What is Lateral?

Lateral is an innovative AI-powered application designed specifically for academics, researchers, and students who seek to streamline their research workflow. By providing a seamless way to search, save, and organize findings across multiple papers, Lateral aims to enhance productivity and efficiency in the research process. With the promise of completing research tasks up to 10 times faster, Lateral has garnered positive feedback from numerous users, including PhD holders and educators, who praise its ability to transform the way they read and take notes.

Features

Lateral is packed with a variety of features that cater to the needs of researchers and academics. Here’s a closer look at what Lateral offers:

Smart Features

• Unified Workflow: Lateral simplifies document review by enabling users to find text quickly and stay organized throughout their research process.

• Auto-Generated Table: This feature maintains a clear overview of all findings, ensuring that references are never lost. It allows users to visualize their research data effectively.

• AI-Powered Concepts: Users can name a concept, and Lateral will intelligently recommend relevant texts across all uploaded papers, making it easier to gather related information.

• Super Search: This powerful search function allows users to search across all their papers simultaneously, providing similar highlights for every search result to facilitate quick reference.

• Smart PDF Reader: Users can read and highlight directly in the browser, discovering connections they might have missed in traditional reading methods.

• Export Findings: Users can easily export their findings from the table view directly into Word documents or Excel files, complete with references, making it convenient for report writing.

• Access to 30 Million+ Research Papers: Lateral allows users to upload existing PDFs or find new papers through its integrated paper search feature.

• Powerful OCR: This feature digitizes text from scanned PDFs, making it searchable and highlightable, which is particularly useful for users who work with physical documents.

• Collaboration & Sharing: Users can invite others to their workspace or share limited public links to their projects, facilitating collaborative research efforts.

• Zotero Integration (Coming Soon): This upcoming feature will enable users to easily sync documents between Zotero and their Lateral projects, enhancing the tool's interoperability.

User-Friendly Interface

Lateral boasts a user-friendly interface that minimizes the learning curve for new users. The design is intuitive, allowing users to navigate through their research projects effortlessly. The visual representation of data through tables and highlights makes it easy to identify themes and important quotes quickly.

Use Cases

Lateral is designed to accommodate a variety of research needs across different fields. Here are some of the primary use cases for the tool:

Literature Reviews

Researchers can find patterns and common themes across numerous papers quickly, making it an invaluable tool for conducting thorough literature reviews. The AI-powered features help in identifying relevant texts and quotes that may be easily overlooked.

Dissertations

For students working on dissertations, Lateral helps organize thoughts and references, streamlining the writing process. The auto-generated tables and smart search functions allow users to keep track of their research more effectively.

Note-Taking

Lateral enhances the note-taking process by allowing users to save text with notes and flags. This organized approach to note-taking ensures that important information is easily accessible when needed.

Collaborative Research

The collaborative features of Lateral make it ideal for shared projects and documents. Researchers can build on each other's findings, share insights, and work together more efficiently, fostering a collaborative research environment.

Educators

Educators can gather information across various sources for curriculum development. Lateral allows them to compile relevant research quickly, making it easier to design comprehensive and informed educational content.

Journalism

Journalists can utilize Lateral to find connections and gather background information for stories. The tool’s ability to search across multiple documents and highlight relevant data aids in producing well-researched articles.

Pricing

Lateral offers a range of pricing plans to cater to different user needs, including a free trial option. Here’s a breakdown of the available pricing tiers:

• Monthly Free Plan:

  • Price: $0
  • Page Credits: 500 (one-time)
  • Ideal for users who want to get to know Lateral without any financial commitment.

• Premium Plan:

  • Price: €11.99 per month
  • Page Credits: 1,800 per month
  • Designed for users looking to speed up their research workflow with more page credits.

• Pro Plan:

  • Price: €23.99 per month
  • Page Credits: 5,000 per month
  • Best for users who need extensive page credits for larger projects.

• Academic Discount:

  • Users who qualify can fill out a form on the pricing page to receive a 20% discount on the monthly plan.

• Team Pricing:

  • For organizations looking to build a shared, AI-supported knowledge repository or purchase multiple licenses, Lateral offers customized team pricing options. Interested parties can contact sales for more information.

Comparison with Other Tools

While there are several productivity tools available for researchers, Lateral distinguishes itself through its unique combination of features and user-centric design. Here’s how it compares with other popular research tools:

• AI-Powered Features: Unlike many traditional research tools, Lateral employs its own machine learning technology (LIP API) to provide content suggestions. This proprietary system enhances the user experience by offering personalized recommendations without sending data to external servers.

• Document Organization: Lateral’s auto-generated tables and smart search capabilities allow for superior organization of research findings compared to many other tools, which may not offer such visual aids.

• Collaboration: The collaboration features in Lateral, such as inviting others to workspaces and sharing projects, are more robust than those found in many standalone note-taking applications.

• User Interface: Lateral’s intuitive and user-friendly interface sets it apart from other tools that may have steeper learning curves. The focus on visual representation makes it easier for users to engage with their research.

• Integration with Zotero: Although Zotero integration is coming soon, the planned feature will further enhance Lateral's functionality, allowing users to sync documents seamlessly between the two platforms.

Overall, Lateral’s unique combination of AI-driven features, document organization capabilities, and collaborative tools makes it a standout choice for researchers and academics.

FAQ

What are Page Credits?

Page Credits are a measure of the documents processed by Lateral. When you add papers or documents to a project, each page uses one page credit. For instance, if you upload a paper with an average of 20 pages, that would consume 20 page credits. Users can manage their page credits according to the plan they subscribe to.

Does Lateral use GPT?

No, Lateral does not utilize GPT. Instead, it has developed its own machine learning technology (LIP API) to make content suggestions. This ensures that user content is not sent to Open AI servers, maintaining privacy and security.

What happens to the documents I upload to Lateral?

All documents uploaded to Lateral remain private and are only accessible to the user in their workspace. Lateral does not share these documents with other users, nor does it use them to enhance its AI capabilities.

What languages does Lateral support?

Lateral works best with English. While users can keyword search for text in other languages, the AI currently only provides suggestions if the user is operating in English.

Does Lateral work on mobile?

Currently, Lateral is only available on desktop. This limitation may affect users who prefer to conduct research on mobile devices, but the desktop version offers a robust set of features for efficient research management.

In conclusion, Lateral presents a comprehensive solution for academics and researchers looking to enhance their productivity and streamline their research workflow. With its unique features, user-friendly interface, and collaborative capabilities, Lateral is poised to make a significant impact in the academic community.