Discover and Suggest
In short: Suggest means you describe a research focus and SciNodes AI plans several catalog searches for you. Discover (called Custom Search in the Library) means you write the search yourself, with year limits and include or exclude filters. In a project, open Library → Add Publications → Discover, pick Suggest Publications or Custom Search, set How many publications, run the search, untick anything you don't want and click Add N selected publications.
Before you start
- Both use your weekly AI credits for search planning. See Credits and usage.
- Results come from the same scholarly catalog as SciVerse.
Suggest publications
- Open the project's Library tab and click Add Publications → Discover.
- Click the Suggest Publications tab.
- Set How many publications (100 by default).
- Under "What are you looking for?", describe what you're after in a sentence or two. Your project description is filled in as a starting point. Click Tidy up my wording to fix terminology and grammar.
- Click Find publications.
- "Searching for:" shows the searches SciNodes AI planned. When they're done, you see "N publications found".
- Review the list. Publications already in your library are left unticked and marked "In your library". Use Select all or Select none, or untick rows one by one.
- Click Add N selected publications. A bar follows progress, and a summary appears when it's done.
Search the catalog yourself (Custom Search)
- In Library → Add Publications → Discover, click the Custom Search tab.
- Set How many publications.
- Type in the search box ("Search publications, authors, organizations, topics…").
- Optional: open Filters:
- Publication year: from and to.
- Refine by: choose Author, Organization, Topic, Journal or Conference, choose Include or Exclude, then type and pick a match. Included filters show with "+", excluded with "−".
- Optional: click Add another query to run several searches together. Each query has its own filters.
- Press
Enteror click Find publications to preview the results. - Untick what you don't want and click Add N selected publications.
Options and limits
| Option | Limit |
|---|---|
| How many publications (Library) | 100 by default, up to the limit shown next to the box (800 by default). Fixed once you search; click Edit search to change it. |
| Queries per search | Up to 10 |
| Refine by filters | Up to 25 included and 25 excluded per type. Journals and conferences share one list. |
| Suggest when creating a project | Up to 800 publications |
| Discover when creating a project | About 500 publications by default. A search that finds fewer can't proceed. |
Suggest compared with Discover
| Suggest | Discover / Custom Search | |
|---|---|---|
| You provide | A description of your research focus | Search terms and filters |
| Who writes the searches | SciNodes AI, several at once | You, up to 10 |
| Best for | Exploring an unfamiliar field | Reproducible, controlled searches, for example in a systematic review |
| Filters | None | Year, and include or exclude authors, organizations, topics, journals, conferences |
Every search you run is recorded with its exact query and filters, so you can re-run it later. See Corpus expansion.
When creating a project
The same two options appear in the New Project form as Suggest publications for me and Discover with SciVerse. There, you don't tick individual results: SciNodes shows a preview of the top results and adds the whole set. See Creating projects.
Tips
- "· within N fields" next to "Searching for:" means SciNodes limited the search to the research fields that fit your focus. Hover over it to see which.
- Changed your mind mid-search? Click Stop search or Edit search. SciNodes asks "Stop this search?" or "Discard these results?" before dropping anything.
- Only one add runs at a time. If another is running, you see "Publications are being added to another project. You can search once that finishes."
Troubleshooting
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Nothing found for "…"" | Describe the focus more broadly, or use fewer filters |
| "Your query didn't give enough publications to proceed." (New Project form) | Broaden your queries with Edit query, or Try Suggest |
| "Not enough publications — try describing your research focus differently." | Rephrase your focus more broadly |
| "AI search planning wasn't available, so this search used your own words." | The results are real. Rephrase if they're too narrow. |
| "The "from" year is after the "to" year, so nothing can match." | Swap the years |
| "Up to 25 included author filters." | Remove a filter to add another |
| "Weekly complex compute budget spent." | Your weekly AI credits are used up. Wait for the reset shown in the message. |
| "The catalog service is unavailable right now — try again shortly." | Try again in a few minutes |
| "Your session has expired — sign in again to continue." | Sign in again |
| "Couldn't find publications" / "Couldn't load results" | Click Try again |
FAQ
Do Suggest and Discover search the web?
No. They search the scholarly catalog that SciVerse is built on, which is based on OpenAlex.
Will I get duplicates of publications I already have?
No. Publications already in the corpus start unticked and are skipped when adding.
Can I see what searches Suggest ran?
Yes. "Searching for:" shows the planned searches while it runs, and each search is recorded so you can re-run it later from Expand corpus in Expert Mode.
Why are the numbers different from SciVerse?
SciNodes collects the top-ranked results up to the number you set, not every match the catalog has.