GuidesStack

Literature review stack

Six tools that keep the reading in your hands and the bookkeeping out of them.

Intermediate
Tools6 (3 required)
BudgetSemantic Scholar and Zotero are free. Elicit Basic gives two reports a month, with Pro at USD 49 per user per month billed annually. Connected Papers is free for five graphs a month. Consensus has a free tier and a paid Pro with a student rate. Claude is free with Pro at USD 20 a month.
Workflow5 steps
Before you start
  • Two papers in your field you have read end to end
  • A written review boundary, even a rough one
Monthly math

Stack cost calculator

Required tools from Free – $84/mo when every seat is on the cheapest monthly tier.

  • ElicitrequiredFree·$49/mo
  • Semantic ScholarrequiredFree
  • ZoterorequiredFree
  • Connected PapersoptionalFree
  • ConsensusoptionalFree·$15/mo
  • ClaudeoptionalFree·$20/mo

Vendor annual plans, usage billing, and team seats can change the real bill. Treat this as a floor, not a quote.

Role × tool

Elicit

required

Test the boundary. Paste the four lines, ask for papers that fit and papers that fail one line, and note which suggestions drift outside the years or population. Two reports a month on the free tier, so spend them on the boundary rather than on browsing.

Basic Free · Pro $49/mo · Scale $169/mo · Enterprise CustomOpen dossier →

Semantic Scholar

required

Verify before you save. Check title, year, venue, and the reference list of every candidate a graph or a summary handed you. Retracted or preprint-only work shows up here first.

Web & alerts Free · Graph API Free · Bulk datasets FreeOpen dossier →

Zotero

required

Where the clusters live. One entry per opened paper with three lines: claim, measured outcome, open question. Collections carry the clusters, tags carry the anchors. Candidates you have not opened stay out.

Free Free · 2 GB $20/yr · 6 GB $60/yr · Unlimited $120/yr · Institutional CustomOpen dossier →

Connected Papers

optional

Two seeds you have read, one graph, and a triage pass. Each neighbour gets a seed relation and a reason to open it, or it is dropped. Five graphs a month on the free tier keeps the seeds deliberate.

Free Free · Academic Custom · Business Custom · Group Academic Custom · Group Business CustomOpen dossier →

Consensus

optional

Ask the yes-or-no version of your question and read the paper pairs that split. Take the pairs, leave the aggregate meter. The design difference is what you write down.

Free Free · Pro (monthly) $15/mo · Pro (annual) $120/yr · Deep (monthly) $65/mo · Deep (annual) $540/yr · Teams Custom · Enterprise CustomOpen dossier →

Claude

optional

Compress cluster notes into candidate headings once the argument already exists. Paste notes, get headings, delete the ones without papers. Never the source of a paper or a finding.

Free Free · Pro $20/mo · Max 5× $100/mo · Max 20× $200/mo · Team Standard $25/mo · Team Premium $125/mo · Enterprise Custom · API CustomOpen dossier →
Run order

How the pieces fit together

  1. Write the four boundary lines and one exclusion, then test them in Elicit.
  2. Seed Connected Papers with two read papers and verify every neighbour in Semantic Scholar.
  3. Open the survivors and cluster them in Zotero by claim and measured outcome.
  4. Pull paper pairs from Consensus, read both sides, and name the design difference.
  5. Compress the cluster notes into headings with Claude and cut any heading without papers.
Before you ship

This stack only earns its keep when you actually follow the run order.

  • Graph proximity means shared citations. The weakest paper in the field is also close to the strongest one.
  • An aggregate agreement meter answers a different question than yours. Open the two papers behind the split before you cite either.
  • An outline with no disagreement in it is a bibliography with headings.