User Guide
1. Getting Started with OmniScholar
Welcome to OmniScholar.Pro, your all-in-one platform for academic research management. This guide will walk you through our features to help maximize your research productivity.
1.1 Creating Your Account
OmniScholar uses Google authentication to provide a secure and streamlined sign-in experience:
- Google Account Required: You'll need a Google account to access OmniScholar. We currently support sign-in exclusively through Google for enhanced security and simplified account management.
- Signing In:
- Visit omnischolar.pro/login
- Click the "Sign in with Google" button
- Select your Google account when prompted
- Grant the necessary permissions to create your OmniScholar account
- First-Time Access: If this is your first time logging in, we'll automatically create your OmniScholar profile using your Google account information
- Return Visits: For future logins, simply click "Sign in with Google" and select your account
Sign-In Tip: Using Google authentication eliminates the need to create and remember a separate password for OmniScholar. It also enables features like seamless calendar integration for research deadlines and tasks.
1.2 Account Verification
Your email is automatically verified through the Google authentication process, so no additional verification steps are required to get started.
2. Dashboard Overview
Your research command center provides a comprehensive overview of your research activities:
- Statistics Cards: Quick overview of your research papers count, publications, upcoming deadlines, and pending tasks
- Recent Research Papers: Access your most recently added papers to your collection
- Recent Documents: View and access your latest research documents
- Your Publications: Track status of your recently published or in-progress papers
- Recent Agent Runs: See results from your latest AI research assistant sessions
- Recent Notes: Access your most recently created or modified research notes
- Urgent Deadlines: Visual timeline of approaching deadlines with countdown indicators
- Pending Tasks: Monitor your high-priority research tasks
Pro Tip: The dashboard is designed to highlight items that need your immediate attention - look for color-coded indicators showing deadline urgency and task priorities.
3. Scholar Area
3.1 Discover
Find new research relevant to your interests with our powerful semantic search platform:
- Semantic Search: Go beyond keyword matching with our AI-powered search that understands research concepts
- Advanced Filtering: Refine results with multiple filters:
- Year range (from/to)
- Field of study (Computer Science, Medicine, Biology, etc.)
- Sort by relevance, date, or citation count
- Filter for open access publications only
- Rich Paper Cards: Each result provides comprehensive information:
- Title, authors, and publication details
- Expandable abstracts
- Citation counts
- Field tags and keywords
- Publication venues and indexed databases
- Multiple Actions: For each paper, you can:
- View PDF (for open access papers)
- Explore citations network
- View referenced papers
- Find related research
- Save to existing or new collections
- Search History: Access and reuse your previous searches from the sidebar
Search Tip: For most effective results, use specific concept terms rather than generic keywords. The search history panel allows you to quickly repeat or refine previous successful searches.
3.2 Collections
Organize your research library efficiently with our robust collections feature:
- Collection Management: Create, edit, and organize topic-based collections
- Create new collections when importing papers or from the collection view
- Customize collection names and colors for visual organization
- Delete collections when no longer needed (papers move to "Uncategorized")
- Importing Papers: Multiple methods to add papers to your collections
- DOI Import: Add papers using their Digital Object Identifier
- PDF Import: Upload PDFs directly with automatic metadata extraction
- Zotero Import: Connect your Zotero library and import entire collections
- Collection View: Flexible ways to browse your research
- Toggle between grid and list views based on your preference
- Search within collections to quickly find specific papers
- Sort papers by title (A-Z/Z-A) or publication date (newest/oldest)
- Paper Management: Comprehensive tools for organizing papers
- View detailed paper information including metadata and abstracts
- Move papers between collections as your organization evolves
- Easily delete papers that are no longer needed
- PDF Reader & Annotations: Analyze papers thoroughly
- Built-in PDF viewer with intuitive navigation controls
- Text highlighting with customizable colors for different concepts
- Add comments and notes directly on specific text
- Create and manage annotations with automatic saving
- AI-Generated Insights: Extract valuable information automatically
- Generate paper summaries, key points, and methodology analysis
- Extract figures/tables analysis and experimental details
- Identify strengths and limitations of research papers
- Create literature reviews based on paper content
- Sticky Notes Feature: AI-powered research notes
- Create quick reference sticky notes from paper content
- Generate 1-5 notes per paper for key concepts
- Access all notes in the centralized Notes section
Collection Organization Tips:
- Use meaningful collection names based on research topics or projects
- Color-code collections to visually distinguish different research areas
- Regularly review and organize papers in the "Uncategorized" collection
- For papers with PDF files, use the "Extract" button to generate AI insights
Troubleshooting: If you encounter import issues, verify DOIs are entered correctly, ensure PDFs aren't password-protected, and check your Zotero connection in Profile settings. For missing metadata, use the Edit feature to manually add information.
3.4 Documents
Create and manage your research documents with our powerful document editor:
- Document Editor: Write with our full-featured Markdown text editor
- Formatting Tools: Easy formatting with headings, lists, bold, italic, quotes and code blocks
- Content Insertion: Add links, images, citations from your papers, and tables
- Formula Support: Insert mathematical formulas with LaTeX syntax or upload formula images
- Real-time Metrics: Track document statistics including word count, readability, and estimated reading time
- AI Assistance: Enhance your writing with powerful AI tools
- Text Predictions: Get intelligent next-sentence suggestions as you write
- AI Writer: Generate complete document sections based on your description
- Text Enhancement: Improve grammar, tone, and style with one click
- AI Feedback: Receive suggestions to improve clarity, style, and grammar
- Humanize: Make AI-generated text sound more natural and human-written
- Summarize: Create concise summaries of your longer documents
- Document Management: Organize and track your research writing
- Document Library: View all documents in grid or list format with search functionality
- Version History: Track changes and restore previous versions of your documents
- Auto-saving: Your work is automatically saved as you write
- Export Options: Download your documents in multiple formats
- PDF for publishing and sharing
- DOCX for Microsoft Word compatibility
- LaTeX for academic publishing
- Plain text for maximum portability
- Sharing & Collaboration: Work with colleagues on your documents
- Create shareable links with read-only or edit permissions
- Share documents directly from the editor or document library
- Track collaborative changes with version history
Document Tips:
- Use the AI Detection tool to check if your text appears AI-generated before submission
- Insert citations directly from your research papers collection
- For complex documents, use the Preview mode to see how your formatting will appear
- Save frequently accessed documents as favorites for quick access
- Use document templates to maintain consistent formatting across your research
3.5 Research Agent
Leverage our AI assistants to enhance your research:
- Ask Omni: Chat with your research documents and get intelligent answers
- Upload your PDFs and ask specific questions
- Get real-time answers based on your document collection
- Extract insights without reading entire papers
- Verify information with direct references to source pages
- Deep Research: Generate comprehensive, multi-source research synthesis
- Investigate complex research topics across multiple scholarly sources
- Receive Wikipedia-style documentation with proper citations
- Follow citation trails to verify information accuracy
- Create foundational knowledge summaries for literature reviews
- Literature Review: Create structured reviews from your paper collections
- Generate comprehensive literature reviews from multiple papers
- Organize content with proper citations and references
- Synthesize common themes and identify research gaps
- Quickly create first drafts of review sections for papers
- Research Question Generator: Develop and validate innovative research questions
- Generate up to 10 innovative research questions based on your topics
- Validate questions against existing literature
- Identify gaps in current research
- Refine broad topics into specific, addressable questions
- Research Proposal Generator: Build detailed research proposals with proper methodology
- Create comprehensive research proposals with literature reviews
- Develop research questions and methodologies sections
- Format proposals according to academic standards
- Generate starting points for grant applications
- Paper Peer Review: Get feedback and scoring on your manuscripts
- Upload papers for AI-powered peer review
- Receive detailed feedback and objective scoring
- Identify improvement areas before submission
- Review papers in approximately 2 minutes
Agent Usage Tips:
- For best results with Research Agents, provide specific, detailed queries
- View your agent history through the History button on the Agents page
- Search agents by name or tags to quickly find the tool you need
- Use Deep Research for broad topics and Ask Omni for specific questions
- Generate research questions first, then use Research Proposal Generator to expand them
4. Workflow Area
4.1 My Publications
Track your academic output with our comprehensive publications management system:
- Publication Tracking: Monitor papers from draft to publication
- Track papers through each stage of the academic publishing process
- Maintain a complete record of your research portfolio
- Filter and search publications by title, authors, or status
- Status Management: Track submission, review, and publication stages
- Manage publications with custom status indicators: Draft, Submitted, Under Review, Revision, Accepted, Published, or Rejected
- Visual status badges for at-a-glance monitoring
- Customizable status-based filtering and sorting
- Publication Details: Store comprehensive information
- Record key metadata: title, authors, abstract, keywords, venue name, and publication type
- Track important dates: submission, revision deadline, acceptance, and publication
- Store identifiers: DOI, arXiv ID, and external URLs
- Attach manuscript files (PDF) and supplementary materials
- Version Control: Track manuscript revisions
- Maintain a complete version history of each publication
- Record version-specific comments and change types
- Restore previous versions when needed
- Compare changes across multiple revisions
- PDF Integration: Manage publication files
- Upload and view manuscripts directly within the platform
- Built-in PDF viewer for convenient manuscript review
- Attach supplementary materials for comprehensive record-keeping
- Import Features: Streamline publication entry
- Import publication metadata from PDF files
- Automatically extract title, authors, and abstract from uploaded manuscripts
- Sharing: Collaborate with colleagues
- Generate shareable links to your publication records
- Share full publication details with co-authors or collaborators
Publication Management Tips:
- Toggle between grid and list views for different ways to browse your publications
- Use the import from PDF feature to quickly add new publications with minimal data entry
- Record version comments to keep track of specific changes between submissions
- Use the share feature to generate links for collaborators to view your publication records
4.2 Notes
Capture and organize research ideas with our versatile notes system:
- Text Notes: Create formatted text notes with rich organization options
- Add titles, content, and customize note colors for visual organization
- Pin important notes for quick access
- Format notes with headings, lists, and emphasis
- Voice Notes: Record and automatically transcribe audio notes
- Convert spoken thoughts into text with voice recognition technology
- Automatically transcribe up to 60 seconds of speech
- Real-time transcription with speech recognition
- Edit transcriptions before saving
- Tags: Categorize notes with custom tags for easy retrieval
- Add multiple tags to each note for flexible categorization
- Filter notes by tags to find related information
- Click on tags to instantly filter your notes collection
- Smart Tag Suggestions: Get AI-recommended tags based on note content
- Receive intelligent tag suggestions based on note content
- Click suggested tags to apply them with one click
- Save time with automatic content analysis
- Organization Features: Manage your research notes efficiently
- Toggle between pinned and unpinned notes
- Search notes by title, content, or tags
- Filter notes using the tag system
- Color-code notes for visual organization
Notes Management Tips:
- Use voice notes for quick capture when reading papers or brainstorming
- Pin your most important notes to keep them easily accessible
- Create a consistent tagging system to organize notes by project, topic, or purpose
- Use different colors for different types of notes (e.g., ideas, summaries, questions)
- Regularly review and consolidate related notes to synthesize your research thoughts
4.3 To-Do List
Manage your research tasks with our flexible task management system:
- Task Management: Create and organize research tasks
- Add detailed task descriptions
- Set due dates with date and time precision
- Assign priority levels: High, Medium, or Low
- Categorize tasks with custom or predefined categories
- Task Organization: Keep your work structured
- Toggle between grid and list views
- Sort and filter tasks by description, status, or category
- Use the search function to quickly find specific tasks
- Filter tasks by completion status (Pending or Complete)
- Task Tracking: Monitor progress and completion
- Mark tasks as complete with one click
- Track completion dates automatically
- View task history with creation and update timestamps
- Easily restore completed tasks to pending status
- Categorization: Organize tasks by purpose
- Use predefined categories: Research Oriented, Work, Personal
- Create custom categories for specific projects or objectives
- Filter tasks by category for focused work sessions
Task Management Tips:
- Use the priority system to identify your most important tasks
- Set realistic due dates and review your task list daily
- Create task categories that align with your research projects
- Use the grid view for visual organization and the list view for detailed planning
- Regularly clean up completed tasks to maintain an organized workspace
4.4 Deadlines
Never miss important academic dates with our deadline tracking system:
- Conference & Journal Tracking: Manage academic submission timelines
- Record event names and publication venues
- Track abstract submission deadlines
- Monitor full paper submission deadlines
- Note expected notification dates
- Visual Timeline: Easily identify approaching deadlines
- Color-coded status indicators for deadlines (upcoming, passed)
- Visual highlighting of deadlines within 30 days
- Chronological organization of deadlines
- Flexible Views: Customize how you track deadlines
- Toggle between grid and list views
- Grid view for calendar-style visualization
- List view for detailed timeline tracking
- Search and filter capabilities to find specific deadlines
- Deadline Management: Full control over your academic calendar
- Add new deadlines with comprehensive details
- Edit existing deadlines as information updates
- Delete outdated or irrelevant deadlines
- Search functionality to quickly locate specific events
Deadline Management Tips:
- Add deadlines as soon as you discover calls for papers or submission opportunities
- Set abstract deadlines even if you're only planning for full paper submissions
- Review your deadlines weekly to ensure adequate preparation time
- Use the search function to quickly find deadlines for specific conferences or journals
- Plan your research and writing schedule around upcoming submission deadlines
5. Profile & Account Management
5.1 Profile
Manage your account settings and preferences:
- Basic Information: Personalize your account
- Update your name and email address
- Set or change your password with strength indicators
- Google Sign-In users can set a password for email login
- Subscription Management: Control your subscription plan
- View your current subscription plan details
- Upgrade to Scholar, Researcher, or Organization plans
- See next billing date and subscription status
- Manage billing information through the customer portal
- Cancel subscription or downgrade plans if needed
- Usage Statistics: Monitor your resource consumption
- Track AI credits usage with visual progress bars
- Monitor storage space utilization
- See percentage of resources used relative to your plan limits
- Integrations: Connect with external services
- Google Calendar: Sync deadlines and tasks with your calendar
- Zotero: Import research papers and collections from your Zotero library
- Manage existing connections or set up new integrations
Profile Tips:
- Regularly check your resource usage to avoid hitting limits
- Use a strong, unique password for your account
- Connect your Google Calendar to receive deadline reminders
- Integrate with Zotero to seamlessly import your existing research library
5.2 Refer & Earn
Grow your network and earn rewards with our referral program:
- Referral System: Share OmniScholar with colleagues
- Earn $ for each friend who subscribes to a paid plan
- Generate your unique referral link to track successful referrals
- Share via email, social media, or direct messaging
- Sharing Options: Multiple ways to spread the word
- Share directly to X (Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn
- Send personalized email invitations
- Copy pre-written shareable text for messaging apps
- Earnings Management: Track and use your rewards
- View your total earnings, available balance, and pending withdrawals
- Monitor the status of all your referrals in one dashboard
- See detailed history of successful referrals and earnings
- Withdrawal System: Redeem your earnings
- Request withdrawals when your balance meets minimum requirements
- Choose between payment methods (PayPal or bank transfer)
- Track withdrawal request status through the withdrawal history
Referral Tips:
- Use the pre-written shareable text for professional messaging
- Track which platforms drive the most successful referrals
- Personalize your referral message for better results
- Request withdrawals only when you've accumulated a significant amount to minimize fees
5.3 Support
Access help and assistance when you need it:
- Ticket System: Get personalized support
- Create detailed support tickets for any issues you encounter
- Track status of your submitted requests (pending, in progress, completed)
- Receive direct responses from our support team
- View your complete ticket history for reference
- Ticket Categories: Different types for different needs
- Bug Reports: Report technical issues with detailed steps to reproduce
- Feature Requests: Suggest new functionality or improvements
- General Support: Ask questions about using the platform
- Feedback: Share your thoughts on existing features
- File Attachments: Enhanced troubleshooting
- Attach screenshots or files up to 5MB to better explain issues
- Preview attachments directly within the ticket interface
- Support for images and document formats
- Ticket Management: Efficient communication
- Search and filter your support tickets by title or content
- Edit existing tickets to add more information
- View response history for ongoing conversations
- Close resolved tickets when your issue is fixed
Support Tips:
- Provide detailed descriptions of issues to speed up resolution
- Include screenshots or recordings when reporting visual or interface problems
- Specify your browser, device, and platform version for technical issues
- Search existing tickets before creating a new one for the same issue
- Use appropriate ticket categories to route your request to the right team
6. Getting Help
Additional resources for platform assistance:
- In-App Help: Look for help icons () throughout the interface
- Email Support: Contact support@omnischolar.pro for direct assistance
- Support Tickets: Submit detailed support requests through the Support section
- FAQ: Check our frequently asked questions for quick answers