## Research Trees

Research Trees let you drill down into topics by building an explorable tree of sub-queries from your search results. Think of it as a guided deep-dive — each branch leads to more focused insights, with AI-generated summaries at every level. Trees can be saved and reloaded later to continue your research, and exported to PDF for sharing or offline review.

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### Step 1: Start from Any Search

Run a search and look at the **AI Summary** at the top of your results. You'll notice a **"Find out more"** button next to each heading in the summary — this is your entry point into a Research Tree.

![AI Summary with Find out more buttons](/docs/images/search-guide/ai-summary-find-out-more.png)

You have two ways to branch into a sub-topic:

- **Click "Find out more"** next to any heading to research that topic in more depth.
- **Highlight any text** in the summary and click the popup button that appears to research that specific phrase.

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### Step 2: Watch Your Tree Grow

After clicking "Find out more", Evidence Lab searches the document corpus for content specifically about that sub-topic. You'll see a **"Show tree"** button appear along with a status indicator while the system works.

![Researching a sub-topic](/docs/images/search-guide/researching-status.png)

Click **"Show tree"** at any time to see the full structure of your research so far.

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### Step 3: Explore the Tree

The tree view shows all the branches you've explored, radiating out from your original search query. Each node represents a sub-topic with its own AI summary and source documents.

![Research Tree view](/docs/images/search-guide/research-tree-view.png)

From the tree view you can:

- **Click any node** to jump to its summary and results.
- **Click (+)** on a node to expand it with further sub-topics.
- **Click (-)** to collapse a branch.
- **Add a new topic** using the "+ Add topic" option at the bottom.

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### Step 4: Read Sub-Topic Summaries

Click on any node in the tree to see its detailed AI summary. Each sub-topic summary includes structured headings, cited evidence, and its own **"Find out more"** button — so you can keep drilling deeper.

Notice the breadcrumb at the top (e.g. *Exploring: "Effects on Agricultural Production and Food Availability"*) — this tells you where you are in the tree. Click **"Show tree"** to navigate back to the full tree view at any time.

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### Saving and Resuming Research

Research Trees persist across your session. You can also:

- **Save your research** — click **"Save your research"** to store the current tree for later.
- **Load previous research** — click **"Load Previous Research"** to restore a tree from an earlier session.
- **Export research** — click **"Export research"** to download your tree and summaries.
- **Generate a Global Summary** — click **"Generate Global Summary"** to create a single summary that synthesizes findings from across all branches of your tree.
