Scim: Intelligent Faceted Highlights for Interactive, Multi-Pass Skimming of Scientific Papers

Researchers are expected to keep up with an immense literature, yet often find it prohibitively time-consuming to do so. This paper explores how intelligent agents can help scaffold in-situ information seeking across scientific papers. Specifically, we present Scim, an AI-augmented reading interface designed to help researchers skim papers by automatically identifying, classifying, and highlighting salient sentences, organized into rhetorical facets rooted in common information needs. Using Scim as a design probe, we explore the benefits and drawbacks of imperfect AI assistance within an augmented reading interface. We found researchers used Scim in several different ways: from reading primarily in the `highlight browser' (side panel) to making multiple passes through the paper with different facets activated (e.g., focusing solely on objective and novelty in their first pass). From our study, we identify six key design recommendations and avenues for future research in augmented reading interfaces.