CurTask vs Scite: from citation context to your own literature review

This page is for researchers and postgraduate students who like Scite's way of showing how studies support or contrast with one another, and want the same kind of clarity inside their own literature review. Scite is well known for Smart Citations, which show how later research has supported, contrasted or mentioned a paper, across a very large index of citation statements. CurTask brings that question, "what supports this and what contradicts it?", into the papers you have chosen, with your draft in the same project.

At a glance

Support and contradiction, inside your own review

Scite answers a valuable question about the published record: how has the field cited this paper? In a literature review you also need to answer a closer question: how do the papers I have chosen relate to each other, and to the argument I am making?

In CurTask you answer it on the synthesis map. You group your codes into themes and link passages from different papers as agreeing, contradicting or extending one another, so the shape of the debate is visible on one board. On paid plans, AI sorts your codes into categories and themes for you to accept or dismiss, each theme with quotes from your papers, and suggests agree and contradict links across your accepted themes, each with the passages on both sides. Each link you make or accept keeps the passages on both sides, so you can always return to the exact words.

The writing sidebar builds on your own accepted analysis. It reads only the matrix values, coded passages, themes and links you have accepted, labels each card with where it comes from ("From your matrix", "From your link"), and shows what contradicts, extends or supports the paragraph you are on, in up to three cards with contradictions first, each with its page and verified quote. When a claim has no accepted evidence behind it, a card says so.

Every value tied to a page in your PDF

CurTask's literature matrix lets you describe a column in plain words, see the credit estimate, and run it across your papers. Each AI value carries a page number and a verbatim quote, and the quote is checked to exist on that page of your own PDF before you see it. If no passage supports the value, the cell says "No source found" instead of guessing.

AI values stay marked Suggested until you accept, edit or restore them. The same rule applies to AI text in your draft, because the researcher is the author.

From reading to coding to writing

CurTask keeps the whole review in one project with three lenses: Library, Analysis and Writing. You drop in PDFs, Word or OpenDocument files, including scanned papers in English or Malay, which are read on your own device. The duplicate check means a paper is stored and analysed only once, and details are filled in from the DOI. A paper you only have the details of is saved and marked "No PDF"; the AI analyses only papers with their PDF.

In the reader you code passages with a codebook of easy-to-tell-apart colours, and coloured coding strips appear beside the text. Coding by hand is part of every plan; on paid plans, AI codes every paper of a project at the push of a button, and you accept or dismiss each suggestion. Memos on coded passages stay yours and are never sent to the AI. When a theme is ready on the synthesis map, you send it to Writing with its passages.

A draft that shows its evidence

The Writing lens is a full manuscript space with binder, corkboard and outline views. You cite with @ in any of eight styles, including APA, Harvard and IEEE, and the bibliography follows. Every citation can carry a page number and links back to its passage in the PDF through the evidence line. Optional marks show sentences that have no citation yet. When you are ready, compile the manuscript to Word, PDF, Markdown or HTML.

Available now in the Writing lens: Check my citations asks whether each paper you cited says what your sentence says, and Claim support marks the sentences a reader would expect a source for and looks for passages that back them in your own papers; on paid plans it also suggests published studies you don't have yet. Every passage from your papers is quoted and checked on its page, and your text is never rewritten.

Clear costs, private work, local pricing

Every AI action shows its cost before it runs, credits are never charged twice, and a job your balance cannot cover does not start. A paper's analyses travel with it into every project, so reusing them costs 0 credits. Your papers, notes and writing are stored in Malaysia, visible only to you, and never used to train AI, and you can download all of it at any time. The interface is in English and Bahasa Melayu, and prices are in ringgit with a free plan and a Student plan.

When Scite might suit you

If you want to know how a specific paper, author or journal has been received by later research, or you want citation context while you browse and in your reference manager, Scite's Smart Citations, browser extension and integrations are built for exactly that.

Using both

Scite and CurTask answer different questions, so they work well together. Use Scite to check how key papers have been cited, then drag the PDFs you want to work with into CurTask. Details are filled in from each DOI. Your matrix, codes, themes and chapter then sit in one project, with every value and citation traced to a page in your own copy.

Try CurTask on the free plan with your own papers, no card needed.