More than placing citations
How SciFlow accompanies academic texts from the first citation to the finished submission
Reference managers are central to academic writing. SciFlow continues the workflow beyond citation, taking the manuscript from the reference manager through to submission.
Live webinar · Thursday, 19 November 2026 · 10:00 or 17:00 CET
- Researchfind sources · crossref · openalex
- Reference managementzotero · citeready · mendeley · endnote · citavi
- Writingstructured, collaborative
- Formatting5,000+ templates
- Submissionpdf · docx · jats
Why now
Libraries amid new guidelines, tighter budgets, and open questions about AI
Institutions are looking more closely at how researchers and students actually work. AI is changing what is possible and what is expected, budgets are tighter, and tools and services are being reviewed.
Guidelines are being rewritten, tools assessed, training rethought. Institutions and researchers are talking again about how the work is really done.
Whatever answers institutions reach, they are easier to put into practice when they rest on open, established structures with interfaces designed to remain usable.
Sustainability through open structures
Your reference manager stays. SciFlow builds on it.
Stays connected
Zotero and CiteReady, our preferred integrations; Mendeley
Changes reach the document straight away, and every co-author sees the cited sources without an account of their own.
Comes in by import
EndNote, Citavi, any other program
EndNote libraries come in as BibTeX or RIS, and Word documents keep their EndNote citations when imported. Citavi comes in through its integration, everything else via BibTeX.
Found directly in SciFlow
Crossref and OpenAlex
Search and cite without leaving the document.
When the literature is available in that form and the writing happens where the citing happens, the workflow does not end at the bibliography. It carries further: structured writing, more than 5,000 journal templates with their citation styles, and export as Word, fully tagged PDF/UA, HTML and JATS.
Moving to Zotero?
Your library comes along, and from then on it stays connected to the document. Many libraries publish their own migration guides; we help with citation styles.
When choosing tools
A workflow is more than the sum of its tools.
Researchers and students need tools that work well together, not only tools with strong individual features. Structured data exchange connects processes and avoids duplicated work.
A decisive criterion is how readily a tool connects to the systems and processes that follow it.
A workflow carries as far as its parts talk to each other.
Until now, support ended here
Reference management stays where it is. What comes after builds on it, without breaks in the chain and without starting over.
Checking references before the manuscript goes out
The workflow does not end with writing. When references sit in the text in machine-readable form, they can be checked automatically before submission — for retracted work, faulty sources, or references whose relevance is unclear.
In PubMed, one paper in 277 published in early 2026 contains at least one fabricated reference — up from one in 2,828 in 2023 (The Lancet, May 2026).
Developed together with Grounded AI. Currently in a pilot.
Already in use at universities
Universities in Germany and India provide SciFlow centrally
“The most important result is that the formal quality of the work from students who use SciFlow has really improved significantly. Our user numbers have continuously increased — from this we can see that it is being very well received.”
Documents created at Neubrandenburg: 322 in 2023 → 2,169 in 2025.
VIT Vellore, India
Campus licence, used above all by PhD students writing their theses.
Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences
Through the library since 2023: first for staff, then for students.
University of Kassel
Campus licence for all members of the university, since May 2024.
Data storage
Hosted in Germany, in ISO-certified data centres in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe. EU data protection (GDPR).
Sign-in
SSO, OAuth2, and Shibboleth.
Export
Word, fully tagged PDF/UA, HTML and JATS — the content stays yours.
Live webinar for libraries and central services
From the first citation to the finished submission
One hour in which we trace the writing workflow from the reference manager to submission — drawing on what already works at other institutions, with time for your questions.
Thursday, 19 November 2026 – twice, so it fits your time zone
You'll receive the access link, and the recording afterwards.
Prefer German? Watch the recording of our German-language webinar (17 September 2026) →
Frequently asked questions
FAQ
Does SciFlow replace the reference manager?
No. SciFlow builds on the reference manager and takes over what comes after: structured writing, journal templates, submission.
Do we have to move to Zotero?
No. Zotero and CiteReady are our preferred integrations, and Mendeley is synchronised too. EndNote libraries come in as BibTeX or RIS, and Word documents keep their EndNote citations when imported. Citavi is imported through its integration, and other programs work via BibTeX.
We use EndNote or Citavi. What happens to our researchers' libraries and documents in progress?
Libraries come in as RIS or BibTeX. Documents already written in Word can be imported too: SciFlow keeps the EndNote citations in them. Anything incomplete can be corrected directly in the document. Moving from Citavi to Zotero, individual citation styles may need converting to open CSL — we help with that.
Is the output accessible?
Yes. SciFlow produces fully tagged PDF/UA, plus HTML and JATS from the same source.
How is it licensed?
For institutions through the SciFlow Authoring Platform: all students and researchers, unlimited documents and co-authors, your own portal pages, usage reporting, and access to the template database. The offer is based on the number of students and researchers.
How does SciFlow fit into existing library services?
The rollout fits into what a library already offers. SciFlow can be introduced alongside existing reference-management training, for example. Templates and materials come from SciFlow — the library stays the familiar place its researchers turn to.
What exactly do the integrity checks examine?
Five things: whether a cited work has been retracted or carries an editorial notice; whether the source given exists and its metadata is correct; whether a reference fits the context it is cited in; how self-citations and the distribution of authorship compare with what is usual in the field; and whether the list contains entries that are never cited in the text. The result is a report per reference, with a rationale and a recommendation.
What is transmitted during a check?
By default only the bibliography, not the text of the work. Checks that assess context need the full text and have to be enabled explicitly. Processing takes place under a data processing agreement, and the transmitted data is deleted once the report has been produced. The checks currently run as a pilot and are enabled for individual institutions and accounts.
Where is the data held?
Hosted in Germany, in ISO-certified data centres in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, with encrypted transmission and under EU data protection (GDPR). Documents are not analysed and not passed on to third parties. The only exception is the opt-in reference check described above, which runs under a data processing agreement.
Is sign-in via Shibboleth possible?
Yes. SSO, OAuth2, and Shibboleth are supported.
What do we keep if we stop?
The content can be exported as Word, PDF, HTML, and JATS. Internally, documents are stored in HTML or HTMLBook, and images in their original formats.