Scite
Scite is an AI research platform that uses Smart Citations to classify every reference as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning a claim, with the surrounding sentence shown in context. Aimed at academic researchers, students, and analysts working across scholarly articles, patents, clinical trials, grants, and preprints.
Use Cases
Running a literature review and seeing at a glance which cited claims are contested
Fact-checking a specific claim by pulling supporting and contrasting evidence from peer-reviewed sources
Vetting a manuscript's reference list for retracted or contradicted papers before submission
Grounding ChatGPT or Claude answers in real scholarly sources via the Scite MCP server
Monitoring how a field is evolving with dashboards that alert on new citations and editorial notices
Exploring patents and prior art across a research domain alongside the academic literature
Pros
Smart Citations classify references as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning with the citing sentence shown inline
Indexes 280M+ full-text papers including paywalled content from 30+ publisher partners other AI tools can't reach
Reference Check uploads a manuscript or reference list and flags cited papers that have been contradicted by later work
MCP server plugs Smart Citations into ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini, and Copilot
Dashboards track citation activity, new editorial notices, and retractions for a chosen set of papers over time
Cons
No free tier beyond the 7-day trial; Basic is $20/mo and Pro is $50/mo for individuals
MCP usage is metered in credits (250/mo on Basic, 2,500/mo on Pro), so heavy ChatGPT or Claude workflows can drain the quota
Patents, clinical trials, and grants are gated behind the Pro tier or organization plans
No public disclosure of SOC 2, ISO 27001, or other security certifications on the privacy or trust pages
Coverage skews toward STEM and biomedical literature; humanities and non-English sources are thinner
Platforms
Web
Extension
API
MCP
Scite tells you whether a paper has been supported or contradicted by the work that cites it, with the citing sentence shown in context, so you stop nodding at citations you never actually read. The 280M-paper index reaches behind paywalls most AI research tools can't see, but you're tied to a $20/mo subscription the moment the 7-day trial ends.
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