We'll be showing what Afforai can do to help you with your research project in this guide.

Afforai is a reference management tool built for researchers of all experience levels. Afforai allows you to manage, cite, collaborate and take notes on all of your research papers, as well as leverage AI to summarize, search and compare papers across multiple libraries.

If you are a researcher, professor or student who is looking to organize your reference library, or research your papers with an AI tool that you can trust, then Afforai is the tool for you.

Afforai is a reference management tool built for researchers of all experience levels. Afforai allows you to manage, cite, collaborate and take notes on all of your research papers, as well as leverage AI to summarize, search and compare papers across multiple libraries.

Afforai offers a number of different ways to upload references into your library. Every reference you upload will have its citation automatically generated.

To upload a file into Afforai, press the ‘upload file’ button, and select which files you want to upload. You can upload multiple files into Afforai at once. The following file types are supported with Afforai:

Upload any news articles, journal articles, book snippets etc. into Afforai by uploading the URL into your reference manager.

Upload a research paper by using it’s DOI (Digital Object Identifier). Afforai also allows you to upload other identifiers including:

Afforai will attempt to index your files as they are uploading however, in the unlikely instance your file doesn’t index, press the index button as showcased below, and your file will be re-indexed.

You can organize your library in Afforai with folders and tags.

To create a folder, right click on the library you would like it nested inside of. You can also create up to four layers of sub-folders inside your folders. Once you have created a folder, you can store your references inside them by simply dragging them in.

To create a tag, press the ‘create tag’ button in the tag pop-up. You can color code your tags for extra distinction. To assign a tag to a reference, drag and drop it into the reference you would like to assign it to.

Afforai supports over 10,000 citation styles that you can populate on any reference in just a couple of clicks.

To generate a citation or bibliography, right click on the reference you would like to use, then press ‘generate citation’. In the modal, select the citation type, citation locale, and choose whether you would like a citation or bibliography to be produced.

If you would like to collaborate on your research, you can easily do so with shared libraries.

To create a shared library, first press the ‘add library’ button, then press ‘create shareable library. This will add a shared library to your folder tree. From here, right click and press ‘invite people’. This allows you to invite people via the email they have an Afforai account with, and edit their permissions.

You can see who has invited you to join their shared library by pressing ‘add library’ then ‘shared libraries invites’. From here you can accept or reject invitations to shared libraries.

You can transfer the ownership of your library to someone else in the library, just right click and press ‘transfer ownership’ and select the person you would like to transfer your library to.

Here’s a concise guide to help you transfer your references from other reference managers like Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote into Afforai.

Afforai AI research assistant allows you to search, summarize, and compare hundreds of references across multiple libraries, by leveraging AI, complete with reliable data sources and inline citations.

Afforai offers you three unique search modes, enabling you to research your papers in an adaptable way.

Conduct your research using your uploaded files, complete with citations. You can edit which of your connected files you would like the AI to refer to when it answers your question in settings.

Answers come complete with inline citations and data sources. Inline citations show where each chunk of information has come from, and data sources allow you to reference the documents that were used by the AI.

Augment your research with data from a 200 million peer-reviewed research papers database. You can customize the areas of Semantic Scholar the AI uses to augment your research in settings. This includes editing fields of study, publication types, and publishing dates.

Answers will come complete with inline citations and data sources. Inline citations pull citations from Semantic Scholar to support chunks in your answer, whilst data sources allow you to discover new papers that are relevant to your research.

Enrich your research with information from Google, complete with citations. You can edit the region, language, and country the AI will use to supplement your research, as well exclude or limit research to certain domains in settings.

When using Semantic Scholar Mode, your answer will come complete with inline citations and data sources. Inline citations pull citations from Semantic Scholar to support chunks in your answer, whilst data sources allow you to discover new papers that are relevant to your research.

Afforai also allows you to use the most advanced AI models in the market so you can focus on doing your best work.

You can use the following search models natively with Afforai:

Standard AI Models

Advanced AI Models

BYOK allows you to use AI models in Afforai that are not natively supported via OpenRouter. To use Bring Your Own Key in Afforai, go into settings on the ‘custom’ AI model, and press ‘connect to OpenRouter’. For a detailed guide, click here.

Custom instructions allow you to tailor the AI's responses to fit specific research needs or project requirements. By defining these instructions, you can ensure that the AI delivers more relevant and precise information, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of their research.

Prompts allow you to create and use preset questions with the AI research assistant, meaning you can save time when asking repeated questions. To create a prompt, press ‘create new prompt’ in the prompt pop-up. After you give your prompt a name and message, you can use it to ask questions.

You can share your research by setting your chat to public. To do this, press on the private / public toggle, and change the selected status from private to public. You will then be able to copy the share link below, and share your findings with anyone, regardless of if they have an Afforai account or not.

Right click on any file in your library and press ‘view file’ to access the Afforai notebook. This allows you to make different kinds of annotations on your files.

You can make different types of color-coordinated annotations in the file annotator.

To highlight text, drag your mouse over the body of text you would like to highlight. You can add a comment to your text highlight when the ‘view notes’ panel is open.

To highlight an area, drag your mouse over the area of the page you would like to highlight. You can add a comment to your area highlight when the ‘view notes’ panel is open.

To create a sticky note, just click on the area you would like the sticky note to attach to. You can add a note in the text area that will pop-up after the action is finished. You can also add comments in the notes panel.

You can create quick notes when you have the notes panel open. Quick notes will populate in your notes on the side, but won’t be attached to a specific area of the file, unlike other annotation methods.

You can tag yourself in your comments, and tag your peers in comments made on files in shared libraries. Just press the ‘@’ key, and select the user you would like to add.

To use the AI, press the ‘@’ key and type select the AI model you would like to use. This allows you to use the Afforai AI research assistant to help you summarize, answer questions, or explain concepts about the notes you have made.

Insert citations and bibliographies from your library straight into your writing in Microsoft Word with over 10,000 citation styles, use Afforai AI Research Assistant to improve your writing flow, and so much more with Afforai Cite Extension.

Click to install.

Afforai Organization is an enterprise feature that allows you to create an organization, invite your employees, team members, and researchers in your department, and manage their billing, all in one place. We'll explore it further in this guide.
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Afforai prioritizes accessibility and inclusivity by providing industry-standard accommodations for users with disabilities. These keyboard shortcuts are designed to enhance the user experience and facilitate seamless navigation within the Afforai platform. We'll explore it further in this guide.

For more information about all things to do with Afforai, join our Community, or visit our help center.