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VIVA: Trials: AI Research Tools

Virginia's Academic Library Consortium

This guide has variable layouts and houses the majority of the "sub" pages for VIVA's website.

FY26 Product Trials: Scite and Consensus

The AI in Collections Working Group proposed exploring research-focused AI tools as potential additions to VIVA's shared resources. The Collections Committee recommended conducting consortium-wide trials of two products: Consensus and Scite.

Both products have LibKey integrations, to facilitate user access to library subscribed content.

This page is designed for collection development contacts and other library staff at VIVA member libraries. VIVA does not conduct centralized outreach about product trials, so we ask that you and your colleagues promote these trials to your communities and encourage participants to provide feedback. Please feel free to take what you need from this page to share with your campus community.

Trial dates

Wednesday, November 12, 2025 to Thursday, February 12, 2026

This trial window covers students' fall semester final paper writing, the winter intersession (when many faculty and grad students focus on research and writing), and some key federal grant deadlines in February. 

URLs and product descriptions for trial products 

If you have any issues accessing the trials, please email viva@gmu.edu for assistance.

Consensus: 

  • Product URL: https://consensus.app/
  • Product Description: Consensus is an AI-powered academic search engine. It summarizes insights from the literature (with citations), ranks the top 20 papers for a search, and offers snapshots of individual studies. If a user enters a yes/no question, Consensus tags individual articles with yes, no, mixed, and possibly, and provides a Consensus Meter that visualizes the balance of supporting and contrasting evidence.
  • Trial Access Instructions: Sign up for an account using your institutional email.

Scite: 

  • Product URL: https://scite.ai/
  • Product Description: Scite is an AI-powered research tool for discovering and evaluating scholarly articles. Smart Citations allow users to see how a publication has been cited by providing the context of the citation and a classification describing whether it provides supporting or contrasting evidence for the cited claim. Scite Assistant generates a summary of the scholarly literature on a topic, with cited references. Scite is also useful for impact analysis.
  • Trial Access Instructions: Sign up for an account with your institutional email. This will give you access to the trial on or off campus networks. Trial access is also automatic on any campus network or VPN, no account needed.

Webinar recordings

Links coming soon.

Gathering feedback

We encourage institutions to seek student, faculty, and staff feedback on the two products. We have developed a template survey you may adapt for your institution's use, if you wish. Email viva@gmu.edu to request access to the editor view of this survey.

In early February, VIVA will invite collection development contacts to share aggregated trial feedback.

Access the Scite & Consensus trials (information for students, faculty, & staff)

Consensus 

  • Go to this link: https://consensus.app/ and create an account using your institutional email.
  • A code will be sent to your email address. Once you confirm, you will have an account connected to the trial.
  • To confirm that this worked, look at your account name in the bottom left corner of the Consensus Web Application. You should see a special icon next to your name indicating full access to the paid product. 

Scite

  • On a campus network (wifi, VPN, etc.)
    • If you're on the campus network (wifi, VPN, etc.) at a participating institution, you will be able to access Scite without any registration.

    • You should be able to access 100% of functionality without any registration. In addition, LibKey and LinkResolvers should be also activated, so please check if you can see behind the paywall content from the subscriptions you have at the moment.

  • Off Campus: If you're off the campus network/travelling, you may create a profile on the Scite platform. The steps are:
  • Visit https://scite.ai
  • Click Sign Up (top right) 
  • Register using your institutional email address. A confirmation email will be sent -- open that and click "verify email". You will now be able to log in to Scite.
  • The system will recognize your email as part of the VIVA trial, and you’ll be automatically be added to the trial license.
  • For any questions, please email customersupport@researchsolutions.com-- there are US and Canadian Support Team colleagues responding within 24 hours. 

Learn about Scite & Consensus: Guides and Videos

Consensus

Scite

Trial setup instructions (For Librarians)

Feel free to reach out to the VIVA office (viva@gmu.edu) with any questions. That email is monitored by multiple VIVA staff during business hours.

Opting Out?

If your institution does not want to participate in these trials, or would like to end their participation in the trials, please email viva@gmu.edu

Consensus 

Trial setup:

  • VIVA will share all verified email domains of participating schools with Consensus.

Instructions for users:

  • Go to this link: https://consensus.app/ and create an account using your institutional email.
  • A code will be sent to your email address. Once you confirm, you will have an account connected to the trial.
  • To confirm that this worked, look at your account name in the bottom left corner of the Consensus Web Application. You should see a special icon next to your name indicating full access to the paid product. 

Scite

Trial setup

  • A trial information form was sent to VIVA Collections Contacts on 10/27 for completion. If your institution did not receive that email, please reach out to viva@gmu.edu

Instructions for users

  • Access via IP range
    • If you're on the campus network (wifi, VPN, etc.) at a participating institution, you will be able to access Scite without any registration.

    • You should be able to access 100% of functionality without any registration. In addition, LibKey and LinkResolvers should be also activated, so please check if you can see behind the paywall content from the subscriptions you have at the moment.

  • Access outside IP range: For those off the campus network/travelling, you may create a profile on the Scite platform (which can can delete at any moment). The steps are:
  • Visit https://scite.ai
  • Click Sign Up (top right) 
  • Register using your institutional email address (The trial will only be recognized using an institutions email domain within VIVA). 
    • Please bypass all Google/ORCID and credit card prompts.
  • The system will recognize your email as part of the VIVA trial, and you’ll be automatically be added to the trial license.
  • For any questions, please email customersupport@researchsolutions.com-- we have US and Canadian Support Team colleagues responding within 24 hours.  

Privacy and Security

Scite and Consensus have gone through IT review at JMU (where most VIVA procurement takes place). Scite has already been adopted at William and Mary, and UVA has Consensus. Below you will find additional information on privacy and security in these resources.