AI writing partner for scientific papers

Your paper’s first reader, before the reviewers.

Medawar reads your manuscript the way a careful colleague would: structure, language, references, figures. Every finding quotes the passage it is about and suggests a fix, then you work through them together in a chat or from your terminal.

Try it online Use the CLI

First full review free · No card needed · PDF, Word, LaTeX, Markdown

Manuscript · draft 3

Seasonal drift in a model pond ecosystem

The effect held at every site we sampled, with no seasonal exception.

We used DO as the main indicator of water quality.

As shown in Fig 4, the effect fades by autumn.

  1. Critical

    The results report the effect at four of six sites, not every site.

  2. Major

    “DO” is used before it is defined. Spell it out at first use.

  3. Minor

    Figure 4 is cited before Figure 3.

Why Medawar

Less time on the form, more on the science.

In a 1963 BBC talk, the Nobel laureate Peter Medawar asked “Is the scientific paper a fraud?” His answer: its standard form tells the work as if facts piled up and conclusions fell out of them, not the way the science was actually done. Sixty years on, journals still ask for that form, and editors read it before they read your results. Medawar checks the form for you and keeps it honest, so your time goes to the science.

The scientific paper in its orthodox form does embody a totally mistaken conception, even a travesty, of the nature of scientific thought.

Peter Medawar, Is the scientific paper a fraud?, 1963

  • The conventions, checked

    Title, abstract, structure, headings, acronyms, figures, references, funding: what editors look at before your results. Every finding quotes the passage it is about.

  • Claims the paper supports

    Fitting the form never means overstating. Medawar flags every place the title or abstract claims more than the paper shows.

  • The science stays yours

    Every finding comes with a suggested rewrite you accept, change or ignore. The ideas, the data and the argument stay yours.

How it works

Three steps, one conversation.

  1. 1

    Upload your manuscript

    A PDF, a Word file, a LaTeX project or Markdown. In the browser, or medawar review paper.pdf from your terminal.

  2. 2

    Get a structured review

    Findings ranked critical, major and minor, each anchored to the exact passage, with a suggested rewrite.

  3. 3

    Work through it together

    Ask why a finding matters, have a paragraph rewritten, or rerun a single check after you edit.

What it checks

The parts of a paper editors read first.

Each finding is ranked critical, major or minor and quotes the passage it is about.

  • title

    Title

    Title accuracy, length and informativeness.

  • authors

    Authors

    Author list and affiliations: completeness and format.

  • keywords

    Keywords

    Keywords: presence, relevance and redundancy with the title.

  • abstract

    Abstract

    Abstract structure and agreement with the paper.

  • structure

    Structure

    Overall section structure and flow of the argument.

  • main_headings

    Headings

    Section headings: wording, consistency and hierarchy.

  • language

    Language

    Spelling, grammar and style, in the detected language variant.

  • acronyms

    Acronyms

    Acronyms: definition at first use and consistent use.

  • visual_elements

    Figures and tables

    Captions, citation order and missing figures or tables.

  • referencing

    References

    Citation consistency, format and completeness.

  • funding

    Funding

    Funding and acknowledgement statements.

  • Run them all, or a few

    A full review runs every check. Name the ones you want to save credits.

    Every check, explained

Command line

Your review, in the terminal you write in.

Point it at a PDF, a LaTeX folder or an Overleaf project. Medawar caches each paper’s extraction, so checking one more thing after an edit does not upload the paper again.

  • Run only the checks you need with --only
  • Read past findings offline with medawar findings
  • Export an HTML or PDF report with --report

Read the CLI guide

$ pipx install medawar
$ medawar login
Open https://api.medawar.science/activate and enter WXYZ-1234
Signed in.
$ medawar review paper.pdf --only language,referencing
Extracting paper.pdf ... cached
Running 2 checks ...
critical 0  major 3  minor 11
$ medawar findings paper.pdf --report review.html

Pricing

Start with a free review.

A full review uses 11 credits; a single check uses 1 to 3, by the work it takes. Chat has its own allowance; chat tokens also pay for Fix, rewriting a paragraph to address a finding. How credits work.

Trial

Free

See what Medawar finds in your paper. No card needed.

  • 1 full paper review (11 review credits)
  • 200k chat tokens
  • 14 days
  • Web app and command-line tool
Start free
Start here

Pro

$99/ month

For a researcher with papers in progress.

  • 200 review credits a month (up to 18 full paper reviews)
  • 5M chat tokens a month
  • Single checks from 1 to 3 credits each
  • Expert reviews by independent reviewers, paid per review
  • Cancel any time
Choose Pro

Max

$499/ month

For heavy use: a lab, a thesis year, many revisions.

  • 1200 review credits a month (up to 109 full paper reviews)
  • 30M chat tokens a month
  • Single checks from 1 to 3 credits each
  • 1 expert review a month by independent reviewers
  • Cancel any time
Choose Max

Top up

Ran out before the period ends? Any account, the trial included, can add review credits or chat tokens with a one-time pack. A pack stays valid 12 months from purchase, across billing periods, and is used once your plan's allowance for the period runs out.

Review credits

  • 50 review credits$29
  • 200 review credits$99

Chat tokens

  • 2M chat tokens$15
  • 10M chat tokens$59

Questions

Frequently asked questions

What is Medawar?

An AI writing partner for scientific papers. Upload a manuscript and Medawar runs a structured review of it, then helps you work through the findings in a chat: what each one means, why it matters, and how to rewrite the passage. The same review runs from your terminal with the medawar command.

What does a review check?

Title, authors, keywords, abstract, structure, headings, language, acronyms, figures and tables, references, and funding statements. Each finding is ranked critical, major or minor and quotes the passage it is about. Every check, explained.

Which files can I review?

PDF, Word (.docx), LaTeX, Markdown and plain text. In the web app, upload a LaTeX project as a .zip; the command-line tool also reads a LaTeX project folder or an Overleaf project link.

How do review credits work?

A full review uses 11 credits. A single check uses 1 to 3 credits, by the work it takes, and a selection never costs more than a full review. Credits renew each billing period and do not roll over. Chat has its own monthly token allowance, which Fix (rewriting a paragraph to address a finding) uses too. Run out early and a one-time top-up pack adds credits or tokens, valid 12 months. You can cancel from your account page at any time; your plan stays active until the end of the period you paid for. Plans and credits.

Can people review my paper too?

Yes: an expert review. Independent expert reviewers in your field, found and invited by our review partner, read your manuscript and comment on it, double-blind. They are people, so a round usually takes several weeks; you then get each reviewer's comments and a summary. The Max plan includes one a month; on Pro, each is a one-off payment. If the reviewers endorse the manuscript, you may choose to publish it with its reviews on our partner's public journal; nothing is published unless you do.

Do I need to install anything?

No. The web app runs in the browser. The command-line tool is optional: pipx install medawar. It needs an internet connection, since reviews run on Medawar's servers, and it keeps each paper's extraction and findings on your machine so a second check does not upload the paper again.

Where does my paper go?

Medawar runs on Google Cloud. Files you upload are stored in a folder tied to your account; other accounts cannot read them. The review runs on the same engine as CheckMyManuscript, operated by Nalyze, also on Google Cloud. The language models are Google's Gemini models, called through Google Cloud's Vertex AI. The reference check looks up the DOIs and links of your bibliography at doi.org and the linked sites. Stripe handles payments and Mailjet sends sign-in emails; neither receives your manuscripts. Only if you ask for an expert review is your manuscript shared with people: independent expert reviewers, double-blind, coordinated by our review partner.

What do you keep, and how do I delete it?

Uploaded files are deleted after 30 days. Your account email, your plan and usage, your chats and the results of your reviews stay in your account until you ask us to delete them: write to privacy@medawar.science from your account's email address. The command-line tool keeps its copy of each paper's extraction and findings on your own computer; medawar cache clear removes it.

Is my paper used to train AI models?

We do not use your manuscripts or your chats to train models. Under Google Cloud's terms for Vertex AI, Google does not use the data sent to these models to train its own models without the customer's permission.

Why the name?

After Sir Peter Medawar, the immunologist and Nobel laureate whose essays, among them Advice to a Young Scientist, are still read for how clearly they explain how science is done. In Is the scientific paper a fraud? (1963) he argued that the standard paper misrepresents how the work was thought through; more on why that matters.

Read your paper the way the reviewers will.

Your first full review is free, no card needed.

Try it online Install the CLI