AI Source Finder
Find academic sources for claims, paragraphs, and drafts
Citely helps turn unsupported text into a source search. Paste a claim, essay paragraph, or research note, then review candidate academic sources before you cite them.
Claim-based source search
Academic metadata review
Source candidates before citation
Source finder workspace
Direct answer
What an AI source finder does
An AI source finder helps turn a claim, paragraph, essay draft, or research note into a scholarly source search. Citely reads the text, identifies the research intent, searches academic records, and returns candidate papers for human review. It is useful when you know what you want to argue but do not yet know the paper, author, journal, or database vocabulary that would support the claim. The output should be treated as evidence discovery: read the candidate paper, check the metadata, and decide whether it truly supports the sentence before citing it.
Start from the claim you wrote.
Find candidate academic sources.
Review relevance before citing.
How AI source finding works in Citely
Use it when a draft needs evidence, when an AI citation looks weak, or when you need a better paper for a specific claim.
Paste a claim or paragraph
Start with the sentence, paragraph, essay section, or research note that needs academic support.
Extract the research intent
Citely focuses on the meaning of the claim, not only the words that happen to appear in the text.
Search scholarly records
Candidate papers are found across academic sources and surfaced with metadata for review.
Verify before citing
Check whether the source is real, whether the metadata matches, and whether the paper supports your claim.
Best places to use it
Source finding is strongest when the input is specific enough to express a real claim.
Essay paragraphs
Find sources for a paragraph that needs academic support.
AI-assisted drafts
Replace weak or suspicious AI citations with real candidate sources.
Literature review notes
Trace a research note back to papers that discuss the same claim.
Manuscript revisions
Find stronger evidence for a sentence flagged by an advisor or reviewer.
Source finder, citation checker, or both?
| User need | Best Citely entry | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| I need sources for this paragraph | AI Source Finder | Search from the claim and review candidate papers. |
| I have a suspicious reference | Online Citation Checker | Verify citation metadata against academic records. |
| I pasted AI-generated citations | AI Citation Checker | Detect hallucinated or mismatched references. |
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI source finder?
An AI source finder helps turn a claim, paragraph, or research draft into a scholarly source search. Citely identifies the argument in your text, searches academic data sources, and returns candidate papers for human review.
Can Citely find sources for an essay?
Yes. Citely is useful when an essay paragraph needs academic support. Paste the text, review candidate sources, and decide whether each paper actually supports the claim before citing it.
How is this different from keyword search?
Keyword search works best when you already know the right terms. Citely starts from the claim itself, which is useful when you have a paragraph or AI-assisted draft but do not know the paper, author, or database vocabulary.
Does Citely verify the sources it finds?
Citely attempts to enrich and check source metadata such as DOI, title, author, year, and venue where available. Source finding identifies candidate papers; citation verification helps you check whether the reference metadata is reliable.
Should I cite every source Citely finds?
No. Citely helps you find candidate academic sources, but you should read the paper and decide whether it truly supports your claim. Source finding is evidence discovery, not a replacement for scholarly judgment.
Find sources for the claim you actually wrote
Paste a claim, paragraph, or draft into Citely Source Finder. Then read the sources and verify the citation metadata before relying on them.