The things worth asking first

It is built so that it cannot be. You answer first and the analysis is revealed afterwards, so the work of reading stays yours. Brainie will not write your literature review, your argument or your assignment, and it refuses if you ask. If you are unsure what your institution allows, the academic integrity statement sets out exactly what the system will and will not do. Take it to your supervisor.

A DOI is the permanent ID printed on most journal articles, usually near the top of the first page, and it always starts with 10. (for example 10.1371/journal.pone.0000308). Paste it into the upload window and Brainie fills in the title, authors and journal, warns you if the paper has been retracted, and fetches a legal free copy where one exists. If there is no free copy, get the PDF through your library and upload it as usual. The step-by-step guide is at researchbrainie.com/guide.

Yes. Every paper you analyse is checked against Crossref, which includes the Retraction Watch database, and against OpenAlex. A retracted paper, or one the journal has published an expression of concern about, is flagged at the top of the paper and in your library. Pass 4 shows the full record, including corrections and any retracted papers it cites, and it is checked again every week because retractions often come years later. The records can be incomplete, so no warning means nothing was found, not that the paper is sound.

Yes, after you have read a paper. Brainie looks at what that paper cites and what has cited it since, in the open OpenAlex record, and picks up to four papers from each with a sentence on why each matters to what you are researching. Tell it what you are researching in Settings for the best reasons. The reasons are judged from titles and abstracts, not from reading the papers, so treat them as a starting point. It uses no credits, and retracted papers are never suggested.

Yes. Export your list as a RIS (.ris) or BibTeX (.bib) file and press Import in your reading queue. Up to 500 references come in at a time, and anything already in your queue is skipped. Every imported paper with a DOI gets a Find a free copy button. Research Brainie does not search the literature on a topic; it helps you read the papers you have chosen, and suggests what to read after each one.

Yes, with a reading group. Analyse the paper once, set it for the group, and share the join code. Each student reads it themselves and answers in their own words, and only after answering a pass do they see how the rest of the group answered it, so nobody copies. The group has its own pool of papers, and a set paper draws one credit from that pool for every two students who read it: thirty students reading one paper costs fifteen. Students keep their own papers, notes and projects private, and can leave at any time and keep everything they have read. For a department, write to us and we will set the pool up for your cohort.

The PDF is deleted inside the request that uploaded it, and the extracted text is cleared once the analysis finishes. Your browser keeps its own copy so you can still read the paper, and that copy never comes back to us. The text is sent to an AI to be analysed, and nothing sent there is used to train a model. The privacy page names every company that touches your work, where it is, and what each one sees.

Two papers free, with no card. After that $15 for 20 papers, which is $0.75 each, or $39 for 60. Credits never expire and there is no subscription. You buy papers, not months, and nothing renews on its own. If your country charges VAT or sales tax, it is added at checkout, so a UK reader pays about $18 for the twenty.

Sometimes it will be, and the system is built to make that visible rather than hide it. Every analytical claim is marked as directly supported by the paper, inferred, outside knowledge, or uncertain, so you can see which parts to check. Brainie does not invent quotes, page numbers or citations. Treat it as a well-read colleague who is confident and occasionally mistaken, which is the correct way to treat one.

Yes. If the PDF is images of pages rather than text, an older journal or a photocopy, Brainie reads the pages themselves. It takes a little longer, and the analysis carries a note saying the text was transcribed, so you know to check a quotation against the original before using it. Where a scan is too degraded to read, it says so rather than guessing.

Only if you send them a link. Nothing is shared by default. You can generate a read-only link showing your reading history and how your analysis has developed, which is meant for exactly the conversation where you are asked what you have actually read. You can turn it off again at any time.

Nothing disappears. There is no subscription to cancel, credits do not expire, and every paper you have already read stays in your library with its analysis and your notes. You simply stop being able to analyse new papers until you add more credits.