Consensus
Status:
watch-list| Maturity:production-ready| Last reviewed: 2026-03-04
What it does
Consensus is an AI-powered academic search engine with a distinctive “Consensus Meter” feature that analyses the percentage of papers supporting, contrasting, or neutral on a specific scientific claim. It is designed to help researchers rapidly assess the state of evidence on a question.
Key capabilities
- Evidence-Based Search: “Consensus Meter” shows percentage of papers supporting or refuting a scientific claim
- AI-powered search across peer-reviewed literature
- Paper summarisation with source attribution
- Claim verification against published evidence
Fit for Sheffield researchers
Most valuable for empirical research disciplines (health sciences, life sciences, social sciences with quantitative methods) where scientific consensus is a meaningful concept. Less useful for arts and humanities researchers or qualitative researchers. High immediate value for evidence reviews and research background preparation.
Licensing and access
Freemium model. Institutional pricing not confirmed. Recommend direct enquiry for bulk or institutional access.
Trust and governance notes
US data residency. GDPR compliance unconfirmed. Not recommended for sensitive research data until governance is clarified.
Observed limitations
- Consensus Meter concept is less applicable to non-empirical disciplines
- Corpus coverage may miss humanities and non-English literature
- Output quality depends on claim formulation — requires researcher skill to interpret correctly
Related tools
elicit · scite · semantic-scholar
Sources and evidence
- Consensus product page: https://consensus.app/ (accessed 2026-03-04)