Elicit Versus AnswerThis: How to Know Which Research Assistant is for You

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Elicit versus AnswerThis: Which Ai Assistant Offers Better Research Support?

Research has always been a very tedious and slow process, especially finding and citing references, as sorting through piles of publications to find something relevant is often overwhelming and fruitless. Finding resources doesn’t stop there - researchers often have to perform literature reviews of these works, to ensure its quality and to extract important information.

Frankly, no one wants to deal with the tediousness of finding and analyzing research, so it’s no surprise that many research assistants have started to appear in recent years. Using Ai to help locate and break down references, these tools aim to simplify the research process so that users can focus on the more important and engaging aspects of their research.

Offering various services, from finding and summarizing papers on a given topic, to helping discover holes in current research, these Ai assistants can be a powerful tool in any researcher's arsenal. But which research assistants are best, and how do they compare?

Elicit and AnswerThis are two top contenders for research assistants, and their powerful and comprehensive assistance and features make them well worth their price. This article explains both platforms, and breaks down their key differences and advantages.

What is Elicit?

Elicit is an AI-powered research assistant designed primarily to automate and enhance the more text heavy parts of research. Elicit utilizes machine learning to identify and summarize relevant academic research based on user queries, as well as offering organizational features for found sources. It also offers assistance with brainstorming research questions and organizing data into accessible tables, making it incredibly useful for researchers, students, and professionals conducting in-depth studies.

Literature Search and Summarization

At its core, Elicit is used to find and summarize relevant papers for a given query. Elicit provides a general summary as well as key takeaways, and allows users to save sources used in the response. Users can view the steps the Ai takes in generating a response, providing transparency and a convenient way to check for accuracy.

Data Extraction and Organization

Elicit’s data extractor enables users to extract figures and tables from papers automatically, saving time in copy-pasting. The data extractor works on both imported files and in-app papers, letting users summarize and analyse outside information as well. All extracted information can be organized into customizable tables.

Brainstorming and Topic Exploration

For researchers struggling to find a new project, Elicit’s Topic Finder can provide assistance with identifying future research opportunities. It’s capable of analyzing current research to identify related topics and thus new ideas, allowing users to stay within their field of expertise while still discovering more.

Notebook

The Notebook is a centralized hub inside Elicit, allowing users to organize and store notes, ideas, papers, and findings. Primarily, it allows users to add notations to papers, as well as categorize and link related topics. By storing all the users files in one convenient location, the Notebook makes it easy to find files when needed.

Research Study Classification through Columns

One of Elicits core features is its Columns, a structured table used for organizing and classifying data from different studies. With core characteristics such as research methodology, sample size and key findings automatically extracted, Columns streamlines the literature review process. Side by side data comparison helps users visualize different studies and their varying practices, to compare conflicting research or simply as a reference. Of course, custom columns can also be created, with Elicit automatically filtering through the designated research papers based on your custom instructions.

What is AnswerThis?

AnswerThis is a research assistance which streamlines the entirety of the research process, using Ai to simplify and speed up research. Providing structured answers backed by citations to complex questions, AnswerThis draws from over 250 million articles to offer easy to understand responses which provide all necessary information. AnswerThis’s main features are literature review generation, citation storage and assistance, and file management and writing help.

Literature Reviews

With a database of over 250 million credible sources, AnswerThis answers research questions with in depth literature reviews. These literature reviews serve many purposes, as the prompt helper enables users to choose types of responses, from quantitative analysis to finding gaps in research for future exploration. Literature reviews can be customized by paper quality, depth of response, publication date and more. In text citations help users quickly determine sources for information.

Citation Assistance

Citations found in literature reviews and from the Search Papers function can be effortlessly stored in the Library for later use, providing a convenient place to keep all references. The Citation Map helps with visualization of a source's relevance by displaying all interconnected papers, as well as offering access to similar and related papers.

Citation and Paper Management

AnswerThis comes with a powerful management tool known as the Library, which automatically stores users papers, citations, and all imported files. Files can be exported from the library to the desktop or users choice of external reference manager, and BIB files can be imported for later users. Files in the library are automatically organized through the Projects tab, which stores all generated and saved responses and resources in the active project.

Writing Assistance

For researchers and students struggling with or annoyed by writing up their results, AnswerThis offers an Ai Writer. Capable of managing, editing and creating documents from the library, the writer comes with full Ai integration used in generating paper outlines, paraphrasing, and expanding passages. All changes can be viewed before implementation, ensuring users have complete control over their writing. Generated outlines can also be automatically filled in, so as to allow users a solid foundation for their writing to edit and refine.

PDF Analysis and Breakdown

PDFs, either imported or from the library, can be “chatted” with, to elaborate upon and explain ideas presented in a file. Areas of confusion can be highlighted for an explanation, and users can further question the PDF to save time in understanding more complex topics.

Comparative Analysis

Feature	Elicit	AnswerThis
Main Purpose	AI-powered research assistant focused on structured data extraction and synthesis	AI-powered research assistant specializing in literature reviews, citation management, and full research project support
Paper Search & Summarization	Searches academic papers, extracts structured data, and provides AI-generated summaries	Finds and summarizes studies with paragraph-level citations in structured responses
Literature Review Generation	Does not generate full literature reviews	Generates structured, citation-backed literature reviews
Citation Management	Extracts citations and organizes them into structured tables	Stores and manages citations, offers the Citation Map and personalized libraries
Columns Feature	Allows structured data extraction from research papers, customizable columns, and sorting	No direct equivalent, but provides organized citation storage
PDF Analysis	Can extract key details from PDFs and integrate them into tables	Directly converse with PDFs, gives explanations for highlighted text
Research Proposal & Project Reports	No dedicated project support	Supports proposal writing and full research project management
Filtering & Customization	Allows filtering and sorting by methodology, sample size, publication year, etc.	Filters by journal quality, study type, domain (.gov, .edu), and publication date
AI Writing Assistance	No writing assistance	Provides full AI-powered editing, summarization, and writing tools
Security & Privacy	Ensures privacy, but limited transparency on AI-generated data sourcing	Ensures data privacy and does not share user data
Ease of Use	Intuitive interface, especially for structured research and systematic reviews	User-friendly, with tutorials for advanced features
Installation Requirements	Web-based, no installation required	Web-based, no installation required
Cost	$42/month for all features	$35/month for unlimited research and citations
Uploadable Formats	PDF, CSV, RIS, and other structured data files	PDFs, URLs, RIS, BIB, CSV files

Key Takeaways

Choose Elicit if you need a structured, data-driven research assistant that helps extract, compare, and organize research insights. Best for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, its main attraction is better visibility of steps taken in queries.

Choose AnswerThis if you need a comprehensive research assistant offering AI-generated literature reviews, citation tracking, and AI-assisted writing for full research project management. Best for students and researchers writing papers who require citation backed structured research. Try it today for free!

Elicit vs AnswerThis