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GuideExtended Research

Extended Research and Go Deeper

Standard Deep Research is one agent investigating your question end to end. It is fast, it cites its sources, and for most questions it is the right tool.

Extended research is for the other kind of question, the one where being wrong is expensive. A board paper. A vendor decision. A regulatory position. Turn it on and Scholarly puts a team on the question instead of a single researcher.

What "a team" Actually Means

Extended research runs several specialists, and you can watch each of them work:

  • Researchers: several at once, each taking a different part of the question, so breadth does not cost you the whole afternoon.
  • Currency scout: checks what has changed in the last year, so a well-cited but outdated answer does not slip through.
  • Fact checker: independently verifies the claims the answer rests on. It does not just agree with the researchers; it checks them, and it reports back Confirmed, Corrected, Contested, or Unsupported for each claim.
  • Reviewer: critiques the draft before it is finished, the way a careful colleague would.
  • Analyst: builds the calculations and charts, when the question needs numbers rather than prose.

They message each other while they work. The progress view shows who did each step and what they said to whom, so the reasoning is legible rather than a black box.

Turning It On

Ask AI Chat to “run Extended research on this”, then describe the question and attach the relevant sources. The normal Research composer's Options menu has output, evidence, depth, model, and project controls; it does not expose an Extended toggle.

Because it is expensive to run, Scholarly confirms before it starts, and tells you plainly what you are committing to:

  • Uses 2 AI Creation Credits. Standard research uses the selected model's cost, which can be higher than 1.
  • Has an estimated processing range, often 10–20 minutes. This is not a deadline; the task can take longer.
  • Runs parallel researchers, a fact checker, and a reviewer.

Extended research is available on paid plans. On Free, asking for it shows the upgrade path instead. See Plans and Limits.

Chat asks for agreement after stating the cost. Asking for a “deep” or long report alone does not automatically choose the more expensive Extended workflow.

Go Deeper

Go deeper runs Extended research on top of a report you already have.

Open a finished report and ask its research chat to go deeper. A research team picks up where that report left off and chases:

  • Newer data than the first pass found.
  • Primary sources, where the first report leaned on summaries.
  • The open questions the report itself flagged.
  • Anything the first report could not verify.

You get a new, complete report, titled Deeper: <original title>, rather than an edit of the old one. Both stay in your session, and the report switcher moves between them.

Go deeper costs the same as Extended research: 2 AI Creation Credits, confirmed in chat before it starts.

Following a Run

While Extended research is running, the progress view shows:

  • The step it is on, and how long it has taken against the 10–20 min typical range.
  • How many sources it has read and how many facts it has found.
  • The latest sourced facts as they arrive.
  • For Extended runs specifically, a running count of what the fact checker confirmed and corrected.

You can close the tab. The run continues, and Home shows its status. You also receive a ready email if that notification is enabled. See Background Tasks.

Reading the Result

An Extended or Go deeper report opens the same way as any other research report, on three tabs:

  • Summary: the answer, how confident it is, and what is still open. Tap an open question to ask it in the research chat.
  • Sources: the sources the report actually cites, ranked by how often, with every retrieved source one tap away. Exports and citation lists share one menu, and citations copy straight to your clipboard.
  • Report: the full formatted write-up.

Reports produced this way are labelled Extended or Go deeper in the report switcher, so you can tell at a glance which pass a conclusion came from.

When to Use Extended Research

Use it sparingly, that is the honest guidance, and it is what the product itself says. It earns its cost when:

  • The decision is expensive or hard to reverse. Vendor selection, a hiring market, a compliance position.
  • Currency matters. Anything where last year's answer is the wrong answer.
  • You will be challenged on it. A fact-checked report with verdicts per claim is a different thing to defend than a summary.
  • A standard report left real gaps. That is exactly what Go deeper is for.

For background reading, a first look at a topic, or a quick comparison, start with standard research and its displayed model cost. Review sources and dates yourself before relying on either workflow for an important decision.

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