User guide

How each part of Scholio works.

1. Getting started
2. Feed
3. Inbox
4. Reading a paper
5. Summaries and chat
6. Collections and sharing
7. Citations, export and import
8. Digest and notifications
9. Insights and goals
10. Accounts, sync and backup
11. Browser extension
12. Settings
13. FAQ

1. Getting started

The first time you open Scholio, a short setup asks which research topics you follow. You can add keywords (a method, a dataset, a problem name) and venues you trust. This is enough for Scholio to start ranking papers. You can change all of it later under Settings → Research interests, or start the setup again with Redo onboarding.

The navigation bar has six sections: Feed, Inbox, Digest, Collections, Insights and Settings. On a tablet it becomes a side rail you can collapse to icons.

2. Feed

The feed shows new papers, grouped by the day they were published.

• For you contains papers that match your topics and keywords, best match first.
• Discover widens the net to nearby work you might not have searched for.

Each paper card explains why it ranked where it did, for example a matching keyword or a venue you follow. As you save, favourite and skip papers, Scholio learns your taste and ranking adjusts. You can see and reset what it learned in Settings.

Useful controls:

• Open access only hides papers you cannot read for free.
• Muted topics keeps topics you never want to see out of the feed.
• Pull down to refresh. If you are offline, Scholio says so instead of showing an empty feed.

3. Inbox

The inbox holds the papers you kept from the feed, and the goal is to get it to zero. Each paper can be marked, independently:

• Saved: keep it to deal with later.
• Favourite: the papers that matter most to you.
• Read: you are done with it.

Papers you have started reading appear in an In progress strip, and a Continue reading card takes you back to the page you were on.

4. Reading a paper

Tap a paper to see its details: authors, venue, abstract, citations and related papers. If there is a legal open-access copy, Scholio finds it and opens the PDF in its reader.

• Highlight a passage in one of several colours, and attach a note to it.
• Notes on the paper as a whole are kept with it.
• Your place in the PDF is remembered, even if the app is closed.
• Downloaded PDFs are kept on your device. You can see how much space they use and clear them in Settings.
• For a paywalled paper, Email author drafts a polite request for a copy in your own email app.
• Share sends the paper's link or citation to another app.

5. Summaries and chat

Scholio can give a short summary of a paper, explain it in simpler terms, and answer questions about its abstract. Choose where this happens in Settings → AI provider:

When you are signed in, good summaries are shared in a common library, so a paper someone already summarised can load instantly for you. Summaries are shared without names. Turn this off with Contribute to shared library.

AI summaries can be wrong. Check anything important against the paper.

6. Collections and sharing

Collections group papers by project, course or reading list. A paper can be in several collections. You can share a collection as a read-only link. Only people with the link can open it, and you can stop sharing at any time.

If you set up a public profile, it shows your handle, display name, bio and shared collections. Your email address is never shown.

7. Citations, export and import

• Copy a citation for any paper as BibTeX, RIS, APA or IEEE.
• Export a whole list (your Inbox, Favourites, Read papers or a collection) as BibTeX or RIS, with your notes included. This works with Zotero, Mendeley, JabRef and LaTeX.
• Import a BibTeX or RIS file to bring an existing library into Scholio.

8. Digest and notifications

The Digest collects the most relevant new papers for you on a daily or weekly schedule. Set the day and time under Settings, and Scholio sends a notification when it is ready. Trackers follow conference deadlines and grant calls for your fields.

9. Insights and goals

Insights shows your reading over time: papers read, time spent, streaks, and the topics you read most. Set a weekly reading goal to keep a steady pace. Achievements are optional, and you can hide them in Settings.

10. Accounts, sync and backup

You do not need an account. Everything works offline and is stored on your phone.

Sign in with Google or with an email address to sync your interests, inbox, collections, notes and highlights across devices. Settings → Sync now syncs straight away, and any sync error is listed there with a retry button.

Without an account, use Settings → Backup to save your whole library (Back up now) and restore it on another device.

See the privacy policy for exactly what is stored and how to delete it.

11. Browser extension

The Scholio browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox adds a Save to Scholio Inbox button to paper pages on arXiv and journal websites. It reads the paper's DOI or arXiv ID from the page. Scholio then adds the paper to your inbox on its next sync. The extension signs in with a one-time code sent to your email.

12. Settings

• Appearance: System, Light, Dark or Midnight (true black for OLED screens).
• Research interests and Muted topics.
• Ranking: see what Scholio learned about your taste, and reset the ranking weights.
• AI provider: provider, API key, on-device model download.
• Digest: daily reminder, weekly day and time.
• Storage: downloaded PDFs and how much space they use.
• Account: sync, public profile, sign out.

Anything you are in the middle of typing, such as a note or a chat question, is kept as a draft if the app closes, so it is not lost.

13. FAQ

Is Scholio free?

Yes. If you connect your own AI provider, that provider may charge you for its use.

Does Scholio give me access to paywalled papers?

No. Scholio links to legal open-access copies when they exist, and helps you ask the author for a copy when they do not.

My feed is quiet. What can I do?

Add more keywords or topics under Research interests. Narrow interests give a short, precise feed, and broader ones give more papers. The Discover tab also widens the net.

How do I delete my account?

See section 11 of the privacy policy.

Something is broken.

Please open an issue at github.com/rng70/skim-app/issues and say what you did, what you expected and what happened. Do not include personal information.