Beaver

What is Beaver?

Beaver is an academic research assistant developed by Harvard University that lives directly inside Zotero, the popular research management tool. It allows researchers to search their entire PDF library, chat with documents, discover new scholarly papers, and get answers with sentence-level citations. Rather than switching between multiple tools, Beaver integrates seamlessly as a Zotero side panel, knowing exactly which page you're reading and grounding all responses in your curated library of trusted sources.

Key Features

• Whole Library Search

  Search across metadata, topics, and full text of all PDFs in your Zotero library to get grounded answers drawn from your entire research collection.

• Reading Assistant Integration

  Built directly into Zotero's PDF reader, allowing you to select equations, highlight text, and get explanations without leaving the page you're reading.

• External Research Discovery

  Search over 240 million scholarly works outside your library using OpenAlex, find citation patterns, and expand your collection with relevant papers.

• Sentence-Level Citations

  Every claim is supported with sentence-by-sentence citations. Hover to preview sources or click to open the highlighted PDF section.

• Notes Management

  Create literature reviews, summaries, and research syntheses directly in Zotero. Edit existing notes with full citation and math support, requiring approval for every change.

• AI PDF Annotations

  Automatically highlight key findings or mark project-relevant content with color-coded highlights and notes ready for review.

Use Cases

• Academic Literature Review : Graduate students and academics can summarize experimental protocols across papers, compare definitions of concepts, and synthesize research findings.
• Research Accuracy Verification : Researchers can verify their writing claims by checking if statements are accurate based on their library and having research citations validated.
• Cross-Paper Analysis : Compare and contrast definitions, findings, or methodologies across multiple papers in your library without manually opening each document.
• New Paper Discovery : Find recent papers on specific topics from particular journals or by specific authors to expand your research collection.
• PDF Annotation Automation : Students and researchers can quickly mark key findings and project-relevant content across multiple PDFs for efficient review.

FAQs