Elicit
requiredScope search questions and extract candidate-paper signals.
Basic Free · Pro $49/mo · Scale $169/mo · Enterprise CustomOpen dossier →
Literature review stack
Researchers mapping a field before drafting a review.
Before you start
- Familiarity with academic databases
- Basic understanding of citation management
The stack at a glance
Stack cost calculator
Required tools from Free – $64/mo per month when every seat is on the cheapest monthly tier.
- ElicitrequiredFree·$49/mo
- Semantic ScholarrequiredFree
- ZoterorequiredFree
- Connected PapersoptionalFree
- ConsensusoptionalFree·$15/mo
Vendor annual plans, usage billing, and team seats can change the real bill. Treat this as a floor, not a quote.
Find candidate papers, preserve source metadata, and turn disagreement into a review outline.
Semantic Scholar
requiredVerify paper metadata and citation trails outside vendor summaries.
Web & alerts Free · Graph API Free · Bulk datasets FreeOpen dossier →
Zotero
requiredStore opened sources, notes, PDFs, and review clusters.
Free Free · 2 GB $20/yr · 6 GB $60/yr · Unlimited $120/yr · Institutional CustomOpen dossier →
Connected Papers
optionalMap adjacent papers and avoid missing nearby clusters.
Free Free · Academic Custom · Business Custom · Group Academic Custom · Group Business CustomOpen dossier →
Consensus
optionalSpot claim-level disagreement to inspect manually.
Free Free · Pro (monthly) $15/mo · Pro (annual) $120/yr · Deep (monthly) $65/mo · Deep (annual) $540/yr · Teams Custom · Enterprise CustomOpen dossier →
How the pieces fit together
- Set the review boundary before opening search tools.
- Search and graph candidates, then open only sources that match the boundary.
- Save kept papers to Zotero with type, reason, and limitation notes.
- Use AI tools to surface disagreement, never to replace methods reading.
This stack only earns its keep when you actually follow the run order.
- Graph tools reveal proximity, not paper quality.
- Consensus-style summaries must be checked against the cited papers.
- A review outline without disagreement is usually still a bibliography.