Paper cards and the literature review table

Make cards for many papers

1. Start:
   • Mac · iPadIn the library's “…” menu, choose Paper cards…. Choose the papers: All papers, Select papers or Current collection only.
   • WindowsIn the library's ⋮ menu, choose Paper cards…. It works on the papers the list is showing (what you have filtered to).
   • AndroidIn the library's ⋮ menu, choose Paper cards…. Choose the papers: All papers, the selected papers, or the collection that is open.
2. Press Make cards.
   • WindowsChoose the folder to write to.
3. Progress reads Making cards: N of M. You can stop at any time.
4. When it is done, Rectoly says Made cards for N papers in “…”. Open the table shows the literature review table.
   • Mac · iPadShare the folder hands the files to the share sheet.
   • WindowsThe result shows above the library. Show in folder opens the folder with the files.
   • AndroidShare the folder shares the files as one zip file.

• Only papers whose PDF is on this device are read. Download the others first; see Downloading PDFs and reading offline.
• A paper takes from a few seconds to about a minute.
• One paper failing does not stop the rest. Papers that could not be read are listed in review-table.md.

Read the literature review table

Open the table, on the Paper cards screen, puts the papers that have a card into one table.

• Each row is one paper. The columns are Research question, Method, Data / sample, Findings and Stated limitations.
• Each sentence ends with its page. Press a sentence to open the paper on the page of the paragraph it cites.
• A field the paper does not state reads "—".
• Paper card, in a paper's column, opens that paper's card.
• The papers whose cards are newest come first.

Open the table is there as soon as one paper in the scope has a card, even if that paper's PDF is not on this device.

One paper's card

• Mac · iPadChoose Paper card in the reader's “…” menu, or in the menu of the paper's row in the library.
• WindowsOpen the paper and choose the Paper card tab of the side panel.
• AndroidChoose Paper card in the PDF reader's ⋮ menu, or press and hold the paper in the library and choose Paper card.

The card shows the five fields and Passages the card cites: the paragraphs its sentences rest on, quoted. Press a page to open the paper there.

• A paper without a card yet shows Make card.
• Remake card writes it again; the new card replaces the old one.
• Turn on Show translation (language) to see a translation under each sentence. The row is not there when the card is already in your language.

Checked against the text

The AI writes a card's sentences from the paper's paragraphs. Rectoly then checks them against the text, one sentence at a time.

• Every sentence names the paragraph and the page it rests on.
• A sentence with content or a number that is not in the paragraphs it cites is dropped. Rectoly says how many: N sentences the text did not support were left out.
• Stated limitations holds only what the authors themselves wrote as a limitation. A limitation the AI thought of does not get in.
• A field the paper does not state stays empty.
• A card is written in the paper's own language, to keep the authors' wording and to check like against like.

The check removes content and numbers that are not in the text. It cannot prove that a sentence reads its paragraph correctly. Where it matters, open the page and see for yourself.

The files

• Zotero editionIn review-table.md, each page is a link that opens that page of the PDF in Zotero (zotero://open-pdf/…).

Save to Zotero as notes Zotero edition

Zotero editionAfter the cards are made, Save to Zotero as notes attaches each card to its paper as a note. The notes carry the tag "Rectoly card".

• Zotero editionSaving again rewrites the same note. If you edited the note in Zotero, that note is kept and a new one is written beside it.
• Zotero editionThese notes are for Zotero and for the other tools that read Zotero. Your other Rectoly devices get the card the way described below.

On your other devices

• While saving handwriting to Mendeley or Zotero is on, the card of a paper in your personal library is saved with that paper's handwriting, and Rectoly on your other devices shows it too. For where the setting is, see Sharing handwriting.
• A card of a paper in a group library, and a card made while that setting is off, stays on the device that made it. The card says so.
• A card made on another device can be read on a device that has no model.

Cards for new papers, automatically

Turn on Also make cards for new papers, on the Paper cards screen, and Rectoly makes a card for each paper that arrives on this device from then on.

• With this device's model, it works while the device is charging and not hot.
• With your own API key, it makes at most 20 cards a day. Since this sends paragraphs of papers you have not opened to the provider, turning it on asks separately whether that is all right. Until you confirm, no cards are made.

Where it runs

Paper cards run on this device, with the same model as translation. The paper is not sent anywhere.

• If the model is not there yet, you can download it from the Paper cards screen (about 2.5 GB, once). It is the model translation uses.
• On a device that cannot run the model, you can use your own API key. The paragraphs a card is written from then go to the provider you choose.
• For a table of each section's opening lines, made without AI, see Section comparison table.