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Saving papers

Anywhere you see a paper card in ALMa — Feed, Discovery, Authors, Online search, Library — you'll find the same four rating verbs:

Verb Effect
Save (or Add) Adds the paper to your Library at rating 3 (neutral).
Like Adds to Library at rating 4 (positive).
Love Adds to Library at rating 5 (strongly positive).
Dislike Records a negative signal at rating 1. Does not save the paper unless it was already saved (in which case the existing rating is preserved — see below).

The vocabulary is identical across surfaces because the underlying operation is the same. The recommender treats a Like in Feed and a Like in Discovery identically.

When to use which

  • Save — "this seems worth keeping; I'll triage later." The workhorse verb.
  • Like — "this is good; I want the recommender to surface more like it."
  • Love — "this is exemplary; treat its authors / topics / venue as strong positive signals."
  • Dislike — "do not surface this kind of paper again." Used in Discovery to teach the recommender what's noise; used in Feed to triage without deleting.

Monotonic upgrade

Re-saving never downgrades. If you've Loved a paper (rating 5) and later click Save on the same row, the rating stays at 5. The only ways to lower a rating are:

  • Explicit Dislike → sets rating to 1.
  • Manual rating change in the Library star control.

This is intentional: the system trusts your explicit positive signals and treats the implicit "Save again" action as re-engagement, not as a re-grade.

Dislike on a saved paper

If you Dislike a paper that's already in your Library, ALMa:

  • Records a feedback_events row with negative signal.
  • Does not demote your Library entry.
  • Does not remove it from Library.

The existing surface lifecycle (Library remove = explicit intent) is the only thing that downgrades a saved entry's status.

If you want to actually remove a paper from your Library, use Remove on the Library row (which transitions it to status='removed', see Paper lifecycle).

Discovery's two negative verbs

Discovery has two ways to express "no":

Verb Effect
Dismiss Hides the card in this lens without changing your preference signal. A lens-local cooldown controls when it may be tried again.
Dislike Writes a negative signal but keeps the card visible. Useful when you want the system to learn but want to keep evaluating the paper.

Feed also has Dismiss for permanently hiding an inbox row. Like Discovery Dismiss, it changes visibility only; use Dislike to teach preference.

The Online search panel inside the Import dialog is also a save surface. Same vocabulary, same monotonic rule, same Dislike semantics on already-saved papers — it uses the same save path as everywhere else.

Bulk

In the Library Saved tab, select multiple rows to use the bulk actions in the floating toolbar:

  • Add to collection
  • Remove from Library
  • Clear rating (sets rating to 0; paper stays saved)

Bulk operations are atomic per row; partial failures are reported in the toast.