CurTask vs ResearchRabbit: from finding papers to writing your review

This page is for students and researchers who use ResearchRabbit to find papers and want to know what happens next: where the papers are read, compared and written up. ResearchRabbit is well known for turning a few seed papers into maps of related work and recommendations, and many researchers enjoy exploring a field with it. CurTask starts where discovery ends. It keeps your papers, your analysis and your draft in one project, and it can find related papers too.

At a glance

One project from first paper to final draft

A literature review usually moves through several tools: one to find papers, one to store them, a spreadsheet for the matrix, and a word processor for the chapter. CurTask puts these in one project with three lenses. The Library lens holds the papers, the Analysis lens holds the matrix, codes and themes, and the Writing lens holds the draft. A paper you add once can join any project, and what you have learned about it comes along.

CurTask also has discovery built in. You can search open research catalogues without leaving the app, add open-access PDFs in one click, and ask for papers like the ones already in your project. So the papers you find land straight in the place where you will use them. A paper with no open-access PDF is still saved with its details and marked "No PDF", and you can add the PDF later from the paper's drawer. The AI analyses only papers that have their PDF, so nothing is charged for the others.

Every AI answer shows where it came from

When CurTask's AI analyses a paper or fills a matrix column, each value keeps the page number and a verbatim quote, and CurTask checks that the quote really is on that page. If it cannot find one, the cell says "No source found" rather than guessing. AI values stay marked Suggested until you accept, edit or restore them, so you remain the author of every judgement in your review.

This matters most after discovery: once you have fifty promising papers, the real work is reading them carefully and comparing them. CurTask lets you describe a column in plain words, such as "sample and context" or "main finding", see the credit cost first, and run it across every paper.

Analysis and writing that stay connected

Beyond the matrix, you can code passages in your papers and see them as coloured strips beside the text, group codes into themes on the synthesis map, and mark which papers agree, contradict or extend each other. Coding by hand is on every plan; on paid plans the AI codes every paper of a project at the push of a button and sorts your codes into categories and themes, each suggestion yours to accept or dismiss. A theme can be sent to the Writing lens with its passages.

In the Writing lens you cite with @ as you type, in eight styles including APA, Harvard, IEEE and Chicago. Each citation can link back to the passage in the PDF, drawn as the evidence line, so you can jump to the page while you write, and optional marks show sentences that have no citation yet. When you are ready, compile to Word, PDF, Markdown or HTML. Beside the draft, the writing sidebar builds on the analysis you have accepted (matrix values, coded passages, themes and links): up to three cards per paragraph, contradictions first, each with its page and verified quote.

Made for researchers in Malaysia

CurTask's interface is in English and Bahasa Melayu, and scanned PDFs are read in both languages. Your papers, notes and writing are stored on servers in Malaysia, private to you, and never used to train AI. Plans are priced in ringgit, with a free plan and a Student plan for university students. Every AI action shows its credit cost before it runs, and reusing an analysis you already have costs nothing. You can download all your data at any time, on every plan, as one ZIP file in open formats, with your references as BibTeX, RIS and CSL-JSON.

When ResearchRabbit might suit you

If your main need right now is exploring a field visually, following authors and building collections of papers to read, ResearchRabbit is a popular and well-liked choice, with a free plan to start.

Using both

Many researchers will happily use both. Explore in ResearchRabbit, then download the PDFs of the papers you want to read and drag them into CurTask. CurTask fills in each paper's details from its DOI (you can edit them), checks for duplicates so the same paper is never stored or analysed twice, and you can carry on with the matrix, coding and writing in one place.

Find your papers wherever you like, then bring them to CurTask and start your review on the free plan.