Use Case

Elephas for Research

Your AI research assistant. Import papers, ask questions, and get answers with citations to your actual sources.

The Research Challenge

Research is drowning in literature. Thousands of papers published daily, citation networks spanning decades, and you're expected to synthesize it all into original contributions. Literature reviews alone can consume months. And generic AI chatbots? They hallucinate citations and make up studies that don't exist.

Researcher Pain Points:

Literature reviews take weeks or months of reading
Finding specific passages across dozens of papers is tedious
ChatGPT makes up fake citations and non-existent papers
Organizing notes and quotes from readings is chaotic
Keeping track of what you've read vs. what you haven't is difficult

How Elephas Transforms Research

Elephas is grounded in your actual papers. Import PDFs of research papers, and every answer comes with citations pointing to specific passages in your sources. No hallucinations, no made-up studies—just real answers from real papers you've chosen to include.

Source-Grounded Answers

Every response cites specific papers and passages from your library. Verify instantly. No more wondering if the AI made something up.

Cross-Paper Synthesis

Ask questions that span your entire research collection: "What methodologies have been used to study X?" Get synthesized answers drawing from multiple papers.

Literature Organization

Create project-specific Brains for each research project. All papers, notes, and context stay organized and queryable.

Key Features for Researchers

Paper Library with Citations

Import PDFs of research papers into topic-specific Brains. Ask questions and get answers that cite specific passages—complete with paper title, author, and page number.

Try: "What sample sizes were used in studies of cognitive load theory?"

Literature Review Generation

Ask Elephas to synthesize themes, compare findings, or identify gaps across your paper collection. Generate literature review sections with proper citations.

Try: "Write a literature review section on intervention approaches, citing the papers in my Brain"

Cross-Paper Search

Search across all your papers simultaneously. Find every mention of a concept, methodology, or author across your entire research library.

Try: "Find all papers that discuss limitations of self-report measures"

Research Note Integration

Import your Obsidian vault, Notion notes, or research memos alongside papers. Query across your thinking AND the literature simultaneously.

Try: "How do my notes on methodology compare to what the papers recommend?"

Research Workflows with Elephas

Scenario: Starting a Literature Review

Create a Brain for your research topic
Import 30-50 relevant PDFs from your database search
Ask: "What are the main themes across these papers?"
Ask: "Which papers discuss [specific methodology]?"
Generate a thematic literature review draft with citations

Scenario: Finding a Specific Citation

You remember reading something about "cognitive load in multimedia"
Ask: "Which paper discusses cognitive load in multimedia learning?"
Elephas returns the paper, author, and exact passage
Click citation to open the source document
Find the quote for your paper in seconds, not hours

Scenario: Writing Methodology Section

Ask: "What methodologies have been used to study this phenomenon?"
Review synthesis of approaches across your papers
Ask: "What are the limitations of survey-based approaches?"
Ask: "Draft a methodology justification citing these papers"
Get a draft grounded in actual literature, ready for refinement

Why Researchers Choose Elephas

Real Citations Only

Every answer cites YOUR papers. No hallucinated studies, no fake citations.

PDF Native

Works directly with research PDFs. No reformatting or special preparation.

Offline Capable

Run local AI for complete privacy. Unreleased research stays on your Mac.

Growing Library

Add papers as you find them. Your Brain gets smarter as your research deepens.

Get Started with Research

Download Elephas

Free download for Mac. Setup in 5 minutes.

Create a Project Brain

Name it after your research project or topic.

Import Your Papers

Drag in PDFs from your database search results.

Start Querying

Ask questions. Get answers with real citations.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from ChatGPT for research?

ChatGPT uses internet knowledge and often hallucinates citations. Elephas ONLY answers from papers YOU provide, with citations pointing to exact passages. Every citation is real and verifiable.

Does Elephas connect to PubMed or Web of Science?

Elephas works with papers you've already downloaded. Export PDFs from your database searches and import them into Elephas. This ensures you're only working with papers you've vetted.

Can I use this for my dissertation/thesis?

Absolutely. Elephas is ideal for large literature reviews. Create a Brain with all your sources, query across them, and generate draft sections with proper citations. You still need to verify and refine, but the synthesis is accelerated enormously.

How do I handle unpublished or sensitive research?

Use local AI models via Ollama. Your papers and queries stay entirely on your Mac—no cloud processing. Perfect for pre-publication research or sensitive data.

Does this work with reference managers (Zotero, Mendeley)?

Export PDFs from your reference manager and import them into Elephas. Elephas works with the documents themselves, complementing rather than replacing your citation management workflow.

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Research Smarter, Not Harder

Turn months of literature review into weeks. AI that cites real papers, not imaginary ones.

Try Elephas Free

No credit card required. Start with your first paper collection.