# Search and review evidence with Atlas

Atlas searches research records before you add them to a Marvin project. Use it to inspect coverage, collect evidence, screen papers, and transfer selected records.

To use Atlas from a local coding assistant, see [Use Atlas in Codex and Claude Code](/docs/atlas-plugin).

## Search or look up a record

Enter a topic to search. Atlas can return four record types:

- **Papers**
- **Datasets**
- **Clinical trials**
- **Regulatory** records

For an exact record, enter a DOI, PMID, PMCID, or arXiv identifier and select **Look up**. Exact lookup checks the catalog. If the record is not there, select **Try live resolve** to check the source separately.

The count in a results tab is the number currently loaded. It is not a total for the source or proof of complete coverage. Use **Load more** when it appears.

## Narrow a search

Open the search options to combine the filters relevant to the active record family. Available groups include:

- title, abstract, body, or other record fields
- source and access
- publication status and full-text availability
- author, journal, publisher, subject, language, or license
- year or year range
- trial status, phase, condition, intervention, or sponsor
- regulatory application, product, manufacturer, or substance
- sort order and results per page

Filters do not make unavailable full text readable. They change which catalog records the search returns.

## Inspect a record

Select a result title to open its detail view. Depending on the record, you can inspect metadata, abstract or passages, identifiers, files, references, and citations.

Full-text states matter:

- **Available** means Atlas can show the captured text or file.
- **Restricted** or **unreadable** means a record may exist but its text cannot be shown.
- A source link may let you open the record at its publisher or repository.
- Citation coverage is fetched when you open it and may be unavailable for records without a usable identifier.

Dataset results describe records held by an external repository. Atlas can show the repository, accession, version, terms, license, and file listing when supplied by the source. It does not host or transfer the dataset files. Use the source repository to obtain them.

## Keep evidence and add notes

On a paper result, select **Keep evidence** to add it to the **Evidence set**. Keeping a paper does not mark it included in a review.

In the Evidence set you can:

- add or edit your note about why the paper matters
- remove a paper or clear the set
- compare two or more kept papers
- add kept records to a project
- export kept papers
- start an editable workflow-extraction request for kept papers

The Evidence set persists across searches only in the same tab. Keep that tab open until you add the records to a project or export them. If browser storage is unavailable, closing or reloading the tab can lose the set.

## Screen papers separately

Use the screening controls on each paper to record one of these decisions:

- **Include in review**
- **Maybe**
- **Exclude**

You can add an optional reason when you exclude a paper. **Hide excluded** changes the visible list; it does not delete the decisions. Screening decisions and **Keep evidence** are separate records, so use each for its stated purpose.

## Revisit a search

Open search history and select an earlier request to run it again. History stores the request, not a frozen copy of the earlier results. Source changes can produce different results later.

## Add records to a project

1. Keep the records you want.
2. Select **Add to project** in the Evidence set.
3. Choose a project you can edit. If you have no suitable project, use the create-project link.
4. Start the transfer and review each record's result.

Each record reports **Added**, **Already in project**, or **Failed**. A partial transfer leaves successful records in the project. Correct the reported problem and retry failed records; previously added records are not duplicated.

Transferred papers appear in the project's **Literature** view. Other record types are added to the project but may not appear in that paper list.

## Review transferred papers in a project

Open the project's **Literature** view and select a paper. Notes you added before transfer appear with the paper. When Atlas reported that a paper was corrected, retracted, or withdrawn, the paper shows that state and the date Atlas reported it.

To check the current status of the project's papers:

1. Open **Literature** in a project you can edit.
2. Select **Re-check with Atlas**.
3. Review the checked count, notices, and papers that could not be checked.

The re-check uses papers with a DOI, PMID, or arXiv identifier. A paper without a usable identifier is left unchecked. If you cancel, Marvin stops the remaining lookups and keeps status observations already saved. The action is not available with read-only project access.

A paper status records what Atlas reported on the displayed date. Review the paper and its source record before relying on the status.

## Export the Evidence set

Select **Export** to copy or download a tab-separated file named `kept-papers.tsv`. Choose the columns you need. The export contains one row per kept paper. Passage cells remain blank when passages were not fetched.

**Extract workflow** creates an editable work request in project chat. It does not run the method or save a workflow by itself. Review the request, select **Queue work**, then follow [Use and create workflows](/docs/workflows).