Skip to main content

Glossary

In short: These are the terms SciNodes uses in the app and in these docs, in alphabetical order. SciNodes always calls a scholarly item, such as a journal article, conference paper, preprint, book or dataset, a publication.

About panel​

The panel in a chat that lists what the chat is about: maps, nodes, publications and files, up to 12. It also shows what the assistant can see ("in view"). See Attachments and what's in view.

Alias​

A short name you give a publication in your library, for example "HN22", to find it quickly. See Publication details.

Assistant​

One of the AI research assistants you can chat with: Sage (Superior, the default), Vega (Standard), Nova (Budget) and Atlas (Expert, locked for now). Higher tiers give stronger answers and use more credits. See Assistants and credits.

Bibliographic coupling​

A map type that links two items when they cite the same publications. It shows research fronts. See Map types.

Bin​

Where deleted projects go. You can restore them. The Bin shows a 60-day countdown for each project. See Recycle bin.

Citation map​

A map type that links two items when one cites the other.

Cluster​

A group of closely linked nodes on a map, drawn in one color. Its name depends on the map type, for example Topic, School of Thought, Research Front or Research Group. See Reading a map.

Co-authorship map​

A map type that links authors, organizations or countries that published together.

Co-citation map​

A map type that links two items when publications in your corpus cite them together. It shows a field's intellectual base.

Corpus​

The set of publications a project works over. You see and manage it in the Library tab. See Adding publications.

Corpus expansion​

Permanently adding related publications to a corpus, by re-running the queries that built it or by running new searches. It only adds publications you don't already have. See Corpus expansion.

Corpus slice​

A filter that limits which publications one map uses, by year, document type, folder, citations, keyword, text, author, affiliation, venue, language, open access or retraction. It doesn't change the corpus. You can also describe a slice in a sentence and let AI turn it into filters. See Corpus slices.

Credits​

The unit SciNodes uses to measure AI usage. Every AI feature draws from one weekly budget that resets every Sunday at 00:00 UTC. See Credits and usage.

Discover​

Gathering publications by writing your own catalog search, with year range and include or exclude filters. Compare Suggest. See Discover and Suggest.

Draft map​

A map that isn't saved yet. The first map in a project is saved automatically; later maps start as drafts. You can keep up to 32 drafts per project. See Drafts and saving.

Edge​

A line between two nodes on a map. It shows a link such as a citation, co-citation, collaboration or co-occurrence.

Expert Mode​

The map creation form that exposes every setting: type, unit, slice, thresholds, clustering, layout, normalization and weights. See Expert Mode.

Folder​

A way to organise publications in the library. One publication can be in several folders. The default folder is My references. See Folders.

In view​

What a research assistant can actually read on a turn: the publication's PDF text if SciNodes holds a copy, plus your notes and highlights on it.

Initial Map​

The term co-occurrence map SciNodes builds automatically when you create a project.

Keyword co-occurrence map​

A map type that links author keywords, index keywords or MeSH terms that appear on the same publication.

Legacy project​

An archived project. It's read-only until you restore it. See Legacy projects.

Library​

The project tab where you add, organise, search and read your corpus.

Map​

See Research map.

Map queries bar​

The box floating over the map stage where you type a research question and SciNodes recommends a map to answer it. See Create a map from a question.

My references​

The default folder in each project's library. Some actions, such as writing a note or fetching a PDF, file a publication here automatically. You can change this in Preferences.

Node​

A point on a map: a publication, author, organization, country, venue, keyword or term.

Node weightage​

What a node's size represents, for example its number of links (degree) or how often it bridges other nodes (betweenness). See Reading a map.

Open access​

A publication that can be read free of charge. SciNodes marks these with an Open access badge and can fetch their PDFs.

Project​

Your unit of work in SciNodes. It has its own corpus, maps, notes, chats, research objects and collaborators.

Publication​

Any scholarly item in SciNodes: journal article, conference paper, preprint, book, chapter, dataset and so on.

Query Bank​

A catalog of more than 100 research questions, grouped by category, that you can map in one click. See Query Bank.

Quick Chat​

An assistant chat that isn't tied to a project. See Quick Chat.

Quick Note​

A note that isn't tied to a project. You can move it into one later. See Quick notes.

Reference data​

The reference lists of your publications. Citation, co-citation and bibliographic coupling maps need it. Run Fetch reference data once per project to fill it in. See Empty maps and reference data.

Reference style​

The citation format SciNodes uses when you cite publications. There are 81 styles, and APA 7th edition is the default. See Citations and reference styles.

Relevance and recency​

Per-project scores that will show how much your team has engaged with each publication and how recently. Coming soon. See Relevance and recency.

Research focus​

Up to three tags describing what stage a project is at, such as Literature Review or Grant Writing.

Research in Formation (RIF)​

The project tab where you collect research objects and the evidence behind them, and arrange them by importance. "RIF it" adds something to it. See Research in Formation.

Research map​

A network visualisation built from your corpus or a slice of it. There are six types. See Map types.

Research object​

An item in Research in Formation, such as a publication, author, concept, theory, method, journal, institution or country, together with its evidence and links.

Retracted​

A publication that has been withdrawn. SciNodes shows a Retracted badge and a warning.

Saved Authors and Saved Venues​

Your bookmark lists of authors and venues in a project. Each member has their own. You save them from maps by hand, or automatically when you write a note, add to RIF or ask the assistant about them. See Saved authors and venues.

SciVerse​

The free public search engine for the scholarly record from SciNodes, at sciverse.scinodes.com. See SciVerse overview.

SmarterPDF​

A clean text-and-tables reading view of a PDF that the assistant can cite by page. Coming soon. See SmarterPDF.

Suggest​

Gathering publications by describing your research focus and letting SciNodes AI plan and run several searches for you. Compare Discover.

Term co-occurrence map​

A map type that links terms extracted from titles, abstracts and keywords that appear in the same publication.

Timeline mode​

A map mode with a year slider, so you can see how a field developed over time. See Timeline mode.

Unit of analysis​

What the nodes on a map are: publications, authors, organizations, countries, venues, keywords or terms.

Venue​

Where a publication appeared: a journal, conference, workshop or symposium.

Weekly budget​

Your allowance of credits for AI features each week. It resets every Sunday at 00:00 UTC and doesn't roll over.

Work desk​

The project workspace, with the Overview, Research in Formation, Library, Research Maps, Notes and Research Assistants tabs.