Chat with research papers
Ask a research paper and keep the passage in view.
Read the typeset PDF, ask questions about that paper, explain a selected passage, and move useful evidence into your draft with its citation.
The paper remains the object of the work. Rivul pairs document-scoped answers with the PDF reader instead of turning the source into an invisible upload.
Why this workflow
A confident answer is not evidence unless you can return to the page.
PDF chat is useful for orientation, terminology, and locating a relevant section. It becomes risky when the answer is detached from the document or presented as a substitute for reading. Rivul keeps the reader, selected text, answer, and citation close together.
Question one paper
Scope the conversation to the open document when you need its method, definition, limitation, or conclusion.
Work from exact text
Select a passage to explain or quote, then preserve the original wording and page context while you decide how to use it.
Carry the citation forward
Insert useful material into the manuscript with a source record instead of losing provenance in copy and paste.
A research-shaped workflow
From source to submission in three deliberate steps.
Open the PDF
Upload a paper or fetch an open-access copy from a scholarly record.
Ask or select
Ask about the document or highlight the passage that needs explanation.
Verify and cite
Read the surrounding page, then quote or paraphrase with the citation attached.
Use paper chat to navigate a source, not to avoid reading it.
Extraction can miss tables, equations, footnotes, or scanned text, and a model can overstate what a passage means. Rivul shows extraction status and keeps the PDF available so you can check the original before relying on an answer.
Frequently asked questions
Questions before you use AI in research.
Can I chat with a PDF research paper?
Yes. Rivul supports document-scoped questions for papers with extracted text and keeps the PDF reader available beside the workflow.
Can Rivul explain selected text?
Yes. You can select a passage in the reader and ask for an explanation while keeping the original wording visible.
Does paper chat work on scanned PDFs?
Rivul can attempt OCR on bounded scanned PDFs, but OCR quality varies. Extraction status tells you when the text layer is missing or unreliable.
Can I cite an answer from PDF chat?
Cite the underlying paper, not the AI answer. Rivul helps carry the paper's source record into your manuscript so you can verify and cite the original.
Related research workflows