Can I vibecode Scite?
NOT REALLY · don't botherThe AI classification of a citation as supporting, contrasting or mentioning is a solvable NLP task, but the product's real value is the licensed full-text corpus across 40+ publishers plus preprint servers, kept current and cross-referenced at scale. No individual or small team can replicate that data-access moat; a DIY build only works on open-access papers, which is a small fraction of the literature that matters for a lot of fields.
Build me an open-access citation-context checker as a Next.js app. Stack: Next.js + TypeScript, SQLite via better-sqlite3, Tailwind. No auth, single user, localhost only. Core loop: 1. A search box where I paste a DOI or arXiv ID; fetch its metadata and reference list via the free Semantic Scholar API (no key needed). 2. For each citing paper available as open-access full text (via arXiv or PubMed Central APIs), pull the sentence(s) around the citation. 3. Send each citation sentence to the Anthropic API (key from .env) with a fixed prompt asking it to classify the citation as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning, with a one-line reason. 4. Show results in a table: citing paper, classification, and the quoted sentence, filterable by classification. Out of scope: paywalled-publisher content, browser extension, manuscript reference-check upload, accounts, alerts. Include a README noting this only works for open-access papers and citing papers, unlike a licensed full-text database.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter) or copy it raw
prompt copied. want to know what dies next week?
new verdicts + top votes, weekly. free. one-click out.
Researchers pay for reliable, broad coverage of paywalled literature and for a maintained, cross-checked citation graph rather than re-scraping and re-classifying papers themselves every time.
xcoverage of paywalled publishers (Wiley, Cambridge, Wolters Kluwer, etc.)
xpre-built citation database spanning hundreds of millions of citation statements
xretraction/correction flags sourced from Crossref and PubMed
xbrowser extension overlay on Google Scholar and journal pages
xreference-check tool for uploaded manuscripts
Don't feel like building it? These folks already made it free.
Semantic ScholarFree academic search engine with citation graphs and TLDR summaries, though without support/contrast classification.free↗
COREFree aggregator of over 200 million open-access research papers with full-text search.free↗no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real
Scite pricing
premium$20/mo · monthly · $240/yr
free tierFree account allows searching the citation database plus one report and one visualization per month, but reports can't be exported.
verified 2026-08-10 · source ↗
Is Scite free?
Free account allows searching the citation database plus one report and one visualization per month, but reports can't be exported. Paid is Premium at $20/mo (checked 2026-08-10).
Can I vibecode Scite?
Not really. Scite's value is not the code: . See the honest breakdown above.
How much does Scite cost?
Scite costs about $20/month (Premium, checked 2026-08-10), which is $240 per year.
What do I lose by replacing Scite?
Honestly: coverage of paywalled publishers (Wiley, Cambridge, Wolters Kluwer, etc.); pre-built citation database spanning hundreds of millions of citation statements; retraction/correction flags sourced from Crossref and PubMed; browser extension overlay on Google Scholar and journal pages; reference-check tool for uploaded manuscripts. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Scite?
Yes: Semantic Scholar (Free academic search engine with citation graphs and TLDR summaries, though without support/contrast classification.) CORE (Free aggregator of over 200 million open-access research papers with full-text search.) The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.