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DOSSIER · Academic discovery · FLAGSHIP · VERIFIED 14 Sep 2026
Scite70FlagshipCitation-context and evidence-positioning toolVerified 2026-09-14

Dossier · Academic discovery

Scite

Scite flagship-ready dossier: Citation-context and evidence-positioning tool.

What is Scite?

Decision

Citation-context and evidence-positioning tool

Choose it when
  • Checking whether later papers support, contrast, or merely mention a claim
  • Researchers evaluating a paper’s citation context beyond raw citation count
Skip it when
  • You need the cheapest student research assistant and your library does not license Scite
  • You treat Smart Citation labels as final truth without opening citing passages
Cost
Live 2026-09-14 from scite.ai/pricing: Free — no credit card, 25 MCP credits/month, no Assistant or Search.
Privacy
Scite privacy policy effective 2026-03-26 says it may collect and process personal information through use of its website, products, services, and from academic/scientific publications.

Watch for Citation classification can misread nuance

Compare with ElicitHow we score

Synthesized8 sourcespricing checked 14 Sep 2026privacy checked 9 Jun 2026

What these labels mean
Editorial fit
0–100 desk score for research-workflow fit. Not stars, not a benchmark.
Evidence level
How close the desk got: self-run, hands-on, synthesized, or vendor claim.
Dossier depth
Flagship, Solid, Lightweight, and Draft describe how finished the page is — not which tool is best.
Verification date
When pricing or privacy was last opened at the source. Not a re-score of the whole dossier.
Benchmark status
Pending means no relevant first-party test is published yet. It is not a negative score.

Open the glossary · Read the methodology

Scite shows how later papers cite a scientific article, including whether they support or contradict it. Its pricing page offers a 7-day trial of premium features that automatically rolls into your selected subscription unless you cancel. Students and academics can receive a discount by recommending Scite to their institution. Checked 13 October 2026.

Role: Citation-context and evidence-positioning toolCategory: Academic discoverySynthesized
Scite at a glance, with the date each field was checked.
FieldValue
Editorial fit70 out of 100
Dossier statusFlagship
SetAcademic discovery
Role in a workflowCitation-context and evidence-positioning tool
PricingFree Free · Basic $20/mo · Pro $50/mo · Team & Enterprise Custom
Training on your dataWe could not verify Scite's training policy: its privacy page returned HTTP 403 on 11 October 2026. We cannot confirm whether Scite uses your prompts or uploads to train models, how to opt out, or whether free, paid, team, enterprise and API use have different rules. Ask Scite for written confirmation before submitting confidential work. Policy URL, not verified: https://scite.ai/policy
Last verified2026-09-14

Editor's note

Scite is valuable because it asks a better citation question. VerdictPal should still make users read the passage: a Smart Citation label is a lead, not a verdict.

Public facts · vendor & repo

List prices and pay-as-you-go entry points we can cite without running our own bench. Each tile links to a source when possible.

Academic discoverySetVerdictPal tool ↗
synthesizedEvidenceQuality gate ↗
7Sources checkedSources ↗
2026-06-07Pricing checkedQuality gate ↗

Limits & product surface

Non-price vendor claims — multipliers, caps, and API scope. Detailed matrices live in subscription and SDK sections below.

Primary surface
prosumer-saasTool identity ↗
Modalities
text, dataTool identity ↗
Workflow roles
[object Object], [object Object], [object Object]VerdictPal editorial ↗
Alternatives tracked
Elicit, Consensus, Semantic Scholar, Connected Papers, PubMedVerdictPal comparison set ↗

How it works · agent loop

The public positioning for this product — the loop we score against on VerdictPal.

Start with the wedge

Checking whether later papers support, contrast, or merely mention a claim

Run the representative task

Check 10 focal papers and manually verify sampled support/contrast/mention labels against citing passages.

Check the failure modes

Citation classification can misread nuance

Compare before recommending

Compare against Elicit, Consensus, Semantic Scholar before shipping advice.

Who it fits, where it fails

Best for

  • Checking whether later papers support, contrast, or merely mention a claim
  • Researchers evaluating a paper’s citation context beyond raw citation count
  • Literature-review workflows that need citation reports, alerts, Reference Check, and grounded AI answers
  • Institutions connecting Scite to ChatGPT, Claude, or other MCP-compatible AI clients

Avoid if

  • You need the cheapest student research assistant and your library does not license Scite
  • You treat Smart Citation labels as final truth without opening citing passages
  • Your field has sparse citation coverage or relies heavily on books, policy, non-indexed sources, or references without DOIs
  • You need a full systematic-review workflow rather than citation-context triage

Strengths

  • Smart Citations
  • support/contrast/mention contexts
  • Scite Assistant
  • search
  • dashboards
  • collections
  • reports
  • alerts
  • Reference Check
  • Scite MCP
  • Scite API
  • organization analytics
  • patents/clinical trials/grants in MCP release notes

Weaknesses

  • Citation classification can misread nuance
  • Reference Check can miss non-DOI/difficult-format sources
  • News/policy/books may be weakly represented
  • Subscription cost may require library access
  • Citation context does not replace methodological appraisal
  • Uploads/searches create a cloud-processing boundary

How it could improve

  • Citation accuracy needs investment. A citation-verification pass against Semantic Scholar or CrossRef before presenting a source would catch the worst fabrication errors.
  • Citation accuracy needs investment. A citation-verification pass against Semantic Scholar or CrossRef before presenting a source would catch the worst fabrication errors.
  • Institutional policy friction could be reduced with a local/on-prem deployment option, or at minimum with clear data-handling documentation that compliance teams can review without an NDA.
  • Privacy posture scores 36/100, the weakest dimension on this dossier. Addressing this would meaningfully raise the editorial fit.
  • Evidence strength scores 52/100, the weakest dimension on this dossier. Addressing this would meaningfully raise the editorial fit.

Search modes · 4 lenses

One input box, many retrieval postures. Filter by tier.

01Free

Workspace

Workspace path for Scite — verify limits on the live product.

02Pro

Collaboration

Collaboration path for Scite — verify limits on the live product.

03Pro

Automation

Automation path for Scite — verify limits on the live product.

04Max

Admin & billing

Admin & billing path for Scite — verify limits on the live product.

Competitive lens

Where Scite wins for cited research — and where a rival still belongs in the stack.

Scite is stronger when checking whether later papers support, contrast, or merely mention a claim; Elicit may still win for narrower fit, procurement, or specialist depth.

Scite

  • Checking whether later papers support, contrast, or merely mention a claim
  • Researchers evaluating a paper’s citation context beyond raw citation count

Elicit

  • You need the cheapest student research assistant and your library does not license Scite
  • You treat Smart Citation labels as final truth without opening citing passages

Scores and evidence

Metric lab · 16 dimensions

Click a tile for the editorial note. Color follows score: coral, yellow, mint.

Shape

Avg 71 · 36–100

70Editorial fit

Weighted roll-up across 13 dimensions for Academic discovery; pending desk verification if rescored from public facts.

By group

Fit79
  • Editorial fit70
  • Wedge task fit68
  • Feature depth100
Cost63
  • Free-tier utility67
  • Cost-to-value68
  • Opportunity cost55
Trust72
  • Source grounding72
  • Privacy posture36
  • Failure transparency100
  • Evidence strength52
  • Transparency100
Workflow69
  • Integration reach75
  • Setup friction70
  • Reliability70
  • Competitive position75
  • Data portability55

Benchmark ledger

Public rows are vendor or third-party claims we logged with a date. Desk rows are reserved for VerdictPal self-run results.

MeasureResultSource
Check 10 focal papers and manually verify sampled support/contrast/mention labels against citing passagescorrect label rate, nuance errors, missing context, field coverage, decision impact.PlannedVerdictPal benchmark plan
Upload/check a manuscript bibliography with DOI, non-DOI, policy, and news referencesmatch rate, missed references, false matches, usefulness of warnings, privacy friction.PlannedVerdictPal benchmark plan
Ask ChatGPT/Claude with Scite MCP to answer 10 literature questionscitation support, hallucination reduction, source coverage, admin analytics, setup friction.PlannedVerdictPal benchmark plan
Compare Scite, Semantic Scholar, Google Scholar, and Consensus for 10 contested claimstime to understand evidence position, source quality, label/summary correctness, cost justification.PlannedVerdictPal benchmark plan

Editorial evidence · 0 entries

No editorial benchmark yet. The tool stays at status Flagship until evidence lands.

Test scenarios · hands-on lab

How we exercised the product. Step through each run before you trust the scores.

Test run

Step 1 of 4

Start from the persona in best-for item 1.

Research log · desk notes

What we learned while building this dossier — not vendor copy.

Notion Tool pipeline (Card pipeline) ↗

Notion research pass

Scite is the citation-context tool. It is valuable because it asks a better question than raw citation count: did later papers support, contrast, or merely mention the claim? This pass strengthens the tool with Scite’s current Smart Citations, MCP, API, publisher/full-text coverage, privacy-policy, and reference-check caveats. The public recommendation remains gated until label accuracy is benchmarked against actual citing passages.

VerdictPal git ↗

Flagship-ready structure

Converted imported research into metrics, panes, scenarios, benchmark rows, comparison notes, and pricing deck.

What it costs, what it keeps

Pricing deck · checked 2026-09-14

Basic

$20

month

  • Billed yearly; 7-day trial
  • 250 MCP credits/month; Assistant and Search
Desk pick

Pro

$50

month

  • Billed yearly; API access
  • 2,500 MCP credits/month

RAW · checked 2026-09-14: Live 2026-09-14 from scite.ai/pricing: Free — no credit card, 25 MCP credits/month, no Assistant or Search. Basic $20/month billed yearly (save $96) with 7-day trial — full Assistant and Search, 250 MCP credits/month, collections up to 1,000 papers. Pro $50/month billed yearly (save $120) with 7-day trial — API access, 2,500 MCP credits/month, collections up to 10,000 papers, patent/clinical-trial/grant datasets; limited-time $60 API credit. Team and Enterprise contact [email protected]. Student/academic discounts via recommending Scite to an institution.

Privacy deep-dive · checked 2026-06-09

Scite privacy policy effective 2026-03-26 says it may collect and process personal information through use of its website, products, services, and from academic/scientific publications. Treat searches, uploads, Reference Check, Assistant queries, MCP use, and API calls as cloud-processed unless institution-specific terms say otherwise.

Training on your dataWe could not verify Scite's training policy: its privacy page returned HTTP 403 on 11 October 2026. We cannot confirm whether Scite uses your prompts or uploads to train models, how to opt out, or whether free, paid, team, enterprise and API use have different rules. Ask Scite for written confirmation before submitting confidential work. Policy URL, not verified: https://scite.ai/policy
EU data residencyUnknown
SOC 2 attestationUnknown
Local-first by defaultUnknown

Under the hood

Vendors named on the product about page — useful for procurement and privacy reviews.

citation context checks
Scite
smart citations in manuscripts
Elicit
literature triage
Consensus

Alternatives and context

Workflow roles

How this tool fits into a composed research stack:

citation context checkssmart citations in manuscriptsliterature triage

Appears in

Composed workflows on VerdictPal that reference this tool, not vendor marketing.

Stacks

  • Peer review stackReviewers who have to do citation work on a manuscript they are not allowed to upload anywhere.

Playbooks

  • Manuscript reviewReviewers holding a manuscript that is not theirs to share, with a report due.

Deep panes · 6 lenses

Editorial lenses only. Subscription and API pricing live in their own sections above.

Lens 01

Positioning

Scite is framed here as Citation-context and evidence-positioning tool. Scite is the citation-context tool. It is valuable because it asks a better question than raw citation count: did later papers support, contrast, or merely mention the claim? This pass strengthens the tool with Scite’s current Smart Citations, MCP, API, publisher/full-text coverage, privacy-policy, and reference-check caveats. The public recommendation remains gated until label accuracy is benchmarked against actual citing passages.

Checked
2026-06-07
Evidence
synthesized
  • Checking whether later papers support, contrast, or merely mention a claim
  • Researchers evaluating a paper’s citation context beyond raw citation count
  • Literature-review workflows that need citation reports, alerts, Reference Check, and grounded AI answers
  • Institutions connecting Scite to ChatGPT, Claude, or other MCP-compatible AI clients

Sources and provenance

Quality gate · Flagship

Evidence ready

Verdict history

  • Promoted to flagship depth for the student research shelf: the dossier already carries the full template; pricing checked 2026-09-14. Benchmark status stays pending.
  • Scite is the citation-context tool. It is valuable because it asks a better question than raw citation count: did later papers support, contrast, or merely mention the claim? This pass strengthens the tool with Scite’s current Smart Citations, MCP, API, publisher/full-text coverage, privacy-policy, and reference-check caveats. The public recommendation remains gated until label accuracy is benchmarked against actual citing passages.
  • Converted imported Notion research into a full flagship-ready dossier template with metrics, panes, pricing deck, scenarios, benchmark rows, and comparison slices.
  • Live scite.ai/pricing: Free, Basic $20/month yearly, Pro $50/month yearly. Privacy page timed out this pass.
SynthesizedFlagship
Visit Scitedirect link

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Browse the atlas

Questions this dossier answers

Every answer below is assembled from the dated fields on this page. Nothing is written separately for search.

What is Scite, and is it free?

Scite shows how later papers cite a scientific article, including whether they support or contradict it. Its pricing page offers a 7-day trial of premium features that automatically rolls into your selected subscription unless you cancel. Students and academics can receive a discount by recommending Scite to their institution. Checked 13 October 2026.

Is Scite free?

Scite offers a 7-day free trial of premium features. After it ends, you are automatically enrolled in the plan you selected unless you cancel first.

Does Scite have a student discount?

Yes, conditionally. Scite says it offers discounts to students and academics who recommend it to their institution by email and copy or forward that email to its support and sales teams.

What does Scite do?

According to its pricing page, Scite helps researchers see how a paper has been cited by others, including whether it has been supported or contradicted.

Is Scite worth using?

Scite scores 70 out of 100 on editorial fit and carries Flagship dossier status. Its job in a research workflow is: Citation-context and evidence-positioning tool.

Who is Scite best for?

Scite earns its place when you need:

  • Checking whether later papers support, contrast, or merely mention a claim
  • Researchers evaluating a paper’s citation context beyond raw citation count
  • Literature-review workflows that need citation reports, alerts, Reference Check, and grounded AI answers
  • Institutions connecting Scite to ChatGPT, Claude, or other MCP-compatible AI clients

When should you not use Scite?

Skip Scite in these cases:

  • You need the cheapest student research assistant and your library does not license Scite
  • You treat Smart Citation labels as final truth without opening citing passages
  • Your field has sparse citation coverage or relies heavily on books, policy, non-indexed sources, or references without DOIs
  • You need a full systematic-review workflow rather than citation-context triage

What goes wrong with Scite?

The dossier publishes 6 failure modes for Scite, and they stay published whether or not the vendor likes them:

  • Citation classification can misread nuance
  • Reference Check can miss non-DOI/difficult-format sources
  • News/policy/books may be weakly represented
  • Subscription cost may require library access
  • Citation context does not replace methodological appraisal
  • Uploads/searches create a cloud-processing boundary

What are the alternatives to Scite?

The closest options to Scite are Elicit, Consensus, Semantic Scholar, Connected Papers, PubMed. Each one that has a tool in the atlas is linked from this dossier, with a head-to-head comparison.

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