Whether you are collecting data through interviews, applying an established method to a new sample type, or writing your thesis – research is almost always structured around projects. Ideally, a research project starts with a clear hypothesis, is carefully planned, and carried out with the goal of generating meaningful results. Projects can be pursued independently or in collaboration with colleagues and research partners. They are the backbone of scientific work. In scienceOS, projects are designed to support this approach, helping you structure, organize, and advance your research more effectively.
Introduction to projects
In scienceOS, a project is essentially a workspace that brings together sources and chats in one place. Each project is made up of three core elements:
- Project sources
A project can include sources from the project owner’s personal library and/or access to the 225 million abstracts in the general paper database. - Project members
The user who creates a project is the project owner. Only the project owner can modify the project and invite collaborators to chat with the project sources. - Project chats
When you start a chat within a project, the AI agent draws its knowledge from that project’s sources. Project chats are private; no other user can access them.
Advanced users can also customize the AI agent’s behavior and create conversation starters via the project settings.
The project homepage. A screenshot of a project’s homepage where the project sources can be changed, colleagues can be invited to join the project, the optional project settings, and a list of previous project chats.
Projects help you organize your sources and chats into dedicated workspaces – whether you are working on your own or collaborating with others. They are especially useful when writing papers, R&D reports, grant applications, or your thesis, as they allow you to focus the AI research agent on a curated set of literature. To make it easy to get started, scienceOS includes a pre-configured default project: “Library chat”.
The “Library chat” project
The “Library chat” project includes all the sources from your personal library, allowing you to chat with your entire collection of research papers at once. This default project cannot be shared or deleted. If you want to focus on a specific collection or topic, you will need to create a new project.
Chatting with the ‘Library chat’ project. A short video showing how to access the “Library chat” project directly from your library, generate deep research reports based on PDFs, and critically review the generated answers by accessing 225 million abstracts.
The “Library chat” project is a pre-configured starting point for exploring your personal literature collection and drafting texts more efficiently. By using “Deep research” mode while chatting with your library, you can quickly generate comprehensive mini-reviews or solid first drafts, ideal for sections like the introduction of a grant application.
Additionally, by enabling access to the 225 million research papers in the general index, you can instruct the AI research agent to search beyond your own library, helping you discover and review related literature more broadly.
Create your own projects
If you are involved in multiple research projects, have a large library with hundreds or thousands of sources, or want to collaborate with research partners, the “Library chat” project alone will not meet your needs. In these cases, you need to create your own custom projects.
Creating a new project. A brief video showing how to create a new project, adjust the project sources and modify its settings.
Creating a new custom project is quick and easy. Just follow these three steps:
- Click the plus button in the sidebar to create a new project. You can also rename it to reflect your topic or goal.
- Add one or more collections – or your entire library – to the project sources. You can also enable the “Search outside my library” option.
- Optional project settings: Provide custom instructions to adjust the behavior of the AI research agent and/or add conversation starters.
Beyond offering a more focused approach than “Library chat”, custom projects help you organize your chats into distinct workspaces. For instance, you can create a project that does not include any of your own collections – just access to the 225 million abstracts in the general database. This project setup behaves like a non-project chat, but all conversations remain grouped under that specific project. It is especially useful when you are in the early stages of a project and still gathering relevant sources. Later, you can disable external access and add the curated sources as a collection to the project.
Try projects in scienceOS yourself
Projects in scienceOS offer a powerful way to structure your research, whether you are working independently or collaborating with others. By organizing your sources and chats into dedicated workspaces, you can focus your research, streamline your writing process, and maintain a more organized workflow. With the ability to create custom projects tailored to your needs – whether that is exploring your personal library, gathering external sources, or collaborating with team members – scienceOS helps you manage your research more efficiently. Start with the default “Library chat” project or create your own to unlock a more targeted and collaborative approach to your work. The flexibility to build, customize, and share projects will help you move your research forward.
