PaperBrain gives researchers one place to search scientific literature and work through it, rather than bouncing between a preprint server, a PDF reader and a notes file. It advertises use by more than 100,000 researchers across fields.
The useful function is compression. Deciding whether a paper is worth a full read currently means reading enough of it to find out, and anything that makes that triage faster compounds across a literature review even when the underlying search is unremarkable.
As with every tool of this kind, the summaries are a filter and not a citation. Anything load-bearing needs reading in the original, particularly where methodology or statistical caveats matter, and the sourcing of papers is worth checking against your own access rights.
