A first-class research question#
An Investigation is a persistent research question that accumulates evidence as you work, rather than a search you run once and lose. Give it a name and, if you like, the research question it is trying to answer, then Start investigation. Mark one as your current investigation with Make current, and Close or Delete it when you are done. Ask this question hands the research question straight to Ask.
Gathering evidence#
As you find passages that bear on the question - from Search, Ask or a document - Save them into the investigation. Each piece keeps its provenance: the source it came from and the query it was retrieved for. The evidence is persistent, so the case you are building does not vanish when you move on.
Sorting what you find#
Weigh each piece of evidence by marking it Supports, Partial, Contradicts or Not relevant - the tabs across the top then let you see just the supporting or just the contradicting evidence at a glance. You can add a note to any item, Ask about this to dig into it, or Remove it. Tags let you group evidence under the claims or themes you are testing, and the Notebook holds your working notes, hunches and things still to check.
Synthesis and output#
When you have gathered enough, Synthesise the evidence draws the threads together - grounded strictly on the evidence you have kept, not the whole corpus. Your verdicts, tags and notes travel with each passage: evidence marked Not relevant is left out, evidence marked Contradicts is reported as opposing evidence rather than support, and a note that corrects a passage overrides what the passage appears to say. If some evidence is still unjudged or contradicted, the portal says so before it synthesises and lets you judge first. The finished synthesis lists what it excluded. From there you can Export to Word to take the whole case with you.