University Libraries

Consensus is a search engine designed specifically for scientific and academic research – not a general-purpose chatbot. It excels at retrieving and summarizing peer-reviewed literature, making it ideal for exploring research questions, not general knowledge like trivia or definitions.

For the best experience, use it to investigate topics typically covered in scholarly work, such as medical treatments, social science interventions, or psychological outcomes.

There’s no single right way to search in Consensus. You can explore with keywords, open-ended questions, specific paper titles, or author names.

Here are some examples:

• Keyword:
  • Vaccines
• Open‑ended topics:
  • Effects of ability grouping on academic outcomes
• Yes/No questions (activates the Consensus Meter):
  • Does creatine improve cognitive function in healthy adults?
• Format‑specific requests – Ask for bullet‑point summaries, pros/cons lists, or side‑by‑side tables to shape the output.
  • Summarize the pros and cons of carbon taxes in bullet points