ExplainPaper

What is ExplainPaper?

ExplainPaper is an AI-assisted reading tool founded in 2022 by Aman Sanger and Jade Qi. The platform was designed to make academic and scientific literature more accessible, allowing students, researchers, and curious minds to upload articles in PDF format and receive simplified explanations of difficult concepts or technical jargon in real time.

How it works

After uploading a scientific paper in PDF format to the platform, the user views the document directly in a two-column interface. By selecting (highlighting with the cursor) any paragraph, sentence, or complex term in the text, ExplainPaper triggers large language models (LLMs) configured to translate dense technical language into simpler explanations in the side column. The user can adjust the complexity level of the response (such as "explain to a 5-year-old" or "explain to a college student") and ask follow-up questions about that specific passage.

Key features

• Explanation by Selection: Simply highlight the text to open the instant explanation panel on the side of the reader.
• Adjustable Reading Levels: Ability to choose the educational depth of the explanation generated by the AI.
• Contextual Chat with PDF: Ask direct questions about the conclusions, methodology, or data of the article without having to read it in full.
• Document Library: Storage and organization of uploaded articles for future reference or review.
• Smart Summaries: Automatic generation of summaries of the article's main points upon upload.

Available integrations

ExplainPaper works as a standalone web application (SaaS) accessible via browser. It offers support for exporting generated notes and summaries. It does not have complex open API integrations for the general public, focusing on being a personal reading productivity tool.

Who it is for

• Undergraduate and graduate students who need to review extensive bibliographies and academic theses.
• Researchers and scientists who want to optimize the reading speed of papers from other related fields.
• Technical professionals (doctors, engineers, developers) who need to stay updated with recent scientific publications in their sectors.

Real use cases

1. Study of Academic Methodologies: A biology student selects a complex statistical formula from a genetics paper and uses the tool to understand what that formula represents in layperson terms.
2. Literature Review: A researcher performs a quick initial search on multiple imported PDFs, using the integrated chat to extract key results metrics instead of reading each article individually.

Pricing

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Greatly facilitates the reading of papers full of technical jargon.
• The split interface makes reading smooth and focused.
• Allows adjusting the explanation level according to the reader's familiarity with the topic.

Cons:

• The free plan has restrictive PDF file size limits.
• The AI can oversimplify critical nuances of medical or physical science research if the explanation level is too low.

Alternatives to ExplainPaper

Key alternatives in the academic reading AI niche are:

• SciSpace (Typeset.io): A robust scientific research assistant that also explains PDF texts and equations.
• Elicit: AI focused on searching and synthesizing academic literature from direct user questions.
• Consensus: A research search engine that answers questions based directly on peer-reviewed scientific papers.