In this post, I‘ll review Paperpal AI. I tested it for AI-assisted, research-focused writing and will show you the results, and go through the pros and cons. In my reviews, I’ll only test free tools or tools with a free trial available.
Let’s dive in!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you.
How to Use It
Here is how to get started. Go to their website, and click on “Start Writing” to test out the free trial.
Answer a few questions to get the tailored Paperpal experience.
Here is a list of features Paperpal is providing.
My Experience
Let’s explore the features of Paperpal.
Here is the writing panel where you can upload your text or start typing. On the right is the control panel with all the features. The dashboard looks clean and not too packed.
Typing in “/” opens up the built-in generative AI editor.
Under “Research”, you can ask a research-related question from the AI or get citations and paper suggestions for your text.
So, let’s say I wanted to write a literature review about the correlation between creatine supplement use and muscle growth. The AI generated a response based on its library of over 250 million scholarly publications.
List of top papers for my research topic.
Some of the top papers were quite old, but at a quick glance, they seemed legitimate.
You can ask Paperpal to generate text from scratch using a prompt. The “Edit” feature provides suggestions for improving language and grammar, which is very convenient for non-native English speakers writing in English.
With the “Cite” feature, you can easily find citations. Just highlight the part of the text you want to cite, and the AI will search for relevant papers for you. A list of references can also be generated to attach at the end of your paper, using your preferred citation style.
Always check the facts and the papers before submitting anything. For example, in my text, I claim that “Creatinine grows your muscles 10x bigger in only two weeks”, and the AI still found papers to support this statement.
The statement itself is not correct, and “creatine” was also misspelled as “creatinine,” which is actually a different compound, a waste product of muscle metabolism.
When I asked the generative AI to explain this statement under the “Write” feature, this statement got flagged as inaccurate.
In addition to the features mentioned above, there are several other tools available in the right-hand side control panel. Paperpal supports over 30 languages, allowing you to translate your text into another language and insert it directly into your document. The English-to-Finnish translation is actually very smooth, coming from a native Finnish speaker. You can also use the platform for brainstorming or to scan your text for accidental plagiarism.
Since I’m only testing out the free trial, I don’t have the credits to cover all of the features.
Pros
- Tailored for academic writing, trained on research papers, and not general content
- Can be integrated to Google, Overleaf and Word
- A wide selection of relevant features, including citations, language suggestions
Cons
- Learning curve: it might take some time to get the hang of all the features
- I recommend verifying facts and citations in the text
Pricing
Here are the current pricing plans of Paperpal. They also offer a 100 % money-back guarantee.
To Take Home
Paperpal is a research-focused platform for academics, offering all the tools you need from the first draft to submitting your manuscript or paper. The built-in grammar and text improvement tools can really elevate your writing, especially if you are a non-native English speaker who struggles with writing in a second language. Convenient integrations with Google Docs, Word, and Overleaf, along with browser extensions and a user-friendly interface, make Paperpal a solid writing platform for academics.
My review is based on the free trial, so I didn’t have a chance to test all of the features. Still, I would recommend this tool to anyone who writes and revises a lot of research papers or manuscripts. For someone who only needs grammar checking or want to brainstorm, there may be better options. And remember: you are responsible for double-checking facts and validating citations, nobody wants to do accidental plagiarism.