# Ratter — Complete Documentation

> AI-powered academic research platform. Find, understand, and cite peer-reviewed papers with AI. Every answer is evidence-based.

## Overview

Ratter is a web-based research tool designed for students, academics, and researchers. It combines AI-powered question answering with multi-source academic database search to deliver evidence-based answers with proper citations from peer-reviewed literature.

The platform aggregates results from seven open academic databases: OpenAlex, OpenAIRE, PubMed, Crossref, DiVA, Inciteful, and OpenCitations. Users can ask natural language research questions and receive synthesized answers with inline citation references linking to the original papers.

## Features

### AI Research Chat
The core feature of Ratter. Users type a research question in natural language, and the system:
1. Searches multiple academic databases simultaneously
2. Shows real-time progress as each database is scanned (Fast-Track indicator)
3. Synthesizes findings into a coherent, citation-backed response
4. Presents source papers organized by database with metadata (authors, year, journal, citation count)
5. Supports follow-up questions with full conversation context

### Paper Discovery
A search interface for exploring academic papers across all connected databases. Users can:
- Search by title, author, topic, or keyword
- View paper abstracts, citation counts, and metadata
- Access open-access versions when available
- Save papers to their personal library

### EU Research Projects
Browse European Union-funded research projects from programmes like Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, FP7, and others. Each project entry includes:
- Project title and acronym
- Funding programme and amount
- Start/end dates and status
- Lead institution and country
- Project description

### Researcher Search
Find researchers and academics by name, institution, or research field. Powered by external author search APIs.

### Community Discussions
An academic discussion forum where users can:
- Create new discussion threads linked to specific papers (by DOI)
- Comment on discussions with threaded replies
- Upvote discussions and comments
- Receive notifications when someone replies to their posts
- Edit or delete their own contributions
- Browse discussions by category

### Personal Library
Authenticated users can save papers they find interesting to a personal library for later reference. Features include:
- Save papers from any search result or chat response
- Add personal notes to saved papers
- View saved papers with full metadata

## Technical Details

### Data Sources

**OpenAlex** — An open catalog of the global research system, indexing over 250 million scholarly works, authors, institutions, and concepts. Provides citation counts, author affiliations, and concept tagging.

**OpenAIRE** — The Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe. Provides metadata on EU-funded research projects and their associated publications, datasets, and software.

**PubMed** — A free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Primary source for medical and biological research.

**Crossref** — A DOI registration agency providing metadata for scholarly content. Covers a broad range of disciplines with citation linking.

**DiVA** — Digital Scientific Archive, a Scandinavian academic repository hosting publications from Swedish and Nordic universities and research institutions.

**Inciteful** — A citation network analysis tool that helps discover related papers through citation graph traversal. Useful for finding seminal works and emerging research.

**OpenCitations** — An open repository of scholarly citation data, providing citation counts and citation network information.

### Architecture
- Frontend: React with TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS
- Backend: Serverless edge functions for API aggregation and AI processing
- Database: Cloud-hosted PostgreSQL for user data, saved papers, discussions, and notifications
- Authentication: Email-based signup with session management

## Pages and URLs

| Page | URL | Description |
|------|-----|-------------|
| Home | https://ratter.lovable.app/ | Landing page with search and features |
| AI Chat | https://ratter.lovable.app/chat | Research question answering |
| Discover | https://ratter.lovable.app/discover | Paper search and browsing |
| Community | https://ratter.lovable.app/community | Discussion forum |
| EU Research | https://ratter.lovable.app/eu-research | EU-funded projects |
| Researchers | https://ratter.lovable.app/researchers | Researcher lookup |
| Library | https://ratter.lovable.app/library | Saved papers (auth required) |
| Profile | https://ratter.lovable.app/profile | User profile (auth required) |
| Sign In | https://ratter.lovable.app/auth | Authentication page |

## Use Cases

1. **Literature Review**: Ask broad research questions to get an overview of a field with key papers identified.
2. **Fact Checking**: Verify scientific claims with citations to peer-reviewed sources.
3. **Paper Discovery**: Find relevant papers across multiple databases from a single search.
4. **EU Funding Research**: Explore what research projects the EU is funding in specific areas.
5. **Academic Collaboration**: Discuss papers and research topics with other users in the community forum.
6. **Research Organization**: Save and annotate papers in a personal library for ongoing projects.

## Contact

Visit [ratter.lovable.app](https://ratter.lovable.app) to get started. Built with Lovable.