filters.

3. Ask for the analysis you need

In Pro and Deep, you can tell Consensus how you'd like the research analyzed or presented.

For example, you can ask Consensus to compare studies, create a table, summarize the strongest evidence, identify conflicting findings, or find gaps in the literature.

Try it: Compare CBT, exercise, and mindfulness for anxiety. Focus on RCTs from the past 5 years and summarize the findings in a table.

You can also continue refining your research with follow-up questions in the same thread.

How should I format my search query?

There’s no single “right” way to search in Consensus, we’re built to adapt to your style.

You can search with:

Keywords
Natural language questions
Boolean logic
Paper titles
Author names
DOI-based queries
MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) synonyms
Instructions (i.e. create a table, make a bulleted list, find the research gaps, or explain it like I’m 6)

Using Boolean logic in your searches

Consensus supports Boolean operators to give you more control over your search results. These operators can help you narrow, broaden, or refine your queries with precision.

AND = Show results that include all terms
- obesity AND diet AND exercise
OR = Show results that include either term
- yoga OR meditation
NOT = Exclude a term from results
- depression NOT postpartum
"Quotes" = Search for an exact phrase
- "traumatic brain injury"
(Parentheses) = Group terms for advanced logic
- Therapy AND (PTSD OR trauma) AND veterans