Release Notes
Query parser with autocomplete and highlighting
SmartCite for Word now includes the same full query parser used in the web app, with autocomplete and query highlighting. It is available in both library search and article search.
Advanced search with query builder
SmartCite for Word now includes an advanced search with a query builder, available from a new option in the search dropdown, matching the field logic used in the web app for accounts with and without full-text search enabled. The previous helper dropdown has been removed.
Full-text search parity for article search
Article (global) search in SmartCite for Word now uses the same full-text data source as the web app when a user licence allows full-text search via Dimensions. Accounts without that setting continue to use the existing data source.
AI Query Assist
AI Query Assist is now available in SmartCite for Word when a user licence allows access to the feature. It is available in article (global) search only, and follows the behaviour as in the web app, transforming natural language into the search query.
Choose a list as the import destination
When resolving references in SmartCite for Word, users can now choose a list as the destination, not just the top-level library. This makes it easier to keep imported references organized when a library uses lists to separate projects, instead of everything landing in the library root.
Query parser with autocomplete and highlighting
SmartCite for Google Docs now includes the same full query parser used in the web app, with autocomplete and query highlighting. It is available in both library search and article search.
Advanced search with query builder
SmartCite for Google Docs now includes an advanced search with a query builder, available from a new option in the search dropdown, matching the field logic used in the web app for accounts with and without full-text search enabled. The previous helper dropdown has been removed.
Full-text search parity for article search
Article (global) search in SmartCite for Google Docs now uses the same full-text data source as the web app when a user licence allows full-text search via Dimensions. Accounts without that setting continue to use the existing data source.
Choose a list as the import destination
When resolving references in SmartCite for Google Docs, users can now choose a list as the destination, not just the top-level library. This makes it easier to keep imported references organized when a library uses lists to separate projects, instead of everything landing in the library root.
Bulk ordering: Review step for token purchases
Bulk PDF ordering now includes an “Available via Token” status for items that would otherwise be purchased automatically. These items wait in a new review screen until the user confirms, and users can navigate back to the results list without losing their selections.
Bulk ordering: “Available via Publisher” status
A new “Available via Publisher” status has been added to bulk PDF ordering for articles where the token purchase must be completed directly on the publisher’s website. Each article links out to the publisher’s site.
PDF export: Keep original file names
PDF export now offers the option to keep each file’s original file name instead of applying a naming convention. Items without a stored original name fall back to the naming convention, and the export dialog shows how many items will use the fallback.
Research Assistant: Citation styles tool
Research Assistant can now work with citation styles directly. Users can preview a style applied to an item, upload standard or custom CSL styles for review or editing, request a modified style to download, or generate a widget that compares how different styles render results.
Research Assistant: Dev mode displays token and context stats
Research Assistant now includes an optional dev mode that displays token and context usage stats for a conversation: totals at the top, and per-turn stats at the bottom of each exchange, with a separate popover for detailed context information. User can enable dev mode in My Account > Settings.
Enhancements-
Research Assistant now shows a live character count and disables the send button once a prompt exceeds the 12,000 character limit, instead of silently trimming the text. On accounts with file upload enabled, going over the limit also surfaces a tip suggesting the prompt be attached as a file instead.
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Chat with Library now applies the same character limit handling. A live counter appears and the send button is disabled once the prompt goes over the limit.
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Advanced Search is easier to find in the library search dropdown. The dropdown is now taller so the option is visible without scrolling, and a scrollbar appears whenever there is more content below.
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Research Assistant now shows a fallback message if a response widget fails to render, rather than leaving a blank space.
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Wording on the Tools page has been updated so AI-related features are clearly described as available where permitted by license, reducing confusion for users without AI access.
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Fixed an issue where the AI query builder could generate a full-text search query on accounts that have full-text search disabled, causing the resulting search to behave unexpectedly.
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Fixed an issue where the date picker could appear hidden behind the Advanced Search window when entering a date or date range.
Delete or replace a PDF within a Literature Review project
Reviewers and admins can now delete a reference’s PDF directly inside a Literature Review project, with a confirmation step before it’s removed. This only removes the PDF from the project, not from the Library copy, and a new PDF can be added afterward. PDF additions and deletions are now recorded in the project’s audit log, along with who made the change and when.
Copyright status visible in Literature Review
When an organization has copyright status turned on for the app, that status now also appears as a column in the Literature Review references view, placed after Authors. The column is sortable and only appears for organizations with the setting enabled.
Article upload tracking per project
The project Info tab now includes a section showing how many articles have been uploaded to the project over time. Admins can select a date range to see the total for that period alongside a month-by-month breakdown, with the all-time total shown by default when no range is selected. This makes it possible to compare upload activity across periods, for example Q1 against Q2.
Template usage tracking
The template detail page is now split into two tabs, Info and Form editing. The new Info tab contains a “Projects using this template” section where admins can select a date range and see how many active and archived projects were running on the template during that period, together with a list of those projects showing name, status, and the date each became active or was archived. Without a date range, all projects that have ever used the template are shown with an all-time count.
Quality feedback prompt for AI Autofill
SLR extraction forms can now show a brief feedback prompt after AI Autofill completes, appearing below the answer it applies to. Users can rate the answer with a thumbs up or down; thumbs down expands to a short list of reasons (for example, an incorrect, invented, or incomplete value) plus an optional note. The prompt appears for a small sample of autofills and no more than once per user per week, so it stays occasional rather than overwhelming.
AI Autofill “reviewer” traceability in reports and the review log
Reports and the review log can now show whether AI Autofill was active when a reviewer saved a stage. The review log records this alongside each save, and the Full, Inclusion, and Exclusion reports, as well as the custom report builder. This reflects whether the reviewer who saved the answer ran Autofill themselves, not whether the answer carries AI suggestions from an earlier save, so a reviewer who opens and saves someone else’s autofilled answer without running Autofill is not credited with the AI assistance. It does not show whether the AI-suggested answer was kept or changed.
AI provenance recorded on every answer
For customers with compliance requirements around AI use, ReadCube now records provenance on every AI-assisted answer: which model produced the suggestion, which reviewer ran Autofill, and whether the reviewer accepted the suggestion, edited it, or went against it. This gives regulated customers evidence of both which system produced a value and whether a reviewer exercised judgment over it.
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A new “Sync document with library” action is available in SmartCite Options.
It brings every reference cited in a document into a single library of the user’s choice and updates the document’s citations to point at that library, so a document written over time or shared between colleagues no longer depends on references scattered across personal and shared libraries. Before anything changes, SmartCite shows a plain-language plan of what will happen to each reference (already present, copied from another library, recreated from stored metadata, or looked up online), and the bibliography is regenerated once the sync completes. References that cannot be found anywhere are left untouched and reported, so nothing disappears from the document silently.
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Dropdown inputs across SmartCite (language selector, default destination library, sync destination library, chapter selection when editing an inline citation, and narrative citation override) now use a consistent custom style in place of native browser drop down menus, matching the rest of the ReadCube apps.
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The Options screen has been updated with a refreshed layout for its list of settings.
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The browser extension now supports EBSCO integration. For organisations where full text access is set up through EBSCO, the extension can download PDFs and save articles to users’ libraries directly from EBSCO article pages.
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When adding a new reference, lists and tags selected during the previous import are no longer carried over silently. Users can review and clear the previous selection before saving, which prevents references being filed under lists or tags chosen for an earlier item.
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Injectable buttons on Annual Reviews pages now display correctly on smaller screens, such as laptop displays, where they previously appeared misaligned.
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Access log entries now consistently record the publisher, including cases where it could not be detected automatically. This gives administrators more complete publisher-level reporting on access activity.
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Fixed an issue where article requests falling outside an organization’s holdings date range were recorded as access failures. These requests are now correctly identified as outside holdings, so the access log reflects genuine failures only.
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Fixed an issue where injectable buttons did not appear on ASH Publications search results pages, even when DOIs were present.
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Fixed an issue where PDF downloads failed for articles from BMJ.
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Fixed an issue where the tag selection window was truncated when adding a tag to a reference.
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A new “Sync document with library” action is available in SmartCite Options.
It brings every reference cited in a document into a single library of the user’s choice and updates the document’s citations to point at that library, so a document written over time or shared between colleagues no longer depends on references scattered across personal and shared libraries. Before anything changes, SmartCite shows a plain-language plan of what will happen to each reference (already present, copied from another library, recreated from stored metadata, or looked up online), and the bibliography is regenerated once the sync completes. References that cannot be found anywhere are left untouched and reported, so nothing disappears from the document silently.
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Dropdown inputs across SmartCite (language selector, default destination library, sync destination library, chapter selection when editing an inline citation, and narrative citation override) now use a consistent custom style in place of native browser drop down menus, matching the rest of the ReadCube apps.
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The Options screen has been updated with a refreshed layout for its list of settings.
- EndNote and Zotero import in the web app.
EndNote and Zotero library imports are now available directly in the web app, previously only possible in the desktop app. Records, list structures (EndNote groups, Zotero collections), and PDF attachments are all imported, with processing handled locally in the browser. - Admin control for Research Assistant file upload.
Organizations can now control whether the file upload option is available in the Research Assistant. This gives administrators oversight of which content is used with AI features. The option is enabled by default and can be adjusted on request.
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- Prompt gallery updated with new Research Assistant capabilities.
Four new example prompts, marked with a NEW label, were added to the Research Assistant prompt gallery to introduce recently added capabilities: whole-library analysis, charts and other visuals in answers, dynamic reports combining summaries with interactive elements, and expert identification based on publication records. - Default sort for public lists.
Public lists now support a default sort order. When sharing a list, or editing an already shared one, users can configure the sort with which the public list opens for viewers. Existing shared lists default to title, ascending. - Progress status for long-running Research Assistant tasks.
The Research Assistant now shows progress status during long-running tasks, such as analyses across large libraries, so users can see that work is still in progress instead of a static loading indicator. - Imports respect the destination list.
Imports from EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley now respect the destination list selected in the import modal. Imported items are added to the chosen list and the imported folder structure is created nested under it, rather than at the root of the sidebar. This applies to both the web app and the desktop app. - Clearer duplicate merge message on import.
The “duplicates merged” message shown after an import now clarifies that duplicates are detected across the whole library, not only within the folder selected for the import. - Updated Training link.
The Training link in the app now points to the updated learning portal at learn.readcube.com. - Research Assistant layout refinement.
Increased the spacing between the action bar and the next question in Research Assistant conversations, making it clearer which answer the actions belong to.
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Fixed an issue where typing an “@” character in the Research Assistant message box would open the library mention dropdown and intercept the Enter key, causing the message to remain unsent and text after the “@” to be lost.
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Fixed an issue where the exact match setting was not applied to the full text portion of the query when creating a filtered list, so results could include non-exact matches.
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Restored feed tracking columns in library exports. Items added through feed auto-deposits are again identified in exported files.
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Fixed the info icon next to the “Exact match” option in the Edit Smart List dialog, which was not showing any explanation of the difference between Stemmed and Exact match search.
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Fixed a display issue where Research Assistant notifications containing a library or list mention were not rendered properly.
- Fixed citation formatting for styles that define language-specific rules within the style itself, such as APA 7th edition. Previously, SmartCite did not apply these in-style language overrides, which could result in incorrect localized terms in citations (for example “u. a.” appearing instead of “et al.”). Citations now render correctly according to the selected language for these styles.
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A new Advanced Settings screen is available from the Options screen (opened via the gear icon), grouping less common settings into one place. It currently includes a default destination library setting, letting users choose which library new SmartCite items are created in (for example, items added from search or recovered after being deleted). The default is the personal library (“My Papers”).
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SmartCite icons have been updated to match the new design used in the ReadCube web app, giving the extension a more consistent look and feel.
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References to “Papers” branding have been updated to “ReadCube” throughout the extension, including the login and subscription screens and various notification messages.
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Fixed citation formatting for styles that define language-specific rules within the style itself, such as APA 7th edition. Previously, SmartCite did not apply these in-style language overrides, which could result in incorrect localized terms in citations (for example “u. a.” appearing instead of “et al.”). Citations now render correctly according to the selected language for these styles.
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Fixed an edge case where the Edit Citation and Edit Reference icons could overlap when a citation was selected, making both hard to use.
Citation disambiguation with hyperlinked bibliography
When a document contains multiple references by the same author and year, citation styles automatically add distinguishing suffixes to the year (for example, Smith, 2020a and Smith, 2020b). This disambiguation has been improved for documents with hyperlinks to the bibliography enabled: suffixes now update correctly in the bibliography, and inline citation links point to the correct entry.
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Bulk Edit Metadata
It is now possible to edit metadata for multiple items at once. Select several items and choose Edit metadata from the bulk actions menu. The dialog shows only fields shared by all selected item types, marks fields with differing values as mixed, and only writes fields that are actively edited, so nothing is accidentally overwritten.
Multiple Libraries Mentions in Research Assistant
Research Assistant questions can now reference multiple libraries or lists in a single question. Previously each question was limited to one mention.
Syntax Highlighting for Code blocks in Research Assistant
Code blocks in Research Assistant responses now render with color-coded syntax highlighting, a language label, and a one-click copy button. Over 20 common languages are supported, including Python, R, MATLAB, JavaScript, and SQL. Unsupported languages still display as clean, readable plain code.
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The Research Assistant question input limit increased from 3,000 to 12,000 characters, allowing longer and more detailed questions.
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Text in Research Assistant responses can now be selected and copied directly, in addition to the existing Copy and Export options.
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Public list links are now generated on the http://readcube.com domain (http://public-lists.readcube.com ) instead of http://papersapp.com. Existing links created with the previous domain redirect automatically, so nothing already shared will break.
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Fixed an issue where an empty Research Assistant response could appear after rating an answer and refreshing the page, which also caused errors when copying or exporting that response.
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Fixed several formatting issues in Research Assistant responses, including bold and italic text not rendering together correctly and problems with mathematical notation display.
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Links in Research Assistant answers now open in a new tab, so the conversation stays in place instead of being replaced by the linked page.
