USRCH unifies academic search across Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, arXiv, PubMed, and others. You search from one interface, save papers to your workspace, and analyze them with Ubik agents. This guide walks through how to set up search, run queries, and add papers to your workspace.
Prerequisites: Start in a Workspace
USRCH works inside a workspace. If you haven't created one yet, see Working with Files, Folders, and Workspaces to create or open a workspace first.
Setting Up Search: Import & Create and Search Engines
Once inside a workspace, you have two ways to control search:
Import & Create (top of sidebar): Click Import & Create at the top of the sidebar. The dropdown shows options to upload files, upload folders, import from Zotero, create folders, create documents, and—for search—Search Engine. Use this to add or configure a new search engine.
Search Engines (bottom of sidebar): In the Quick Actions section at the bottom of the sidebar, click Search Engines to control how Ubik Agents search the internet. Here you can manage which sources (Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, arXiv, etc.) are enabled and how they're used.
Starting a Search: Ask in Chat
To start a search, simply ask in chat. Type your query—for example, "Find papers similar to @A Measurement Problem: Why Current AI Benchmarks Fail... published after 2024"—and reference existing documents or folders with the @ symbol to give the agent context.
To focus on searching: Open the tool toggle in the message box (the wrench icon) and enable Research. You can also use the Agent dropdown to select an agent tuned for source gathering. This keeps the agent focused on finding and collecting papers rather than writing or editing.
The Toolsets menu lets you turn on or off Writing, Research, and Markdown. With Research enabled, the agent prioritizes search and discovery.
Reviewing and Approving Research
Ubik uses Human-in-the-Loop approval flows. Before the agent runs a search, it shows you the proposed research task for review.
The Run Research card shows:
- Initial research task — A label for the search (e.g. "benchmark-solutions-2025")
- Detailed query — The full research instructions (e.g. "Find papers published after 2025 on: (1) AI benchmark design, validity, and construct issues; (2) human-AI collaboration...")
- Research mode — Quick Find, Survey, or Literature Review
- Other settings — Constraints such as "Academic only" and estimated time (e.g. "8 min")
You can Approve to proceed, Reject to cancel, or Edit to refine the query or settings before approving.
Browsing Results in the Result Explorer
After a search runs, results appear in the Result Explorer.
The top bar shows totals: e.g. "90 results" from "6 searches," "1 expedition," and "15 analyzed," with a "+10 bulk" option for batch actions. You can filter by source, access level, and sort by Suggested (or other criteria). Each result displays:
- Title and Open Access badge
- Authors and publication date
- Source (Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, arXiv.org, etc.)
- Performance metrics — Citation Impact, Methodology, Empirical Validity, and Relevance (as percentages)
Click a result to open a quick view or detailed view.
Adding Papers to Your Workspace
The full flow from discovery to saved paper works as follows.
1. Quick View — Add to Workspace
From the Result Explorer, click a paper to see a quick view with title, metadata, Agent Analysis, and a preview thumbnail.
A prominent Add to Workspace button lets you save the paper with one click. The view shows performance metrics (Citation Impact, Methodology, Empirical Validity, Relevance) and a "View Preview" thumbnail.
2. Add to Workspace — Live Preview
When you add a paper, Ubik shows a detailed view before confirming.
You'll see:
- Header — Source (Academic, google_scholar), "Found 1m ago," full title, authors, publication date
- Open Access and PDF Available — A green banner confirms the PDF can be added
- Pages to add — Live preview of the PDF with page navigation (e.g. 1/1 or 1/12)
- Add to Workspace button — Click to confirm
The preview lets you verify the paper before adding it.
3. Download to Workspace (from document view)
When viewing a paper you've opened (e.g. from a search result), a green Download to Workspace button appears in the top bar.
Click it to save the current paper to your workspace. The Paper Info panel on the right shows PDF download details, publication date, and conference information.
4. Saved to Workspace! Confirmation
After you add a paper, a confirmation modal appears.
The modal shows:
- Saved to Workspace! — Green checkmark and success message
- Filename — e.g. "3711896.3736569.pdf"
- Auto-bundling in progress... — Ubik is processing the file for indexing
- Closing in 2s — The dialog auto-dismisses, or click Close Now to dismiss immediately
5. Ingesting in the Sidebar
While the file is processing, it appears in the sidebar with a loading indicator.
The document icon (red "T" for text/PDF) and filename (e.g. "3711896.37365...") are visible, with a blue circular spinner showing that ingestion is in progress.
6. Context Indexed — Ready to Use
Once processing completes, your workspace shows Context Indexed — a green banner with a checkmark indicating content is ready for agents.
The sidebar organizes content into FOLDERS, SOURCES, DOCUMENTS, and SEARCHES. New papers appear under SOURCES or within folders. You can reference them with @ in chat, and agents can search, cite, and analyze them.
Detailed View and Agent Analysis
For deeper analysis, open the Details view of a paper.
The detailed view includes:
- Description — Summary of the paper
- Agent Analysis — AI-generated summary of impact, relevance, and key contributions (e.g. "High-impact survey (87 citations) directly addressing uncertainty quantification...")
- Cited by — Citation count with link
- Related Papers and Versions — Links to related work
- Authors — With links to profiles
- PDF Resources — Direct link to the PDF
- Relevance Signals — Visual bars for Citation Impact, Methodology Rigor, Empirical Validation, and Relevance (e.g. 95%, 85%, 100%, 95%)
How Agents Analyze Papers
When the agent evaluates papers, it uses configurable criteria. The Score Distribution chart shows how scores are distributed across quartiles for each criterion.
The chart displays:
- Quartiles — 0–25% (red), 25–50% (orange), 50–75% (light green), 75–100% (dark green)
- Criteria — Relevance, Citation Impact, Methodology Rigor, and Empirical Validation
- Distribution — Each horizontal bar shows how many papers fall into each quartile for that criterion
For example, if 15 papers are scored, Relevance might show all 15 in the top quartile (75–100%), while Citation Impact might show 4 in 25–50%, 7 in 50–75%, and 4 in 75–100%. This transparency lets you see at a glance how papers are ranked and filtered across your research.
Bibliography and the Verify Step
Ubik tracks all sources in your workspace and builds a bibliography automatically. Access it from the Quick Actions section at the bottom of the sidebar.
Click Bibliography to open the Works Cited view. The sidebar shows two counts: a green badge (e.g. 30) for tracked sources that are complete, and an orange badge (e.g. 6) for entries that need attention. These visual tags tell you at a glance how many sources are tracked and what needs to be done.
Works Cited Page
The Works Cited page lists all your sources with full citation text, associated filenames, and metadata.
Header: Shows total sources (e.g. "36 sources"), citation style (e.g. "MLA 9th Edition"), and incomplete count (e.g. "6 incomplete"). A Refresh button updates the list.
Controls:
- Citation style dropdown — Switch between MLA, APA, Chicago, and other formats
- Incomplete filter — Filter to show only entries that need fixing (e.g. "Incomplete (6)")
- Search — Find citations by author, title, or keyword
- Check — Verify citation completeness
- Copy — Copy selected or all citations
Each entry displays the full citation, filename, and tags for year, document type, author count, and AI percentage. Incomplete entries are flagged so you can fix them quickly.
Incomplete Citations and Fix Quickly
When the agent can't find required metadata (author, year, DOI), it flags those entries. Incomplete citations show a red percentage badge (e.g. 50%) indicating how much metadata is missing.
Click an incomplete entry to edit it. Required fields show (missing) in orange—for example, Year with a red asterisk and placeholder "Publication year (e.g., 2023)".
Fill in the gaps and save. The Human in the Loop approval step lets you review and confirm changes before finalizing. Once complete, the entry moves from the incomplete count to the tracked count.
For more on citation formats and writing with traceable citations, see Craft Well-Cited Text.
Two-Step Authentication for Open-Access Papers
Some databases require authentication. Ubik supports 2-step auth for open-access papers so you can access full texts when available.
Web search: You can also run web searches. Web pages can be converted to PDFs and saved to the workspace.
Example Workflows
- Expand ideas: Search for related work, save to workspace, compare findings
- Find similar work: Run follow-up searches and add papers with one click
- Annotate with agents: Save papers, then ask agents to highlight and summarize key points