Scholar AI is not ChatGPT for your paper. If you use it like one, you'll get generic answers that sound right but don't actually advance your argument. The real power of Scholar is in how it connects to your sources — the ones you've already added to your library.
Here's how to get the most out of it.
What Scholar actually does
Scholar AI reads the sources in your library — their titles, abstracts, and full text when available. When you ask it a question, it searches your library semantically, finds the most relevant sources, and synthesizes an answer grounded in material you've already collected.
This is fundamentally different from asking a general-purpose AI a question. A general model draws on its training data — a vast, undifferentiated pool of internet text. Scholar draws on your research. The answers are scoped to what you've read, which means they're relevant to your paper by definition.
The right way to ask questions
The quality of Scholar's answers depends almost entirely on how you ask.
Bad question: "What does the literature say about climate change?"
This is too broad. Scholar will try to summarize everything in your library that mentions climate, and the result will be vague.
Good question: "Which of my sources discusses the relationship between carbon pricing and industrial emissions in developing economies?"
This is specific enough that Scholar can point you to exactly the right source — and quote the relevant section if full text is available.
Better question: "I'm arguing that carbon pricing is less effective in developing economies due to enforcement gaps. Do any of my sources support or contradict this?"
Now Scholar is doing real work. It's checking your claim against your evidence and telling you where the support is — and where the pushback might come from.
Five things Scholar is actually good at
1. Finding the right source for a claim
You're writing a paragraph and you know one of your sources supports the point, but you can't remember which one. Ask Scholar: "Which source discusses [your specific claim]?" It will search your library semantically and surface the match.
2. Checking if your argument has gaps
Ask: "Based on my sources, are there any obvious counterarguments to [your thesis]?" Scholar will look for sources that present opposing evidence or alternative frameworks. This is invaluable for strengthening your argument before your advisor finds the holes.
3. Understanding a source you haven't fully read
If you've uploaded a PDF and the full text is indexed, you can ask Scholar questions about it directly: "What methodology does [Author] use?" or "What are the main findings in [Title]?" This is faster than skimming 40 pages when you need one specific detail.
4. Synthesizing across sources
"How do [Source A] and [Source B] differ on the question of [topic]?" Scholar will compare the two and highlight where they agree and disagree. This is the kind of synthesis that takes an hour to do manually and 10 seconds to start with Scholar.
5. Generating citation suggestions
As you write, Folio watches for sentences that make claims without citations. When it finds a match in your library, it suggests the source inline — a faint purple ghost citation that you can accept with Tab. Scholar is doing this in the background constantly.
What Scholar should never replace
Scholar cannot have an original idea. It cannot take a position. It cannot decide what your paper is about or which argument is worth making. If you ask it to "write my introduction," it will produce something that sounds like an introduction but isn't yours — it's a recombination of patterns from your sources.
The value of your paper is not in the sentences. It's in the thinking that chose those sentences over other possible sentences. Scholar can accelerate the research process. It cannot do the research for you.
Use it to find, check, compare, and synthesize. Write the paper yourself.
One more thing
Scholar gets smarter as your library grows. A library with 3 sources gives Scholar very little to work with. A library with 20 well-chosen sources — especially those with full text uploaded — gives it a rich, interconnected knowledge base that makes every question more useful.
The investment in building a good library pays off not just in your citations, but in the quality of every Scholar interaction.
Scholar AI is available on Folio's Fellow and Chair plans. Try it free with 10 suggestions per hour on the Scholar plan.