Folio Search runs one query across the scholarly record at once and streams the results back as they arrive, source by source. Instead of opening five databases in five tabs, you type a question once and watch each source fill in.
What it searches
Every search hits the open scholarly databases in parallel:
- OpenAlex and Crossref: broad, cross-disciplinary metadata
- arXiv: preprints across physics, CS, math, and more
- Europe PMC and DOAJ: biomedical and open-access coverage
- Semantic Scholar: AI-indexed papers, where Folio has it switched on
Alongside the papers, it also searches books (Open Library, and Google Books where available), Wikipedia for background, and news, and where Folio has them switched on, the open web and YouTube lectures.
The Top papers view ranks the papers from the scholarly sources together, with duplicates merged. Results stream in as each source responds, so you're never staring at a spinner waiting for the slowest one. If a source doesn't answer, Folio says so and offers to try it again, rather than showing it as having no results. Each result shows its venue, year, and authors, and can be added to your library in one click. For a paper with a DOI, Cited by and References expand its citation graph right there, most influential first, so you can walk outward from a good paper.
Searching is free on every plan: 40 searches a day on Scholar, unlimited on Fellow and Chair.
The Synthesizer
Finding papers is half the job. The Synthesizer reads across the results you retrieved and thinks through them out loud: a paced, visible reasoning pass, not an instant wall of text. As it works, it drops inline source chips: click one and the matching paper highlights in the sidebar, so every claim is anchored to where it came from.
The important part is what it won't do. The Synthesizer is grounded only in the sources your search actually returned. It doesn't reach out to the open web and it won't assert anything it can't tie to a retrieved result, so it can't quietly invent a citation. If it can't support a point from your results, it says so instead of making one up.
The Synthesizer is part of Fellow and Chair. On Scholar, literature search stays free.
Saving a search
A good search is worth keeping. Choose Save search and Folio stores the query, the sources it fed the Synthesizer, and the Synthesizer's write-up together at a stable link (/search/<id>). Your most recent saved searches are listed on the search page, so you can come back to a literature scan weeks later exactly as it was: useful when you're returning to a project or handing context to a collaborator. You can also make a saved search public to share it.
Adding results to your library in bulk
In the Sources in play list you can select individual results, or use Select all, then Add to library in one action. Everything you add is tagged with your search query and with search, so a whole reading session lands in your library already organized instead of as a loose pile.
Tips
- Ask a real question, not just keywords. The sources handle keywords fine, but the Synthesizer does better with "does spaced practice hold up outside the lab?" than with "spaced practice."
- Start broad, then save and narrow. Run a wide search, save it, then refine; you keep the original as a reference point.
- Verify before you cite. The Synthesizer grounds its claims, but the final judgment is yours. Open the sources it cites and read them.
Related: Discovering literature · Build a synthesis matrix