Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar

The one literature tool this repo actually wraps in a script, because it's free and needs no key.

What it is

• Academic search engine and citation graph (semanticscholar.org).
• Public API, no key needed at classroom volume.
• Wrapped here by scripts/semantic_scholar_search.py.

Where it fits

The base layer every other literature-verification step in the course builds on.

Access & cost

Free, no account needed for search. That's exactly why this repo ships a script for it and not for Consensus/Elicit/Scite.

D1·3 — the core exercise

1. Run python scripts/semantic_scholar_search.py "<query>".
2. Results save to literature_results.json.
3. Pick the 3 most relevant results to check further.

The rule it exists to support

AGENTS.md: never invent citations. A paper only gets cited if it comes from an actual search result — this file is that result.

D1·5 — literature-scout

Reads literature_results.json (or a Consensus/Elicit/Scite result you pasted in) before citing anything. If it can't verify a claim this way, it says "unverified" — explicitly, not softened into a plausible citation.

D1·4 — the referee skill's citation check

Check 3 of /referee-review's pipeline cross-checks every citation in a draft against this file. Anything not traceable to it (or another real search) gets flagged as unverified.

D2·5 — manuscript citations

Every citation that makes it into the final draft should trace back to this file, not to the model's memory of what a paper probably says.

Limits

• Mostly abstracts and open metadata, not full text.
• Doesn't tell you whether a paper's findings have been contradicted since publication — that's Scite's job.
• Doesn't synthesize across papers — that's Consensus/Elicit's job.

How it composes with the other three

Semantic Scholar finds candidates → Scite checks whether they've held up → Consensus/Elicit's synthesis gets checked against the actual abstract. Four tools, one discipline: verify before you cite.

Recap

See D1·3's decision graph on the home page for the full verify-before-citing flow.