Question 1

How are citations classified?

Accepted Answer

| Citations are classified by a deep learning model that is trained to identify three categories of citation statements: those that provide contrasting or supporting evidence for the cited work, and others, which mention the cited study without providing evidence for its validity.

Citations are classified by rhetorical function, not simply positive or negative sentiment.
Citations are not simply classified as supporting or contrasting by positive or negative keywords.
Supporting and Contrasting citations do not necessarily indicate that the exact set of experiments were performed. For example, if a paper finds that drug X causes phenomenon Y in mice and a subsequent paper finds that drug X causes phenomenon Y in yeast but both come to this conclusion with different experiments—this would be classified as a supporting citation. even though identical experiments were not performed.

A few examples:

Supporting citation statement

Here, the statement _In agreement with previous work …. _ indicates support, while … the trisomic clones showed similar aberrations, albeit to a lesser degree (Suppplemental Figure S2B) … provides evidence for this supporting statement. Hence, this citation is classified as supporting because the authors of the citing study provide primary evidence supporting ${color}[#3a88fe]((Nicholson et al 2015)), they do

Question 2

How do I fix a mis-classified citation?

Accepted Answer

scite utilizes a deep learning model to automatically classify citations as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning. If find citation mis-classified you can flag it and note the correct classification. Flagged classifications are reviewed internally by at least two subject matter experts and will be changed based upon their agreement and feedback from the user who flagged the citation. In general, we aim to correct mis-classifications in less than 24 hours.

To flag a mis-classified citation, click the flag next to the citation classification

Then select the correct classification and hit submit (note, you will need to be signed in to flag citations)

Question 3

A retracted article has no contrasting cites, does that mean scite is not working?

Accepted Answer

The mission behind scite is to make science more reliable. To achieve this mission we help anyone interested in scientific research identify if a study has been supported or disputed by analyzing hundreds of millions of citation statements.

One test that users often seek to use as a test of scite is to see if retracted articles have contrasting cites, which in some cases they do not. Does this mean scite is not working?

In short, no. scite illuminates the citation landscape by breaking down citations into three different citation classifications. These classifications help shed a light onto publication bias, a phenomenon that has been well documented in scientific publishing. Thus, a retracted publication might not actually have any contrasting citations made to it and scite simply shows that. Other reasons scite might not have contrasting cites on retracted studies are as follows:

1) There are no contrasting studies to it. 2) The retraction notice does not cite the retracted article. 3) There are contrasting papers, but no contrasting citation statements (see: Does scite classify citation statements or papers?) 4) scite has not yet ingested contrasting papers.

Question 4

Do you classify citation statements or papers?

Accepted Answer

scite classifies citation statements as supporting, disputing, or mentioning. This means that a disputing or supporting citation on scite might refer to only a part of a paper and not the whole paper. Additionally, this means a paper might dispute or support paper but the citation statement might be classified as mentioning.

We are in the process of developing a system that will allow users to publish micro-publications ("scites") that can be used to add supporting or disputing evidence or to synthesize already published articles so that they can be properly linked as supporting or disputing.

If you're interested in publishing a scite and want to be an alpha tester of this group, please write to hi@scite.ai

Question 5

Where do you get your articles from?

Accepted Answer

scite has ingested millions of scientific articles and is in the process of ingesting more. These articles come from a variety of sources, including publishers, PubMed Central, University repositories and authors.

If we're missing a citation (article), the best way to make sure we get it is to encourage the publisher to work with us!

Question 6

How many citations does scite have?

Accepted Answer

Citation Coverage

Q: Do you classify citation statements or papers?

scite classifies citation statements as supporting, disputing, or mentioning. This means that a disputing or supporting citation on scite might refer to only a part of a paper and not the whole paper. Additionally, this means a paper might dispute or support paper but the citation statement might be classified as mentioning. We are in the process of developing a system that will allow users to publish micro-publications ("scites") that can be used to add supporting or disputing evidence or to synthesize already published articles so that they can be properly linked as supporting or disputing. If you're interested in publishing a scite and want to be an alpha tester of this group, please write to hi@scite.ai

scite aims to provide complete coverage of the scientific record. However, our coverage is currently most complete in biomedical research and the social sciences, with over 800 million citation snippets in our database.

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