Wonders

Wonders, for librarians.

You decide which AI tools go on your research guides. This page gives you what you need to make that call about Wonders: what it does, what it doesn’t, where student data goes, and where we still fall short.

Jump to: academic integrity · data & privacy · accessibility · student access · LibGuide description · contact

What it is

A workspace for the literature review.

Wonders is a browser-based research workspace. A student starts with a question, builds a search strategy, searches scholarly literature, saves what is relevant to a project board, reads and annotates PDFs in the app, and writes in a notebook that keeps a formatted bibliography. There is nothing to install.

Search runs on two open scholarly indexes, OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar (over 320 million scholarly works), plus Google Patents, with Boolean filters and a year range. AI features summarise papers, answer questions about a specific paper, suggest keywords and draw conclusions across a set of searches. Summaries, answers and conclusions link to the papers behind them.

References export to Word, LaTeX, BibTeX, RIS and CSV, projects save out to Zotero, and .ris, .bib and .nbib files from any reference manager import in. For institutions, library-licensed resources surface through SSO/SAML-managed access alongside EBSCO, OpenAthens and LibKey. More on that at Wonders for Institutions.

Before you list it, know that:

  • It is a paid product. New accounts get a 14-day free trial; after that the individual plan is $20 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly.
  • It is built for desktop browsers. Projects open on a phone for reference, but active work needs a larger screen.
  • Wonders has no index of its own. It searches OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar (over 320 million scholarly works) and Google Patents, so coverage is theirs; there is no Wonders title list.
  • Accessibility work is ongoing and we do not claim full WCAG 2.1 AA conformance yet. Details below.
  • Data is processed in the United States, including by the AI providers named above.

Academic integrity

What the AI does, and what it doesn’t.

Students ask librarians whether a tool is allowed. The honest answer depends on the course policy, so here is exactly what Wonders does with AI.

No essay generation

There is no feature that turns a prompt into an essay, a paper or a chapter. The product is built around finding, reading and organising sources.

The writing assistant, honestly

Our privacy policy lists a notebook writing assistant that offers to improve, expand, summarise or rephrase a passage the student has selected. That action is not in the notebook editor we ship today: on selected text the toolbar offers formatting and “Cite”, and nothing else. We are giving you both facts rather than leaving you to reconcile them. If your course policy turns on whether a rephrasing tool exists, ask us before you list the product and we will tell you what is current.

Claims trace to sources

AI summaries, paper Q&A and cross-paper conclusions point back to the papers they were drawn from. AI-generated content carries an “AI-generated” label in the interface.

AI output can be wrong

Our privacy policy says so directly: AI-generated content may contain inaccuracies, omissions or misinterpretations, and it is not a substitute for reading the original paper. We ask students to verify against the source.

Process is visible to supervisors

On institutional deployments, shared workspaces let a supervisor see what a student searched, saved and cited, not only the final document.

No detector evasion

We do not build or promote paraphrasers, “humanizers” or anything designed to get text past a detector. Our position is on the record at Don’t cheat.

Our guides cover the citation side: how to cite AI tools and sources found through them. The principles behind these choices are in the AI Safety Center.

Data & privacy

Where student data goes.

Taken from our privacy policy dated March 3, 2026. If anything here and the policy ever disagree, the policy governs.

Account data collected
Name, email address and password. Payment data is held by Stripe. The policy states that no sensitive personal information is processed.
What is sent to AI providers
Academic content only. The policy lists paper abstracts, full text and metadata, search queries and research questions, paper-chat messages, and text selected for the writing assistant (see the note on the writing assistant above).
What is not sent to AI providers
Name, email address, institutional affiliation and payment details.
AI sub-processors
Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT-4o-mini and embeddings) and Together AI (Llama 3.3 70B). All process data in the United States under Data Processing Agreements.
Model training
The policy states these providers do not use user content to train their models. Wonders does not train models on student or institutional work.
Hosting and transfers
Servers are in the United States. Standard Contractual Clauses cover transfers from the EEA and UK. EEA/Swiss and UK representatives are named in the policy.
Retention
Projects, searches, chat history and highlights are kept until the user deletes the account. AI processing logs: 90 days. Analytics: 26 months. Session recordings: 30 days.
Analytics
Usage analytics (RudderStack) and session replay for debugging (Jam.dev) run only with consent. Page-view and web-vitals measurement (Fathom, Vercel) is listed separately in the policy; Fathom records no personal data.
User controls
“Download my data” (JSON) and “Delete account” are self-service in Account Settings.
Minimum age
Users confirm they are at least 18, or that a parent or guardian consents to their use. Wonders does not knowingly collect data from or market to anyone under 18. Worth knowing if you serve first-year students who are 17.
Search ranking
AI-assisted relevance scoring that weighs citation count, venue quality, recency and semantic relevance, with weights adjusted by field. No decisions with legal or similarly significant effect are made solely by automated processing.
Institutional security
The institutions page reports a completed HECVAT, FERPA- and GDPR-aligned data handling, and SAML/SSO. A DPA is available on request.

Accessibility

Working toward WCAG 2.1 AA. Not there yet.

WCAG 2.1 AA is the baseline we build to, and we do not claim full conformance today. We are a small team and we would rather tell you that than have a student find out.

What is in place: core flows work from the keyboard with a visible focus indicator, controls are labelled for screen readers, colour contrast is checked, pages use semantic structure, and reduced-motion preferences are honoured. Accessibility checks are part of how we ship.

We do not publish a VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report on this site. If your procurement process needs one, ask us and we will tell you where it stands. If a student hits a barrier, email support@readwonders.com and we will prioritise the fix. The full statement is on our accessibility page.

Access

How students get in.

On their own

Anyone can create an account and use the full product free for 14 days. After the trial the individual plan is $20 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly.

Verified students and faculty get 50% off, on monthly or yearly billing, for up to four years. Students who cannot verify through the usual route can write to scholarship@readwonders.com. Current prices are on the pricing page.

Through the institution

Institutional licences include SAML/SSO sign-on, user management, usage dashboards and live training webinars. Library-licensed resources surface through your existing authentication. Full provisioning is part of an enterprise agreement.

Most institutions begin with a pilot for one department or cohort, typically four to eight weeks. Wonders for Institutions has the detail, including the National University case study.

For your guide

A description you can paste.

Written in the register most library guides use. Click a block to select it. Edit it however you like, and add whatever cautions you give for other AI tools. You do not need to ask us first.

Short · about 50 words
Wonders is a web-based AI research workspace for literature reviews. Students search scholarly literature, organise sources on project boards, read and annotate PDFs, and write in a notebook where each AI-assisted claim links back to the paper it came from. It does not generate essays. Paid, with a free trial and a verified-student discount.
Long · about 130 words
Wonders (readwonders.com) is a web-based AI research workspace for literature reviews. It guides students step by step: define a question, build a search strategy, search scholarly literature (OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar, over 320 million scholarly works, plus Google Patents), save and organise sources on project boards, read and annotate PDFs, and write in a notebook with a formatted bibliography. AI summaries and answers are labelled as AI-generated and link to the source paper, so claims can be checked. Wonders does not generate essays or papers from a prompt. It exports to Word, LaTeX, BibTeX, RIS and CSV, saves to Zotero and imports .ris, .bib and .nbib files from any reference manager. Paid subscription with a free trial and a verified-student discount; institutional licences with SSO are available. As with any AI tool, verify summaries against the original paper and follow your course’s AI policy.

Link to https://readwonders.com. Where it fits in a typical guide: alongside AI tools for literature searching and literature reviews, not under writing tools.

Contact

A person answers.

Tell us if something on this page is unclear or wrong, or if you need a fact we have not covered before you can list the tool.

Questions about the product

support@readwonders.com. Staffed 7am–9pm CEST. All channels are on the contact page.

Institutional access, DPA, security review

joe@readwonders.com, or watch a demo first.

Privacy and data protection

dpo@readwonders.com

AI policy resources

The AI Safety Center offers a reference of 122+ institutional AI policies and a draft risk-assessment framework, free to educators on request.

Questions librarians ask.

Does Wonders write essays or papers for students?

No. Wonders has no feature that generates an essay, paper or chapter from a prompt. It helps students find, read and organise sources. Our privacy policy also lists a notebook writing assistant that suggests improvements to selected text; that action is not in the editor we ship today, and see “The writing assistant, honestly” above. AI-generated content is labelled in the interface.

Which AI providers process student content?

Anthropic, OpenAI and Together AI, all in the United States, under Data Processing Agreements. They receive academic content such as paper text, search queries and chat messages. They do not receive names, email addresses, institutional affiliation or payment details, and the privacy policy states they do not use the content to train their models.

Is Wonders accessible?

Wonders is working toward WCAG 2.1 AA and does not claim full conformance today. Core flows are keyboard-operable, controls are labelled for screen readers, colour contrast is checked and reduced-motion settings are honoured. Barriers can be reported to support@readwonders.com.

Do students need an institutional licence to use it?

No. Any student can start a 14-day free trial and subscribe individually, with a verified-student discount of 50% for up to four years. Institutions can license Wonders with SAML/SSO, usually starting with a pilot for one department or cohort.

Can we link to or describe Wonders in our library guide?

Yes. You do not need permission. The descriptions on this page are written for that purpose and you are free to edit them, shorten them or add your own cautions.

Who do we contact with questions?

Email support@readwonders.com for anything about the product, joe@readwonders.com for institutional access, a DPA or a security review, and dpo@readwonders.com for privacy questions.

Try it before you list it.

The 14-day trial is the full product. Run your own reference questions through it and judge the sourcing for yourself.

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