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Uploading Documents

Your research library is the foundation of Alfred Scholar. Upload your PDF research papers here, and Alfred Scholar will automatically detect metadata, extract citations, and prepare the document for search and AI Chat.

Supported formats

Format Extension Maximum size
PDF .pdf 50 MB

Alfred Scholar currently supports PDF files. This covers the vast majority of academic papers, preprints, reports, and theses.

How to upload

  1. Navigate to My Documents in the sidebar.
  2. Click the Upload button in the top right.
  3. In the upload dialog, drag and drop your PDF files into the drop zone, or click the zone to browse and select files.
  4. Click Upload to start uploading.

You can also use the Upload Document quick action button on the dashboard.

Note: You can upload up to 20 files at once. To upload more, repeat the process in batches.

Note: Each document upload costs credits. See Credits & Usage for the current cost per upload.

What happens after upload

After you upload a PDF, Alfred Scholar automatically processes it in the background. You can track progress on the document card:

Metadata detection

Alfred Scholar automatically identifies key metadata from your paper:

  • Title - The paper's title.
  • Document type - The type of document (e.g. journal article, book, thesis).
  • Authors - The list of authors.
  • Abstract - The paper's abstract or summary.
  • Journal - The journal or conference where the paper was published.
  • Publication date - When the paper was published.
  • DOI - The Digital Object Identifier, if available.
  • Volume, issue, and pages - Specific publication details.
  • Publisher - The publishing organization.
  • Language - The language the paper is written in.
  • URL - A link to the online version.

Tip: If the automatic metadata detection misses something or gets it wrong, you can manually edit any field. See Editing metadata below.

Citation extraction

Alfred Scholar scans the references section of your paper and extracts individual citations. These are automatically added to your workspace's citation library, linked back to the source document.

This means that every paper you upload contributes to building your reference library without any manual work.

Bookmark import

If your PDF already has a table of contents (bookmarks), Alfred Scholar imports them automatically. You will see the document outline in the viewer without having to re-add it.

AI Chat preparation

Once processing is complete, your document is fully ready for AI Chat. Alfred can answer questions about it, summarise sections, and help you understand the content.

Processing statuses

Each document goes through two stages: processing (text extraction and metadata detection) and indexing (preparing for AI Chat and search). The status badge on each document shows where it is:

Status What it means
Processing Alfred Scholar is extracting text and metadata from your document. This usually takes a few seconds.
Processed Text extraction is complete. AI indexing has not started yet.
Indexing Alfred Scholar is preparing your document for AI Chat and search. A progress bar shows how far along it is.
Ready Your document is fully processed and indexed. It is ready for AI Chat and all other features.
Paused AI indexing has been paused. You can still view the document but it cannot be used in AI Chat.
Failed Something went wrong during text extraction. Try re-uploading the document.
Embed failed The document was processed but AI indexing failed. Try re-uploading the document.

Editing metadata

If Alfred Scholar's automatic detection missed something or got a field wrong, you can edit any metadata field:

  1. Open the document by clicking on it.
  2. Click the Metadata tab at the top.
  3. Update any fields: title, document type, authors, journal, DOI, abstract, publication date, volume, issue, pages, publisher, language, or URL.
  4. Click Save.

Downloading documents

To download the original PDF file:

  1. Find the document in your library.
  2. Click the ... menu on the document row or card.
  3. Select Download.

The original PDF is downloaded exactly as you uploaded it.

Deleting documents

To delete a document:

  1. Find the document in your library.
  2. Click the ... menu on the document row or card.
  3. Select Delete and confirm.

To delete multiple documents at once, select them using the checkboxes and click Delete in the action bar that appears at the bottom of the screen.

Deleted documents are moved to the Trash and can be recovered. See Trash & Recovery for details.

View modes

You can switch between two view modes for your document library:

  • Table view - A compact list showing document name, authors, date, and status. Best for quickly scanning a large library.
  • Grid view - Larger cards with thumbnail previews. Best for visual browsing.

Your view preference is saved automatically and persists between sessions.

Searching and sorting

Use the search bar at the top of the documents page to find papers by name.

In table view, click any column header to sort by that column. Available columns are Name, Type, Size, Pages, and Added. Click the same header again to reverse the sort order.

Next steps