Papernex is a writing editor for theses, papers and literature reviews. Upload the PDFs you work from, ask questions and get answers that cite them by page, and insert references in the style your department or journal asks for. You stay the author.
Sleep is widely understood to support the consolidation of newly encoded memories (Diekelmann & Born, 2010). Reviews of the evidence describe benefits for both procedural and declarative learning (Walker & Stickgold, 2004).
2.1 Slow-wave sleep
In one widely cited experiment, boosting slow oscillations during early sleep improved the retention of word pairs (Marshall et al., 2006).
Slow-wave sleep has been linked to the reactivation of recently learned material, which may help stabilise it in long-term memory.Tab
Type / for commands, @ to cite
AI ChatLibrary
What do my sources say about slow-wave sleep and declarative memory?
Both reviews connect slow-wave sleep with declarative memory. Diekelmann and Born describe memories being reactivated during slow-wave sleep and gradually redistributed to the neocortex1. Walker and Stickgold summarise studies in which sleep after learning improved later performance2.
The memory function of sleep
Page 4 · 87% match
Click to cite in document
The memory function of sleep (p.4)Sleep-dependent learning and memory consolidation (p.7)
Insert to doc
Ask a question...
The Papernex editor, illustrated with sample content: a draft with in-text citations and an autocomplete suggestion, beside an AI Chat answer that cites two PDFs by page.
Cited by page
AI Chat answers from the PDFs in your library and marks the page each point came from.
250M+ works
Search the OpenAlex index from the citation menu and add papers to your library.
20+ citation styles
Author–date, numeric and footnote styles, such as APA, IEEE and OSCOLA. Switch at any time.
PDF, Word, text
Export drafts as PDF, Word (.docx) or plain text when they are ready to share.
How it works
From a reading list to a cited draft
One place for the papers you read and the text you write, instead of a PDF reader, a reference manager and a word processor that don't talk to each other.
1
Step 1: Build your library
Upload the PDFs you are reading, import a BibTeX file, or find papers in Discover. Each PDF gets its title, authors and date filled in and is indexed page by page.
2
Step 2: Ask and draft
Ask AI Chat what your papers say and get answers with page citations. In the editor, use / or Ask AI to draft, continue or revise a passage.
3
Step 3: Cite as you write
Type @ to cite from your library or Discover. Choose from 20+ styles, including APA, MLA and Chicago, and switch whenever you need to.
4
Step 4: Revise and export
Write with co-authors in real time, save versions before big edits, and export to PDF, Word (.docx) or plain text.
Features
Built around the work of academic writing
Organised the way a project unfolds: reading and synthesising, writing with citations, revising with co-authors, and preparing a version to submit.
01/Literature review
Keep the literature in one place, and ask it questions
Upload the PDFs you are reading. Papernex fills in titles, authors and dates from arXiv, OpenAlex and Crossref, then indexes every paper page by page so you can search it, cite it and ask about it.
Find papers in Discover, which searches the more than 250 million works indexed by OpenAlex, and add them to your library.
Bring the references you already have by importing a BibTeX (.bib) file from your reference manager.
Group sources into collections, and chat with your whole library or with a single paper.
LibrarySourcesCollections
The memory function of sleep
Diekelmann, Born · 2010
Ready
Sleep-dependent learning and memory consolidation
Walker, Stickgold · 2004
Ready
About sleep's role in memory
Rasch, Born · 2013
Ready
The function of the sleep spindle
Fogel, Smith · 2011
Processing
Upload Sources
Import BibTeX
Create Collection
Process All Sources
02/Staying grounded
Answers that show their sources, down to the page
Ask AI Chat about your library and each point in the answer is numbered to the excerpt it came from. Hover a number to see the paper and page; click it to cite that paper in your draft.
Every answer lists the papers it drew on as “title (p.12)”, so you can open the PDF and check the passage yourself.
“Insert to doc” places an answer below your cursor and turns its numbers into real citations.
Include the current document as context when you want the assistant to read your draft too.
AI ChatInclude current document as context
How do these reviews explain why sleep helps declarative memory?
Rasch and Born argue that memories are reactivated during slow-wave sleep, which strengthens them and supports their transfer to long-term stores1. Diekelmann and Born frame this as an active system-consolidation process 2.
About sleep's role in memory
Page 12 · 84% match
Click to cite in document
About sleep's role in memory (p.12)The memory function of sleep (p.3)
03/Writing with citations
Cite as you write, in the style you need
Type @ to search your library or Discover and insert an in-text citation. Each citation keeps the full reference, so the whole document can switch styles at any time.
20+ author–date, numeric and footnote styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, Nature and OSCOLA.
Paste a DOI, arXiv ID, ISBN, PubMed ID or URL to cite a specific work, or enter a reference by hand.
Click any citation to see its authors, abstract and DOI, or open the PDF in the built-in viewer.
Enhancing slow oscillations during sleep improved the retention of word pairs @
slow oscillations memory
AllDiscoverLibraryDOI / URLManual
Boosting slow oscillations during sleep potentiates memory
Marshall, Helgadóttir, Mölle, Born · Nature · 2006
Add to libraryCite
Sleep-dependent memory consolidation
Stickgold · Nature · 2005
Add to libraryCite
About sleep's role in memory
Rasch, Born · Physiological Reviews · 2013
Add to libraryCite
Click a paper to add & cite
04/Drafting and revising
Draft and revise with AI, without handing over the pen
Press / for headings, tables and AI, or select a passage and choose Ask AI. Suggestions arrive as a preview you can insert, replace, try again or discard.
Edit a selection: improve writing, fix spelling and grammar, make it shorter or longer, simplify, use an academic tone, paraphrase or explain.
Write at the cursor: continue writing, write a paragraph, summarise the document, create an outline or draft a conclusion.
Autocomplete suggests the next sentence in grey. Press Tab to accept it, or switch it off.
/
Basic blocks
Text
Heading 2##
AI
Ask AI⌘J
Continue writing
Citations
Cite@
Sleep may stabilise new memories.
Tell AI what to do with the selection…
Edit selection
Improve writing
Fix spelling & grammar
Make longer
Academic tone
Paraphrase
05/Collaborating
Write with co-authors and supervisors
Add people to your workspace by email and edit the same document at the same time, with named cursors and live sync. Save a version before each round of feedback and restore it later. Free keeps 5 versions per document; Pro keeps them all.
Participants completed the word-pair taskMaya K. before sleep and were tested again the next morning, after a nightJ. Lee in the laboratory.
History
Manual save
Today, 14:20 · Maya K.
Manual save
Yesterday, 09:12 · J. Lee
Restore this version
06/Submitting
Export when it is ready to submit
Download your draft as PDF, Word (.docx) or plain text. While you write, the editor handles headings, tables, images, inline LaTeX math and code blocks, and the word count shows words, characters, paragraphs and reading time.
2,418 wordsExport
Words
2,418
Characters
15,906
Paragraphs
41
Reading time
10 min
Download as
PDF
Word (.docx)
Plain text (.txt)
Print…
Who it's for
For the people who write research
Whether it is your first literature review or your fortieth paper, the work is the same: read closely, synthesise honestly, cite correctly and revise until it is right.
For students
PhD and master's students
Writing a thesis, a dissertation chapter or a literature review, often for the first time at this length.
Turn a reading list into a review
Add papers as you read them and ask how they compare, with page citations you can check before you paraphrase.
Meet your department's style guide
Cite in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard and more, and switch the whole thesis if the requirement changes.
Work alongside your supervisor
Add your supervisor to the workspace to edit the draft with you, and save a version before each round of feedback.
Start without paying
The free plan includes 10 documents, 10 library sources and a daily AI allowance. No credit card required.
For researchers
Researchers and academics
Early-career and established researchers writing papers, chapters and proposals, often with co-authors.
Write from your whole library
Pro removes the document and source limits and accepts PDFs of up to 150 pages.
Co-author in one document
Edit the same manuscript at the same time, with named cursors, instead of merging copies by email.
Keep your references and your journal's style
Import a BibTeX file from your reference manager, then cite in the format your target journal uses, such as Nature, Science, Cell, PLOS, IEEE and AMA.
Set your preferences once
On Pro, workspace AI instructions apply your tone, field and citation preferences to chat, editor AI and autocomplete.
Academic integrity
You stay the author.
Papernex is built to support your scholarship, not to stand in for it. It helps you find, read and cite sources; the argument, the judgement and the responsibility remain yours.
What Papernex does not do
It does not check for plagiarism or detect AI-generated text, and like any AI it can misread a source. Check claims against the cited pages before you submit, and follow your institution's policy on AI use, including any requirement to disclose it.
01
Answers point back to your sources
When AI Chat draws on your library, each point carries a numbered marker linked to the paper and page it came from, so you can read the passage before you rely on it.
02
No invented references
The assistant is instructed to cite only the excerpts it retrieved from your library and never to make up sources, pages, quotes or DOIs. Citations you insert are records from your library or from OpenAlex, not text the AI wrote.
03
Uncited means unsourced
If your library does not cover a question, the assistant may answer from general knowledge, without citation markers. Treat those parts as leads to check, not as evidence.
04
Nothing changes without you
AI edits arrive as previews that you insert, replace, retry or discard. Autocomplete stays grey until you press Tab, and you can turn it off.
05
Your drafts stay yours
Documents and uploads are encrypted in transit and at rest, and are never used to train AI models.
Citations are records, not generated text. Papers in your library come from your PDFs (with metadata from arXiv, OpenAlex or Crossref), your BibTeX imports, OpenAlex search or an identifier such as a DOI, and AI Chat answers point to the PDF and page each point came from. The assistant is instructed never to invent sources, pages, quotes or DOIs, but AI can still misread or overstate a source, so check the cited passage before you submit.
Am I allowed to use Papernex for my thesis or papers?
That depends on your institution, programme or publisher, and policies on AI assistance differ. Papernex is designed so that you stay the author: it helps you organise, question and cite your sources, and every AI edit is a preview you choose to accept. Check your local guidance, and disclose AI use where it is required.
Are my unpublished drafts and uploaded papers private?
Yes. Your documents and uploads are encrypted in transit and at rest and stay inside your workspace. To provide AI features, the relevant text is processed by Azure OpenAI Service (Microsoft), which does not use it to train models, and neither do we. Our Privacy Policy has the details.
Can I bring my references from Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote?
Yes, through BibTeX. Export a .bib file from your reference manager and import it into your library; you can also insert the imported entries into the open document as citations. You can also upload PDFs or find papers in Discover.
What kinds of PDFs can I upload?
PDFs with selectable text, such as articles downloaded from a publisher or a preprint server: up to 50 pages each on Free and 150 pages on Pro. Scanned PDFs that are only images of pages can't be processed yet.
Which citation styles and export formats are supported?
20+ citation styles. Author–date: APA, MLA, Chicago (author–date), Harvard, Elsevier Harvard, ASA, APSA, Springer Basic; numeric: IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, ACS, ACM, CSE, Nature, Science, Cell, PLOS; footnote: Chicago (notes), Turabian, OSCOLA. You can switch a document's style at any time. Documents export to PDF, Word (.docx) and plain text (.txt). On Pro, PDFs are rendered on our servers; on Free, PDF export uses your browser's print dialog.
Can I write with co-authors or my supervisor?
Yes. Add people to your workspace by email; everyone in the workspace can open its documents and edit them together in real time, with named cursors. If your lab or department needs several seats, email info@papernex.com.
Is there a free plan?
Yes, and no credit card is required. Free includes 10 documents, 10 library sources (PDFs up to 50 pages), and each day 20 AI chat messages, 10 AI writing commands and 50 autocompletions.
What does Pro add?
Pro costs $10 a month (USD), billed monthly, and you can cancel at any time. It adds unlimited documents and sources, PDFs up to 150 pages, and higher daily AI limits: 500 chat messages and 200 writing commands per day, with unlimited autocomplete. Pro also adds workspace AI instructions, server-rendered PDF export and unlimited version history.
Write your next chapter from your sources.
Upload a few papers, ask what they say, and cite them as you write. The free plan needs no credit card.