Digital Science acquires Jenni AI to verify academic citations

Digital Science, the UK company that supplies researchers with data, tools and infrastructure, has acquired Jenni AI, an AI-native writing platform that says it is used by more than 8 million students and researchers in 189 countries.

Jenni AI guides users from a first idea to a finished piece of work. People can upload papers or import their reference libraries, explore their chosen sources, draft and refine text, and check citations against the original material.

Dimensions data to power citations

Over the coming months, Jenni AI will integrate Digital Science's research data, starting with the Dimensions database of 171 million publications. Its full-text search capabilities are meant to help researchers discover, understand and cite scholarly literature more effectively.

Digital Science CEO Stephen Leicht said researchers already use AI routinely, but a general-purpose tool cannot give them a citation that has been checked against the actual paper. Inside Digital Science, he said, every source Jenni AI suggests can be verified against Dimensions, and that holds as users' work grows from a first thesis chapter to a funded lab.

Jenni AI's founders framed the deal in similar terms. They said they started the company on the belief that the future is written with AI, not by AI, and that joining Digital Science gives researchers more knowledge, tools and confidence.

What changes for users

Jenni AI joins Overleaf, Papers AI and ReadCube in Digital Science's portfolio of research tools. The acquisition also strengthens the group's direct relationships with PhD and master's students at the start of their careers.

For existing customers, little changes on the surface: Jenni AI will continue as a standalone product under its own name, with the same team, pricing and subscription plans. The visible change will be the gradual arrival of Dimensions-backed source discovery and verification.

The deal reflects a broader push to make AI writing aids more trustworthy in academia, where fabricated or unchecked references remain a central concern. Financial terms were not disclosed.