Creating and Managing Research Projects

Creating and Managing Research Projects

Synthesis streamlines your research process by organizing all your documents, analyses, and generated outputs into individual projects. This section guides you through creating, organizing, and managing your research endeavors within the application.

Understanding Projects in Synthesis

A "project" in Synthesis is a dedicated workspace for a specific research topic or paper. Each project acts as a container for:

• Documents: All your uploaded research papers, articles, and data files.
• AI Agents: The automated pipeline of agents that process your documents, extract insights, formulate hypotheses, and generate research outputs.
• Outputs: The results generated by the agents, including research papers, presentations, conceptual networks, and analytical statistics.
• Chat History: Your interactions with the AI assistant for querying project-specific information.

Creating a New Research Project

To begin a new research initiative, you first need to create a project:

1. Navigate to the Dashboard: From the main application interface, ensure you are on the Dashboard or Projects tab.
2. Open the New Project Dialog: Look for a button like "New Project" or a similar call to action to open the project creation form.
3. Enter Project Details:
   • Name: A descriptive name for your research project (e.g., "AI in Drug Discovery," "Climate Change Impact on Agriculture"). This field is required.
   • Description (Optional): A brief overview of your project's scope, goals, or key questions. This helps you and collaborators understand the project's purpose at a glance.
4. Create Project: Click the "Create Project" button.

Once created, your new project will appear in your project list with an initial status of idle.

Navigating the Project Dashboard

The Project Dashboard is your central hub for all your research projects.

Project List View

Upon logging in or navigating to the Dashboard, you'll see a list of your existing projects. Each project is represented by a Project Card displaying key information:

• Project Name: The title you assigned to your project.
• Description: A snippet of the project's description (if provided).
• Status: Indicates the current state of the project (e.g., idle, processing, completed, error).
• Progress: A progress bar showing the completion percentage, especially relevant when an agent pipeline is running.
• Documents Count: The number of documents currently uploaded to the project.
• Last Updated: The timestamp of the project's most recent activity.

Filtering and Searching Projects

As your project list grows, you can easily find specific projects:

• Search Bar: Use the search bar to filter projects by their name.
• Status Filter: Use the filter options (e.g., "All," "Idle," "Processing," "Completed," "Error") to view projects based on their current status.

Managing Project Details

Clicking on a Project Card from the list view will take you to the Project Details View, which provides a comprehensive overview and management interface for that specific project.

Overview Tab

The Overview tab presents a summary of your project's progress and key insights:

• Project Metrics: Displays calculated metrics such as overall quality (novelty, cohesion, redundancy), total documents, and average completeness.
• Concept Network: A visualization of the key concepts extracted from your documents and their relationships.
• Word Count Trend: A chart showing the estimated word count of uploaded documents over time.
• Citation Data: (Mock data initially) Will eventually show citation trends and information.
• Project Insights: High-level summaries and recommendations derived from the AI.

Documents Tab

This tab is where you upload and manage the source material for your research.

1. Upload Documents:

   • Click the "Upload Document" button within this tab.
   • Select the file(s) from your local machine.
   • Supported file types generally include PDFs, text files, and potentially other document formats.
   • Once uploaded, Synthesis will process the documents, extract their text, and index them into its vector store for analysis.

2. View Documents: See a list of all documents associated with the project, including their filenames, sizes, and upload dates.

Pipeline Tab

The Pipeline tab allows you to initiate the AI analysis and track its progress.

1. Start Agent Pipeline:

   • Click the "Start Pipeline" button.
   • This action triggers the AI agents to begin processing your uploaded documents. The agents will work through various stages, such as outlining, writing, and presenting.
   • The project status will change to processing, and the progress bar will update.

2. Agent Activity Feed: Monitor the real-time activity of the AI agents, seeing which agents are running, their current status, and any generated outputs.

Paper Tab

Once the 'writer' agent completes its run, a draft research paper will be available here.

• View Paper: Read the generated research paper, complete with sections like abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.
• Edit Paper: Click the "Edit" button to access a rich text editor. You can directly modify the generated content, correct errors, add your own insights, and refine the paper.
• Save Changes: After editing, ensure you save your changes using the provided save button.
• Download Paper: Use the Download button to export the paper in various formats:
  • PDF: For a print-ready document.
  • DOCX: For further editing in Microsoft Word or compatible software.
  • LaTeX: For academic publishing and advanced typesetting.
  • Markdown: For plain text editing or conversion to other formats.

Presentation Tab

If the 'presenter' agent has run, a draft presentation will be available.

• View Presentation: Review the slides generated by the AI based on your research paper.
• Download Presentation: Click the "Download PPT" button to get a PowerPoint file (.pptx) of the generated presentation.

Chat Tab

Interact with an AI assistant specifically trained on your project's documents and generated outputs.

• Ask Questions: Type your questions about the project's content, findings, or any specific details.
• Get Answers with Sources: The AI will provide answers, often referencing the specific documents or agent outputs it used as sources.
• Review Conversation History: Your past interactions within the project chat are maintained for context.

Insights Tab

This tab provides deeper analytical insights derived from your project data.

• Project Insights: More detailed AI-generated summaries, key findings, and potential areas for further research.
• Agent Performance Metrics: Information on how effectively the various AI agents are performing within your project.

Settings Tab

Manage fundamental project settings, including deletion.

• Delete Project:
  • Locate the "Delete Project" option.
  • Warning: Deleting a project is irreversible and will permanently remove all associated documents, analyses, and outputs.
  • Confirm your decision carefully before proceeding.