research paper best website

28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier

If you’re a researcher or scholar, you know that conducting effective online research is a critical part of your job. And if you’re like most people, you’re always on the lookout for new and better ways to do it. 

This article aims to give you an edge over researchers that rely mainly on Google for their entire research process.

Table of Contents

#1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an academic search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.

#2. ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) 

ERIC indexes over a million articles, reports, conference papers, and other resources on all aspects of education from early childhood to higher education. So, search results are more relevant to Education on ERIC. 

ERIC is a free online database of education-related literature. 

#3. Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha can also be used to find academic articles. Just type in your keywords and Wolfram Alpha will generate a list of academic articles that match your query.

#4. iSEEK Education 

iSEEK is a search engine targeting students, teachers, administrators, and caregiver. It’s designed to be safe with editor-reviewed content.

iSEEK Education is free to use.

#5. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

CORE is an academic search engine that focuses on open access research papers. A link to the full text PDF or complete text web page is supplied for each search result. It’s academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers.

You might also like:

#7. Science.gov

#8. semantic scholar, #9. refseek.

This is one of the free search engines that feels like Yahoo with a massive directory. It could be good when you are just looking for research ideas from unexpected angles. It could lead you to some other database that you might not know such as the CIA The World Factbook, which is a great reference tool.

#10. ResearchGate 

A mixture of social networking site + forum + content databases where researchers can build their profile, share research papers, and interact with one another.

#11. DataONE Search (formerly CiteULike) 

#12. dataelixir , #13. lazyscholar – browser extension, #14. citeseerx – digital library from penstate, #15. the lens – patents search , #16. fatcat – wiki for bibliographic catalog , #17. lexis web – legal database, #18. infotopia – part of the vlrc family, #19. virtual learning resources center, #21. worldwidescience.

Over 70 countries’ databases are used on the website. When a user enters a query, it contacts databases from all across the world and shows results in both English and translated journals and academic resources.

#22. Google Books

A user can browse thousands of books on Google Books, from popular titles to old titles, to find pages that include their search terms. You can look through pages, read online reviews, and find out where to buy a hard copy once you find the book you are interested in.

#23. DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

#24. baidu scholar, #25. pubmed central, #26. medline®.

MEDLINE® is a paid subscription database for life sciences and biomedicine that includes more than 28 million citations to journal articles. For finding reliable, carefully chosen health information, Medline Plus provides a powerful search tool and even a dictionary.

Defunct Academic Search Engines 

#27. microsoft academic  .

Microsoft Academic

#28. Scizzle

Final thoughts.

There are many academic search engines that can help researchers and scholars find the information they need. This list provides a variety of options, starting with more familiar engines and moving on to less well-known ones. 

10 thoughts on “28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier”

Thank you so much Joannah..I have found this information useful to me as librarian in an academic library

You are welcome! We are happy to hear that!

Thank You Team, for providing a comprehensive list of academic search engines that can help make research easier for students and scholars. The variety of search engines included offers a range of options for finding scholarly articles, journals, and other academic resources. The article also provides a brief summary of each search engine’s features, which helps in determining which one is the best fit for a specific research topic. Overall, this article is a valuable resource for anyone looking for a quick and easy way to access a wealth of academic information.

We appreciate your support and thank you for your kind words. We will continue to provide valuable resources for students and researchers in the future. Please let us know if you have any further questions or suggestions.

No more questions Thank You

I cannot thank you enough!!! thanks alot 🙂

Typography animation is a technique that combines text and motion to create visually engaging and dynamic animations. It involves animating individual letters, words, or phrases in various ways to convey a message, evoke emotions, or enhance the visual impact of a design or video. – Typography Animation Techniques Tools and Online Software {43}

Expontum – Helps researchers quickly find knowledge gaps and identify what research projects have been completed before. Expontum is free, open access, and available to all globally with no paid versions of the site. Automated processes scan research article information 24/7 so this website is constantly updating. By looking at over 35 million research publications (240 million by the end of 2023), the site has 146 million tagged research subjects and 122 million tagged research attributes. Learn more about methodology and sources on the Expontum About Page ( https://www.expontum.com/about.php )

Hey Ryan, I clicked and checked your site and thought it was very relevant to our reader. Thank you for sharing. And, we will be reviewing your site soon.

Sounds good! Thanks, Joannah!

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

10 Best Online Academic Research Tools and Resources

Every college student conducts research at some point. And professors have strong views on what counts as a credible academic resource. Choosing the wrong sources can hurt your grade.

So how can you conduct research efficiently while avoiding sleepless nights in the campus library? Online academic research tools make it easier to find reliable sources quickly.

Rather than pulling random facts from the internet — and running into problems with citations — college students need to know how to find credible sources and how to use online academic tools. Keep reading to learn how you can find the best credible sources for your college research needs.

Popular Online Programs

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

The 10 Best Academic Research Sources

What resources will point you toward reliable sources for your academic research? Rather than scrolling through pages of search results, turn to these academic resources when you need to find sources.

1. Google Scholar

Looking for an academic article, thesis , or abstract? Google Scholar should be your first stop. Google Scholar helps you find related works, locate full documents at your school library , and access scholarly research.

While Google created Google Scholar, it’s very different from a general online search. Google Scholar brings together academic articles and ranks them based on the authors, publication location, and citation record. That means the top results generally represent the most reliable scholarship on your topic.

For journal articles, books, images, and even primary sources, JSTOR ranks among the best online resources for academic research. JSTOR’s collection spans 75 disciplines, with strengths in the humanities and social sciences . The academic research database includes complete runs of over 2,800 journals.

And if you’re looking for images, turn to Artstor , which offers over 2.5 million images related to the arts, sciences, and literature. However, JSTOR is not an open-access database. That means you’ll need to log in through your university library, which typically includes off-campus access .

3. Library of Congress

As the largest library in the world, the Library of Congress is an amazing online resource for academic research. Students can search its collections to access digital resources, videos, audio recordings, photographs, and maps.

The library’s materials also include notated music, web archives, legislation, and 3D objects. You’ll find materials for almost any topic in its extensive collections. You can search historic American newspapers from 1777-1963 with the Chronicling America tool or look up pirate trials in another digital collection.

4. PubMed Central

The National Library of Medicine, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, runs PubMed Central. Founded in 2000, the database includes academic scholarship dating back to the 18th century. The resource connects college students with life sciences and biomedical academic sources.

And as an open-access database, PubMed Central offers free access to scholarly literature. Today, PubMed Central has over 7 million full-text records, making it a great resource for students in the life sciences or medical fields.

5. Google Books

Whether you’re looking for a recent publication or an out-of-print book, there’s a good chance you’ll find it on Google Books. In 2019, Google announced that Google Books contains over 40 million books .

You can enter any search term to find books that contain matches. And you can download the full text of any book in the public domain — which includes 10 million titles. Make sure to check publisher and author information when using Google Books.

The site also includes reference pages that link to book reviews. Keep in mind that you’ll have more limited access to recent books. Still, Google Books is a great first step to find sources that you can later look for at your campus library.

6. Science.gov

If you’re looking for scientific research, Science.gov is a great option. The site provides full-text documents, scientific data, and other resources from federally funded research.

A U.S. government site, Science.gov searches more than 60 databases and 2,200 scientific websites. You’ll find over 200 million pages of research and development information, including projects funded by 14 federal agencies. Students in any STEM field can benefit from the resource.

7. Digital Commons Network

University librarians curate the Digital Commons Network, which connects students with peer-reviewed articles. The site’s other resources include dissertations, book chapters, conference proceedings, and working papers.

The Digital Commons Network includes scholarly work from diverse disciplines like architecture, business, education, law, and the sciences. You can also access humanities, social sciences, and engineering scholarship through the network.

8. ResearchGate

ResearchGate has been described as social networking for research scientists. But ResearchGate is also a great option to find open-access academic sources. Scholars upload their work to ResearchGate, which makes it available to the public for free.

Currently, over 20 million researchers around the world use the site, which contains over 135 million publications. College students looking for scientific research can often find resources on ResearchGate and even connect with scholars.

9. WorldCat

When you’re looking for library resources, WorldCat is one of the best tools. Connected to over 10,000 libraries, WorldCat is a database that allows you to search library collections.

The database lists books and articles available at your local libraries, making it easier to find materials that are not available online. In addition to books, WorldCat contains music, videos, audiobooks, and scholarly articles.

You can also find digital research materials, including photos. When you’re logged into WorldCat through your university library, you can also access full-text articles and other resources. Or you can use WorldCat to find sources to request through interlibrary loan.

10. Your University Library

When you’re conducting academic research, your university library can be one of your best resources. In addition to online databases, journal articles, and books, your campus library also has academic librarians who can point you to the best sources.

When you don’t know where to start, reach out to an academic librarian to learn more about your school’s research tools. Or use interlibrary loan to get a scanned copy of an article. Many of the campus library’s resources are available online, making them easy to access.

How to Find Credible Sources for Research

How can you find credible sources for research and avoid misinformation? Your instructor likely recommends avoiding general web content or Wikipedia.

Finding the most reliable websites for research starts with evaluating the website itself. Sites run by academic or government organizations rank high in reliability. Databases and specialized search engines can also provide good research sources.

Next, make sure you understand the source of the information and the process used to publish it. Scholarly articles and books that undergo peer review make for the best academic resources.

Finally, when in doubt, check with your instructor or an academic librarian. They can help point you to reliable sources or double-check sources you’re unsure about.

How to Access Academic Resources

Many sites offer open-access resources. That means anyone can access the materials. Other sites restrict what you can read. For example, you might find some blank pages when searching on Google Books because of copyright restrictions. And many academic articles are behind paywalls.

Fortunately, college students benefit from one of the best resources for conducting research: the university library. Your library likely subscribes to multiple academic databases and journals. If you run into a paywall, check whether your library offers access to the resource.

Explore More College Resources

What Is a Research University?

by Genevieve Carlton, Ph.D.

Updated June 3, 2022

How to Write a Research Paper: 11-Step Guide

by Samantha Fecich, Ph.D.

Updated January 17, 2023

Strategies for Writing a Compelling Thesis Statement

by Staff Writers

Updated November 4, 2020

View the most relevant schools for your interests and compare them by tuition, programs, acceptance rate, and other factors important to finding your college home.

Explore millions of high-quality primary sources and images from around the world, including artworks, maps, photographs, and more.

Explore migration issues through a variety of media types

• Part of Street Art Graphics
• Part of The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2020)
• Part of Cato Institute (Aug. 3, 2021)
• Part of University of California Press
• Part of Open: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
• Part of Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter 2012)
• Part of R Street Institute (Nov. 1, 2020)
• Part of Leuven University Press
• Part of UN Secretary-General Papers: Ban Ki-moon (2007-2016)
• Part of Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 12, No. 4 (August 2018)
• Part of Leveraging Lives: Serbia and Illegal Tunisian Migration to Europe, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Mar. 1, 2023)
• Part of UCL Press

Harness the power of visual materials—explore more than 3 million images now on JSTOR.

Enhance your scholarly research with underground newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Explore collections in the arts, sciences, and literature from the world’s leading museums, archives, and scholars.

A free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature

• Tommi Tenkanen
• Wireless Sensor Networks

New & Improved API for Developers

Introducing semantic reader in beta.

Stay Connected With Semantic Scholar Sign Up What Is Semantic Scholar? Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at Ai2.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Download 55 million PDFs for free

Explore our top research interests.

Engineering

Anthropology

• Earth Sciences

• Computer Science

• Mathematics

• Health Sciences

Join 272 million academics and researchers

Track your impact.

Share your work with other academics, grow your audience and track your impact on your field with our robust analytics

Discover new research

Get access to millions of research papers and stay informed with the important topics around the world

Publish your work

Publish your research with fast and rigorous service through Academia.edu Journals. Get instant worldwide dissemination of your work

Unlock the most powerful tools with Academia Premium

Work faster and smarter with advanced research discovery tools

Search the full text and citations of our millions of papers. Download groups of related papers to jumpstart your research. Save time with detailed summaries and search alerts.

• Advanced Search
• PDF Packages of 37 papers
• Summaries and Search Alerts

Share your work, track your impact, and grow your audience

Get notified when other academics mention you or cite your papers. Track your impact with in-depth analytics and network with members of your field.

• Mentions and Citations Tracking
• Advanced Analytics
• Publishing Tools

Real stories from real people

Used by academics at over 15,000 universities

Get started and find the best quality research

• Academia.edu Journals
•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Cognitive Science
• Academia ©2024

“The only truly modern academic research engine”

Oa.mg is a search engine for academic papers, specialising in open access. we have over 250 million papers in our index..

Reference management. Clean and simple.

The top list of academic research databases

2. Web of Science

5. ieee xplore, 6. sciencedirect, 7. directory of open access journals (doaj), get the most out of your academic research database, frequently asked questions about academic research databases, related articles.

Whether you are writing a thesis , dissertation, or research paper it is a key task to survey prior literature and research findings. More likely than not, you will be looking for trusted resources, most likely peer-reviewed research articles.

Academic research databases make it easy to locate the literature you are looking for. We have compiled the top list of trusted academic resources to help you get started with your research:

Scopus is one of the two big commercial, bibliographic databases that cover scholarly literature from almost any discipline. Besides searching for research articles, Scopus also provides academic journal rankings, author profiles, and an h-index calculator .

• Coverage: 90.6 million core records
• References: N/A
• Discipline: Multidisciplinary
• Access options: Limited free preview, full access by institutional subscription only
• Provider: Elsevier

Web of Science also known as Web of Knowledge is the second big bibliographic database. Usually, academic institutions provide either access to Web of Science or Scopus on their campus network for free.

• Coverage: approx. 100 million items
• References: 1.4 billion
• Access options: institutional subscription only
• Provider: Clarivate (formerly Thomson Reuters)

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC) .

• Coverage: approx. 35 million items
• Discipline: Medicine and Biological Sciences
• Access options: free
• Provider: NIH

For education sciences, ERIC is the number one destination. ERIC stands for Education Resources Information Center, and is a database that specifically hosts education-related literature.

• Coverage: approx. 1.6 million items
• Discipline: Education
• Provider: U.S. Department of Education

IEEE Xplore is the leading academic database in the field of engineering and computer science. It's not only journal articles, but also conference papers, standards and books that can be search for.

• Coverage: approx. 6 million items
• Discipline: Engineering
• Provider: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

ScienceDirect is the gateway to the millions of academic articles published by Elsevier, 1.4 million of which are open access. Journals and books can be searched via a single interface.

• Coverage: approx. 19.5 million items

The DOAJ is an open-access academic database that can be accessed and searched for free.

• Coverage: over 8 million records
• Provider: DOAJ

JSTOR is another great resource to find research papers. Any article published before 1924 in the United States is available for free and JSTOR also offers scholarships for independent researchers.

• Coverage: more than 12 million items
• Provider: ITHAKA

Start using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with PubMed and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

Scopus is one of the two big commercial, bibliographic databases that cover scholarly literature from almost any discipline. Beside searching for research articles, Scopus also provides academic journal rankings, author profiles, and an h-index calculator .

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC)

• Find journals
• My journals

Register Sign in

Register or sign-in in order to manage your journal lists

Sign in or register to save a journal

To save a journal and create lists, you need to sign in to your Elsevier account.

Find the right journal for your research

Looking for the best journal match for your paper? Search the world's leading source of academic journals using your abstract or your keywords and other details.

Check if you're eligible for open access (OA) savings.

• Which Products Use Apple AI?
• Details: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10

15 Best Free Web Tools to Organize Your Research

How to stay organized when researching and writing papers

• Emporia State University
• DeveloperWeek 2024: Dates, News, Rumors, and Everything Else to Know

Organizing research is important not only for your own sanity, but because when it comes time to unfold the data and put it to use, you want the process to go as smoothly as possible. This is where research organizers come in.

There are lots of free web-based organizers that you can use for any purpose. Maybe you're collecting interviews for a news story, digging up newspaper archives for a history project, or writing a research paper over a science topic. Research organizers are also helpful for staying productive and preparing for tests.

Regardless of the topic, when you have multiple sources of information and lots to comb through later, optimizing your workflow with a dedicated organizer is essential.

Patrick Tomasso / Unsplash

Many of these tools provide unique features, so you might decide to use multiple resources simultaneously in whatever way suits your particular needs.

Research and Study

You need a place to gather the information you're finding. To avoid a cluttered space when collecting and organizing data, you can use a tool dedicated to research.

• Pocket : Save web pages to your online account to reference them again later. It's much tidier than bookmarks, and it can all be retrieved from the web or the Pocket mobile app .
• Mendeley : Organize papers and references, and generate citations and bibliographies.
• Quizlet : Learn vocabulary with these free online flashcards .
• Wikipedia : Find information on millions of different topics.
• Quora : This is a question and answer website where you can ask the community for help with any question.
• SparkNotes : Free online study guides on a wide variety of subjects, anything from famous literary works of the past century to the present day. 
• Zotero : Collect, manage, and cite your research sources. Lets you organize data into collections and search through them by adding tags to every source. This is a computer program, but there's a browser extension that helps you send data to it.
• Google Scholar : A simple way to search for scholarly literature on any subject.
• Diigo : Collect, share, and interact with information from anywhere on the web. It's all accessible through the browser extension and saved to your online account.
• GoConqr : Create flashcards, mind maps, notes, quizzes, and more to bridge the gap between your research and studying.

Writing Tools

Writing is the other half of a research paper, so you need somewhere useful to go to jot down notes, record information you might use in the final paper, create drafts, track sources, and finalize the paper.

• Web Page Sticky Notes : For Chrome users, this tool lets you place sticky notes on any web page as you do your research. There are tons of settings you can customize, they're backed up to your Google Drive account, and they're visible not only on each page you created them on but also on a single page from the extension's settings.
• Google Docs or Word Online : These are online word processors where you can write the entire research paper, organize lists, paste URLs, store off-hand notes, and more.
• Google Keep : This note-taking app and website catalogs notes within labels that make sense for your research. Access them from the web on any computer or from your mobile device. It supports collaborations, custom colors, images, drawings, and reminders.
• Yahoo Notepad : If you use Yahoo Mail , the notes area of your account is a great place to store text-based snippets for easy recall when you need them.
• Notion : Workflows, notes, and more, in a space where you can collaborate with others.

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

• 7 Free Image Hosting Sites for Your Photos
• The Best Free People Search Websites
• The Best Research and Reference Websites
• The Best Free Foreclosure Search Sites
• The 10 Best Bookmarking Tools for the Web
• 13 Ways to Get Free Textbooks Online
• How to Use the Invisible Web to Find People
• 5 Best Ways to Find a Cell Phone Number Online
• The 8 Best Ways to Send Large Files Over the Internet
• What Is a Web Directory?
• The Best Image Search Engines on the Web
• 5 Best Translation Sites of 2024
• Best Niche Search Engines
• 4 of Our Favorite Free Online Calendars
• The 8 Best Microsoft Office Alternatives
• Internet vs. Web: What's the Difference?

🇺🇦    make metadata, not war

A comprehensive bibliographic database of the world’s scholarly literature

The world’s largest collection of open access research papers, machine access to our vast unique full text corpus, core features, indexing the world’s repositories.

We serve the global network of repositories and journals

Comprehensive data coverage

We provide both metadata and full text access to our comprehensive collection through our APIs and Datasets

Powerful services

We create powerful services for researchers, universities, and industry

Cutting-edge solutions

We research and develop innovative data-driven and AI solutions

Committed to the POSI

Cost-free PIDs for your repository

OAI identifiers are unique identifiers minted cost-free by repositories. Ensure that your repository is correctly configured, enabling the CORE OAI Resolver to redirect your identifiers to your repository landing pages.

OAI IDs provide a cost-free option for assigning Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) to your repository records. Learn more.

Who we serve?

Enabling others to create new tools and innovate using a global comprehensive collection of research papers.

“ Our partnership with CORE will provide Turnitin with vast amounts of metadata and full texts that we can ... ” Show more

Gareth Malcolm, Content Partner Manager at Turnitin

Academic institutions.

Making research more discoverable, improving metadata quality, helping to meet and monitor open access compliance.

“ CORE’s role in providing a unified search of repository content is a great tool for the researcher and ex... ” Show more

Nicola Dowson, Library Services Manager at Open University

Researchers & general public.

Tools to find, discover and explore the wealth of open access research. Free for everyone, forever.

“ With millions of research papers available across thousands of different systems, CORE provides an invalu... ” Show more

Jon Tennant, Rogue Paleontologist and Founder of the Open Science MOOC

Helping funders to analyse, audit and monitor open research and accelerate towards open science.

“ Aggregation plays an increasingly essential role in maximising the long-term benefits of open access, hel... ” Show more

Ben Johnson, Research Policy Adviser at Research England

Our services, access to raw data.

Create new and innovative solutions.

Content discovery

Find relevant research and make your research more visible.

Managing content

Manage how your research content is exposed to the world.

Companies using CORE

Gareth Malcolm

Content Partner Manager at Turnitin

Our partnership with CORE will provide Turnitin with vast amounts of metadata and full texts that we can utilise in our plagiarism detection software.

Academic institution using CORE

Kathleen Shearer

Executive Director of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)

CORE has significantly assisted the academic institutions participating in our global network with their key mission, which is their scientific content exposure. In addition, CORE has helped our content administrators to showcase the real benefits of repositories via its added value services.

Partner projects

Ben Johnson

Research Policy Adviser

Aggregation plays an increasingly essential role in maximising the long-term benefits of open access, helping to turn the promise of a 'research commons' into a reality. The aggregation services that CORE provides therefore make a very valuable contribution to the evolving open access environment in the UK.

Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

5 Best Apps for Researchers: Apps that Every Researcher Should Know About

Today, one need not physically visit a library and take down notes on sheaves of paper (which are apt to fly about or clutter one’s workspace!). Various online tools and software applications (apps) have made our lives easier, especially the many helpful apps for researchers.

The use of apps to ease workload, manage time, or spark creativity are rapidly becoming de rigueur in all areas of work. In academia too, several apps for researchers are designed to help with daily activities, such as collecting and organizing resources, managing collaborative projects, maintaining daily and longer-term schedules, searching for and reading articles, and staying updated on multidisciplinary topics related to a study domain.

Here, I describe some of the best apps for researchers that can are available for free and can simplify both day-to-day tasks and research-related activities.

• Trello: Streamline individual and collaborative projects

Researchers need to keep track of various activities to optimize their productivity. A useful app for researchers, Trello  is a user-friendly app wherein one can create work boards for different projects and populate them with tasks. The user can assign deadlines and keep updating ongoing progress. Work boards can be shared with all team members, thereby smoothening collaborative working.

Trello offers tools to coordinate tasks among members working remotely or disparately, say, team members on the field and those in the lab. This is a particularly useful app for researchers involved in large projects, working with researchers situated across the globe. With this app you can track team projects and monitor in detail the progress of tasks under way. This can be counted among the best apps for researchers as it enables the visualization of workflows, providing team members with a comprehensive overview of a project from beginning to end. Integration with other applications allows users to access features in Gmail or other apps directly from Trello.

Key features

• Easy to use app for researchers
• Flexible and versatile
• Helps manage collaborative projects
• Evernote: Organize your thoughts and ideas

Are you still relying on Post-its and notepads? Do you jot down sudden ideas on a napkin in a coffee shop or on a scrap of paper while working in the lab? Note-taking apps like  Evernote  can help you make lists and take notes and never lose them. A handy app for researchers, Evernote helps you store all your ideas and thoughts, to-do lists, notes, and research links in one place. You can keep all these bits and bobs organized by creating separate tags and folders for different purposes.

The  Evernote web clipper  is a useful feature for saving articles, web pages, or screen grabs from the internet. You can save a page or highlights to your Evernote notebook along with any notes you want to make about that page. It allows you to sync your notes to all your devices, enabling you to organize your notes across multiple platforms. Further, this is one of the best apps for researchers because its multimedia features let you annotate images, embed files and pictures in your notes, and even record audio and video notes.

• Maintains notes, articles, and other content in one place
• Facilitates content clipping from the web
• Auto-sync across devices with this app for researchers
• R Discovery: Search Less, Read More

Researchers spend a large part of their time wading through a sea of literature, sifting out the relevant from the irrelevant.  R Discovery  is a free literature discovery app and is a great platform that lets you identify the most relevant academic research papers from top journals and publishers. This reading app for research papers covers all major disciplines in the arts and sciences.

R Discovery offers customized research reading, that is, once you set up your areas of interest, the app for research papers finds the top 3 reads and presents them in the form of a daily feed for you. Powered by AI, it learns your reading interests and finds matching relevant papers. It even provides on-the-go updates on recently published articles through notifications and email alerts making it one of the best apps for researchers. R Discovery offers a weekly roundup of the 5 latest articles and summaries of research articles from trending topics. With this intuitive app for research papers, you need not worry about a crucial article slipping through the cracks when you weren’t looking!

When you feed in key terms, the app “deep-dives” into the topics and offers articles, which you can sort by recency or relevance. It even helps you look for similar papers and bookmark important research papers. Mobile and web integration lets you read your bookmarked articles on the  R Discovery  website. What’s more, to customize your feed, you can even import your reading library from Mendeley and Zotero making this a must have app for researchers.

R Discovery can be considered a literature search and reading app for researchers everywhere that steers you in the right direction during your academic voyage!

• Curates 96+ million research articles, including over 24 million open access articles
• Intuitively provides key highlights, summaries, and roundups of research relevant to one’s field
• Integration with reference managers enables the R Discovery app for researchers to make better recommendations.

• Mendeley: Handle reference lists without getting bogged down

The thought of sorting and drawing up a reference list and formatting the in-text citations and references can make the most seasoned scholars break out into a sweat. However, useful apps for researchers like  Mendeley  take the load off these painstaking tasks and offer much more. Mendeley is a free reference management app that automatically generates bibliographies as you write. You don’t need to manually type references; Mendeley imports and organizes them in a systematic manner. The app for researchers allows you to insert citations and create reference lists in different journal formats rapidly and seamlessly. These features free up lot of time, which can be used to focus on paper or thesis writing.

Mendeley is available in both mobile and desktop formats, and researchers can conveniently read content on the go and even highlight text that they might want to return to. Researchers can export papers from the R Discovery app to Mendeley and Zotero. Once exported, they can find these papers in their libraries on ref managers. They can also connect their Mendeley and Zotero accounts with R Discovery (when they are setting up preferences on R Discovery). This will allow for this smart app for researchers to suggest topics based on the Mendeley or Zotero reading list.

• Helps annotate and organize documents
• Can be used across platforms seamlessly
• Integrates with literature discovery apps for researchers like R Discovery.
• Calm: Prevent burnout and focus on self-care

Researchers work for long hours, juggling multiple research tasks, securing funding, and dealing with stressors like dealing with harsh peer reviewer comments and article rejection. These factors can add up and affect a researcher’s mental well-being and motivation. Some  indicators can point to one’s need to focus on self-care , such as altered sleep patterns. A stressed researcher will constantly feel tired and be less efficient at work.

Calm  is a popular app for researchers looking to help reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep quality, and aid in relaxation and self-improvement. The app provides sessions for guided meditation and breathing and masterclasses for managing stress, enhancing creativity, and much more. The use of such apps can even improve concentration and mindfulness. This is a great app for researchers to use to remain calm in the face of high work pressure, roadblocks in your experiments, and creative blocks when writing papers. A few minutes a day on such an app can help you break negative patterns. After all, a happy researcher is a productive researcher!

• Tracks a user’s basic statistics, e.g., minutes of meditation
• Sends meditation reminders
• Offers masterclasses taught by experts in the field of wellness.

Don’t worry, be “appy”!

Technological innovations like AI are constantly improving apps in terms of functions and user experience. While some apps for researchers help to ease the workload or aid in multitasking, others help in self-improvement and time management to let researchers focus better on core tasks. When possible, one should use some of these best apps for researchers to become savvier and more efficient, getting the most out of their time and effort.

R Discovery is a literature search and research reading platform that accelerates your research discovery journey by keeping you updated on the latest, most relevant scholarly content. With 250M+ research articles sourced from trusted aggregators like CrossRef, Unpaywall, PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Alex and top publishing houses like Springer Nature, JAMA, IOP, Taylor & Francis, NEJM, BMJ, Karger, SAGE, Emerald Publishing and more, R Discovery puts a world of research at your fingertips.  

Try R Discovery Prime FREE for 1 week or upgrade at just US$72 a year to access premium features that let you listen to research on the go, read in your language, collaborate with peers, auto sync with reference managers, and much more. Choose a simpler, smarter way to find and read research – Download the app and start your free 7-day trial today !  

Related Posts

Literature Mapping in Research: Definition, Types, and Benefits

How to get a PhD in Computer Science? 

Your path to academic success

Improve your paper with our award-winning Proofreading Services ,  Plagiarism Checker , Citation Generator , AI Detector & Knowledge Base .

Proofreading & Editing

Get expert help from Scribbr’s academic editors, who will proofread and edit your essay, paper, or dissertation to perfection.

Plagiarism Checker

Detect and resolve unintentional plagiarism with the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker, so you can submit your paper with confidence.

Citation Generator

Generate accurate citations with Scribbr’s free citation generator and save hours of repetitive work.

Happy to help you

You’re not alone. Together with our team and highly qualified editors , we help you answer all your questions about academic writing.

Open 24/7 – 365 days a year. Always available to help you.

Very satisfied students

This is our reason for working. We want to make  all students  happy, every day.

Everything you need to write an A-grade paper

Free resources used by 5,000,000 students every month.

Bite-sized videos that guide you through the writing process. Get the popcorn, sit back, and learn!

Lecture slides

Ready-made slides for teachers and professors that want to kickstart their lectures.

• Academic writing
• Citing sources
• Methodology
• Research process
• Dissertation structure
• Language rules

Accessible how-to guides full of examples that help you write a flawless essay, proposal, or dissertation.

Chrome extension

Cite any page or article with a single click right from your browser.

Time-saving templates that you can download and edit in Word or Google Docs.

Help you achieve your academic goals

Whether we’re proofreading and editing , checking for plagiarism or AI content , generating citations, or writing useful Knowledge Base articles , our aim is to support students on their journey to become better academic writers.

We believe that every student should have the right tools for academic success. Free tools like a paraphrasing tool , grammar checker, summarizer and an  AI Proofreader . We pave the way to your academic degree.

Ask our team

Want to contact us directly? No problem.  We  are always here for you.

• Email [email protected]
• Start live chat
• Call +1 (510) 822-8066
• WhatsApp +31 20 261 6040

Frequently asked questions

Our team helps students graduate by offering:

• A world-class citation generator
• Plagiarism Checker software powered by Turnitin
• Innovative Citation Checker software
• Professional proofreading services
• Over 300 helpful articles about academic writing, citing sources, plagiarism, and more

Scribbr specializes in editing study-related documents . We proofread:

• PhD dissertations
• Research proposals
• Personal statements
• Admission essays
• Motivation letters
• Reflection papers
• Journal articles
• Capstone projects

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker is powered by elements of Turnitin’s Similarity Checker , namely the plagiarism detection software and the Internet Archive and Premium Scholarly Publications content databases .

The add-on AI detector is powered by Scribbr’s proprietary software.

The Scribbr Citation Generator is developed using the open-source Citation Style Language (CSL) project and Frank Bennett’s citeproc-js . It’s the same technology used by dozens of other popular citation tools, including Mendeley and Zotero.

You can find all the citation styles and locales used in the Scribbr Citation Generator in our publicly accessible repository on Github .

• Link to facebook
• Link to linkedin
• Link to twitter
• Link to youtube
• Writing Tips

10 Free Research and Journal Databases

• 3-minute read
• 6th April 2019

Finding good research can be tough, especially when so much of it is locked behind paywalls . But there are free resources out there if you know where to look. So to help out, we’ve compiled a list of ten free academic search engines and databases that you should check out.

1. Google Scholar

Even if you’ve not used Google Scholar before, you’ll know Google. And, thus, you can probably guess that Google Scholar is a search engine dedicated to academic work. Not everything listed on Google Scholar will be freely available in full. But it is a good place to start if you’re looking for a specific paper, and many papers can be downloaded for free.

CORE is an open research aggregator. This means it works as a search engine for open access research published by organizations from around the world, all of which is available for free. It is also the world’s largest open access aggregator , so it is a very useful resource for researchers!

3. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)

Another dedicated academic search engine, BASE offers access to more than 140 million documents from more than 6,000 sources. Around 60% of these documents are open access, and you can filter results to see only research that is available for free online.

4. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database that lists around 12,000 open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social science, and the humanities.

PubMed is a search engine maintained by the NCBI, part of the United States National Library of Medicine. It provides access to more than 29 million citations of biomedical research from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. The NCBI runs a similar search engine for research in the chemical sciences called PubChem , too, which is also free to use.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

6. E-Theses Online Service (EThOS)

Run by the British Library, EThOS is a database of over 500,000 doctoral theses. More than half of these are available for free, either directly via EThOS or via a link to a university website.

7. Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

SSRN is a database for research from the social sciences and humanities, including 846,589 research papers from 426,107 researchers across 30 disciplines. Most of these are available for free, although you may need to sign up as a member (also free) to access some services.

8. WorldWideScience

WorldWideScience is a global academic search engine, providing access to national and international scientific databases from across the globe. One interesting feature is that it offers automatic translation, so users can have search results translated into their preferred language.

9. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an “intelligent” academic search engine. It uses machine learning to prioritize the most important research, which can make it easier to find relevant literature. Or, in Semantic Scholar’s own words, it uses influential citations, images, and key phrases to “cut through the clutter.”

10. Public Library of Science (PLOS)

PLOS is an open-access research organization that publishes several journals. But as well as publishing its own research, PLOS is a dedicated advocate for open-access learning. So if you appreciate the search engines and databases we’ve listed here, check out the rest of the PLOS site to find out more about their campaign to enable access to knowledge.

Share this article:

Post A New Comment

Got content that needs a quick turnaround? Let us polish your work. Explore our editorial business services.

5-minute read

Free Email Newsletter Template

Promoting a brand means sharing valuable insights to connect more deeply with your audience, and...

6-minute read

How to Write a Nonprofit Grant Proposal

If you’re seeking funding to support your charitable endeavors as a nonprofit organization, you’ll need...

9-minute read

How to Use Infographics to Boost Your Presentation

Is your content getting noticed? Capturing and maintaining an audience’s attention is a challenge when...

8-minute read

Why Interactive PDFs Are Better for Engagement

Are you looking to enhance engagement and captivate your audience through your professional documents? Interactive...

7-minute read

Seven Key Strategies for Voice Search Optimization

Voice search optimization is rapidly shaping the digital landscape, requiring content professionals to adapt their...

4-minute read

Five Creative Ways to Showcase Your Digital Portfolio

Are you a creative freelancer looking to make a lasting impression on potential clients or...

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing.

Something went wrong when searching for seed articles. Please try again soon.

No articles were found for that search term.

Author, year The title of the article goes here

LITERATURE REVIEW SOFTWARE FOR BETTER RESEARCH

“Litmaps is a game changer for finding novel literature... it has been invaluable for my productivity.... I also got my PhD student to use it and they also found it invaluable, finding several gaps they missed”

Varun Venkatesh

Austin Health, Australia

As a full-time researcher, Litmaps has become an indispensable tool in my arsenal. The Seed Maps and Discover features of Litmaps have transformed my literature review process, streamlining the identification of key citations while revealing previously overlooked relevant literature, ensuring no crucial connection goes unnoticed. A true game-changer indeed!

Ritwik Pandey

Doctoral Research Scholar – Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning

Using Litmaps for my research papers has significantly improved my workflow. Typically, I start with a single paper related to my topic. Whenever I find an interesting work, I add it to my search. From there, I can quickly cover my entire Related Work section.

David Fischer

Research Associate – University of Applied Sciences Kempten

“It's nice to get a quick overview of related literature. Really easy to use, and it helps getting on top of the often complicated structures of referencing”

Christoph Ludwig

Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

“This has helped me so much in researching the literature. Currently, I am beginning to investigate new fields and this has helped me hugely”

Aran Warren

Canterbury University, NZ

“I can’t live without you anymore! I also recommend you to my students.”

Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

“Seeing my literature list as a network enhances my thinking process!”

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

“Incredibly useful tool to get to know more literature, and to gain insight in existing research”

KU Leuven, Belgium

“As a student just venturing into the world of lit reviews, this is a tool that is outstanding and helping me find deeper results for my work.”

Franklin Jeffers

South Oregon University, USA

“Any researcher could use it! The paper recommendations are great for anyone and everyone”

Swansea University, Wales

“This tool really helped me to create good bibtex references for my research papers”

Ali Mohammed-Djafari

Director of Research at LSS-CNRS, France

“Litmaps is extremely helpful with my research. It helps me organize each one of my projects and see how they relate to each other, as well as to keep up to date on publications done in my field”

Daniel Fuller

Clarkson University, USA

As a person who is an early researcher and identifies as dyslexic, I can say that having research articles laid out in the date vs cite graph format is much more approachable than looking at a standard database interface. I feel that the maps Litmaps offers lower the barrier of entry for researchers by giving them the connections between articles spaced out visually. This helps me orientate where a paper is in the history of a field. Thus, new researchers can look at one of Litmap's "seed maps" and have the same information as hours of digging through a database.

Baylor Fain

Postdoctoral Associate – University of Florida

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations

Thursday, April 18, 8:20am (EDT): Searching is temporarily offline. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to bring searching back up as quickly as possible.

Advanced research and scholarship. Theses and dissertations, free to find, free to use.

Advanced search options

Browse by author name (“Author name starts with…”).

Find ETDs with:

Written in any language English Portuguese French German Spanish Swedish Lithuanian Dutch Italian Chinese Finnish Greek Published in any country US or Canada Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile China Colombia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Peru Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand UK US Earliest date Latest date

Sorted by Relevance Author University Date

Only ETDs with Creative Commons licenses

Results per page: 30 60 100

October 3, 2022. OATD is dealing with a number of misbehaved crawlers and robots, and is currently taking some steps to minimize their impact on the system. This may require you to click through some security screen. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

Recent Additions

See all of this week’s new additions.

About OATD.org

OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions . OATD currently indexes 7,246,159 theses and dissertations.

About OATD (our FAQ) .

Visual OATD.org

We’re happy to present several data visualizations to give an overall sense of the OATD.org collection by county of publication, language, and field of study.

You may also want to consult these sites to search for other theses:

• Google Scholar
• NDLTD , the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. NDLTD provides information and a search engine for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), whether they are open access or not.
• Proquest Theses and Dissertations (PQDT), a database of dissertations and theses, whether they were published electronically or in print, and mostly available for purchase. Access to PQDT may be limited; consult your local library for access information.

Best AI Tools for Writing Research Papers

AI writing tools for research can help you overcome (to a large extent) the grunt work of research writing.

Fredrick Eghosa

Oct 1, 2024

Table of Contents

1. Researching with AI tools

Research rabbit, 2. organizing your research paper with ai, 3. drafting: writing the first draft of your research paper with ai, perplexity ai, elicit: ai-assisted research drafting, 4. editing and paraphrasing with ai, hemingway editor, 5. citing: managing references and avoiding plagiarism.

• 6. Final Check: Proofreading and Polishing Your Research Paper With AI

7. Co-writer for an All-in-One Research Tool for Seamless Flow

1. research organization: it brings order to chaos, 2. structuring your paper: from outline to full draft, 3. writing assistance: from blank page to well-written draft, 4. citation and bibliography management: no more citation headaches, 5. editing and proofreading your work to perfection, why cowriter ai is perfect for researchers.

6. Final Check: Proofreading and Polishing Your Research Paper With A I

Join other 100,000+ writers now!

Ready to take the next big step for your writing?

AI Content Expert

Related posts

Aug 13, 2024

How to Write a Debate Essay

To write a compelling debate essay, you have to master the art of persuasion. Start by choosing a strong topic, researching your topic to frame it perfectly, understanding the opposing side well to come up with firm counterarguments, and incorporating persuasive techniques to make your case even more convincing.

Sep 20, 2024

The Best AI for Creative Writing

There is no denying the impact of Artificial intelligence (AI) in today’s creative writing world.This technology is quickly becoming a disruptive force.AI in creative writing has come to stay; it’s being used by everyone from students drafting essays to professional authors generating ideas for their next novel.

Aug 22, 2024

How to Write a Discursive Essay + Downloadable PDF

Writing a discursive essay means exploring multiple perspectives on the given topic. Typically, you should aim to create tension between two or more prominent viewpoints.

Sep 25, 2024

Stealth GPT Review: Best Alternatives

AI writing tools have led to twin software promising to humanize AI-written content. They have become sort of complementary tools and understandably so.This StealthGPT AI review dives deep into how the tool works, its tricks to bypass AI detection, and its trade-offs.

Sep 13, 2024

Kipper AI Review and Best Free Alternatives

Seeking a Kipper AI review is a testament to the fact that AI writing assistants have come to stay. So, if you are still struggling with school essays, research, and even content creation, you are sleeping on one of the most powerful human aids for writers and students alike.

Sep 26, 2024

Best Undetectable AI Essay Writer

Finding the best undetectable AI for essay writing can be difficult. It doesn’t help that there is an influx of these AI writing tools all making the same claims.

Still have questions? Leave a comment

Add Comment

Checklist: Dissertation Proposal

Enter your email id to get the downloadable right in your inbox!

Examples: Edited Papers

Need editing and proofreading services, top 10 ai tools for research in 2024 (fast & efficient).

• Tags: Academic Research , Artificial Intelligence , Research

Explore all essential features of the top AI tools for research! From data analysis to literature reviews, these tools are empowering researchers worldwide. They not only save time but also help to identify interconnections between different research papers. 

Whether you need past or recent research or help with citations, we’ve got you covered. Along with paid, we’ve also included the best free AI tools. To select the best tool, you can compare the features of all the listed tools. 

Let’s explore these tools in detail!

Polish your research paper with professional editing! Learn more

1. Semantic Scholar 

This free tool can be used to find papers from various science fields like biology, physics, earth sciences, zoology, etc. The following are its essential features: 

• Various filters such as date range, author, top journals and conferences, and fields of study for organized research 
• A “Sort by Relevance” option using which you can select from the most influential papers, recent papers, or as per citation count
• Easy access to related papers and any tables in the research paper 
• Options to choose between highly influential citations , background citations, methods citations, results citations
• Enables users to view the number of times the paper has been cited
• A feature to save the chosen research reference 

Price: This tool is free to use! 

2. Research Rabbit 

One of the free AI tools for research, this tool easily finds connections between authors who have conducted research. This helps researchers find new authors who have conducted research in a field. 

Some of Research Rabbit’s features are: 

• Identifying emerging research trends 
• Features for collaborating and sharing research with colleagues 
• An option for Integrating  with Zotero for organizing and managing citations 
• Giving personalized recommendations for research/news articles 
• An option for adding and saving key research articles 
• Helps in creating and exporting .bib, and .ris files along with providing easy access to research abstracts and full texts

Price: This tool is free to use. 

3. Dimensions.AI 

One of the free AI tools for research, Dimensions.AI provides access to millions of research papers. Following are some of its features: 

• Various filters like publication year, researcher, source title, publisher, publication type, and journals list for organized research 
• Heatmaps to visualize research data 
• An option to save and export research
• Access impact metrics depending on Citations data/ Altmetric Attention Score 
• Features like ORCiD record management, ReadCube Papers integration, and BibTeX/Ris exports
• Export/import any data for research 

4. Scite.ai 

Scite.ai tells users whether any research supports or disproves any evidence about a particular research claim. This makes it easier for researchers to find related academic research. 

Some of Scite.ai’s other essential features are: 

• Allows users to create a custom dashboard of articles based on their interests
• Analyzes if the references used were cited correctly 
• Discover already-built dashboards and find top authors related to your field
• Helps to compare yearly index rankings in various subject areas
• An option to determine the search strategy and input specific keywords to conduct a relevant, narrow research
• A feature to cite the research in APA , MLA , Chicago , Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, and BibTex formats 

Price: The cost of this tool starts from $12 per month. 

5. Connected Papers 

This tool enables researchers to explore related papers using a visual graph. By clicking on any of the dots on the visual graph, you can see the related paper. 

Some other exciting features of this tool are: 

• An option to search the paper by inputting keywords or DOI
• A feature to open the research paper using Semantic Scholar, Publisher page, or Google Scholar
• Allows you to view the entire list of related papers and download that list
• A “Prior works” option that shows the most commonly cited papers
• Additional filters for an enhanced search like “PDF available”, “Open access”, “Code available”, and “year” 
• An option to download and share the visual graph 

Price: This tool also has both free and paid versions. The cost of the premium version starts from $6 per month. 

6. Elicit 

Elicit has a database of more than 1 million research papers. You can use Elicit to summarize research paper findings. 

The best features of this AI tool for research are: 

• Get information from tables in research papers (findings) 
• Export any results to RIS, CSV, and Bib formats
• View the DOI for citing the research paper
• Get lists of themes and concepts related to your topic 
• Easily access the abstract summary for reference 
• Add columns like “Main Findings”, “Intervention”, “Outcome measured”, and “Intervention Effect” to organize the search better 

Price: This tool has both free and paid versions. The paid version costs $10 per month. 

7. Consensus 

Consensus is an academic search engine with more than 1 million research papers useful for in-depth research. 

The tool provides the following benefits: 

• A brief snapshot of the research paper’s main components (population, sample size, methods, and outcome) 
• An option to easily cite the research in various formats (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and BibTex) 
• Allows you to copy, save, and share any research 
• A filter to select the year for research conducted 
• Explains complex research terms for a better understanding
• Gives options of the following research methods: 1) Journals 2) Domains (e.g. Art, biology, business, chemistry, etc) 

Price: Consensus has both free and paid versions. The paid version costs $8.99 per month. 

An abstract and citation database, Scopus consists of more than 80 million research papers and academic books. Some of its features are: 

• Advanced filters for searching like “Author name”, “Year, “Open Access”, “Subject Area”, “Document Type”, “Publication Stage”, “Source Title”, and Keyword 
• Options to save searches, export preferences 
• A feature to view ratings and metrics of journals, articles, and authors for subscribers 
• Concept maps to view the relationship between different variables in a research 
• Detailed information about citation trends (when and where an article/paper was cited) 
• An option to create and update your author profile 

Price: The pricing isn’t mentioned on the website. However, you can create an account for free to view its services. 

9. Litmaps 

Using Litmaps, you can get the top shared citations and references related to the chosen topic. After you select any research article, this tool generates a litmap providing details about interconnected papers and authors who have written about the same topic. A litmap is a visual representation of papers that are interconnected with each other. 

Some of this tool’s other important benefits are: 

• Allows you to filter results by date and auto-detected keywords 
• An option “More like this” to get similar academic articles 
• Get email alerts whenever any new research article related to your topic is added to Litmaps 
• Option to tag any paper to add it to the litmap 
• After tagging, selecting the option “Update my results” gives more relevant research related to the topic 
• Easily share research with others

Price: Litmaps has both, a free and a paid version. The paid version cost starts from $10 per month. 

10. OpenRead 

OpenRead consists of a vast repository of research articles related to psychology, medicine, and other fields. 

The following are its features: 

• An option to chat with OpenRead and get the latest information about the topic
• A feature to save chats for future reference 
• Can explain difficult concepts in a simple manner (Using the tool Oat) 
• Enables users to organize any relevant notes to track research easily 
• Provides a brief overview of the research’s publication date, authors, and the journal where it was published 
• An option to share the paper on social media and access a global directory of web pages (allowing users to select any location for research purposes) 

Price: This tool has both a free and a paid version. The paid version cost starts from $5 per month. 

This concludes our guide about the top 10 AI tools for research! You can compare these best AI tools for research papers and select one! 

Once you complete your research paper, the next step will be to edit it. As experts in editing and proofreading services , we’d love to help you perfect your paper. 

You can bookmark this article about AI tools for academic research for future reference. 

What are your thoughts about these best AI tools for academic research? Which tool do you prefer the most? Share your thoughts in the comments section! 

Here are some other useful resources for you: 

• 2024’s Top 10 Thesis Statement Generators (Free Included!)
• How to Write a Strong Dissertation & Thesis Introduction
• Structure of an Essay: 5 Tips to Write an Outstanding Essay
• The 10 Best Citation Generators in 2024 | Free & Paid Plans!
• 10 Best Free Plagiarism Checkers of 2024 [100% Free Tools]

Frequently Asked Questions

How can ai be used as a research tool, how can ai assist in data collection and analysis for research, how can ai be used to improve the quality of research data.

Found this article helpful?

Leave a Comment: Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Your vs. You’re: When to Use Your and You’re

Your organization needs a technical editor: here’s why, your guide to the best ebook readers in 2024, writing for the web: 7 expert tips for web content writing.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get carefully curated resources about writing, editing, and publishing in the comfort of your inbox.

How to Copyright Your Book?

If you’ve thought about copyrighting your book, you’re on the right path.

© 2024 All rights reserved

• Terms of service
• Privacy policy
• Self Publishing Guide
• Pre-Publishing Steps
• Fiction Writing Tips
• Traditional Publishing
• Additional Resources
• Dissertation Writing Guide
• Essay Writing Guide
• Academic Writing and Publishing
• Citation and Referencing
• Partner with us
• Annual report
• Website content
• Marketing material
• Job Applicant
• Cover letter
• Resource Center
• Case studies

• Research Gap Strategies & Tools
• Effortless AI
• Effortless Note Taking
• Effortless Literature Review
• Effortless Knowledge Management
• Free 8-day note-taking course

Litmaps vs ResearchRabbit vs Connected Papers – The best Literature Review Tool in 2025

• by Ilya Shabanov
• September 29, 2024 September 29, 2024
• AI , literature review , tool-review

A question I always get is why do I not use “Tool X instead Y” or “have you heard of X”. I have tried almost every available tool and chose to work with only a select few. In this article I want to compare in detail what is the best tool to discover new literature. Everybody uses Google’s keyword based search, but keywords can’t help you if you don’t know what exactly you are looking for. As a new comer to a field and not knowing the jargon Google will give poor results. Luckily there are a number of modern tools: Litmaps, Research Rabbit, Connected Papers. In this article we are going to determine which one is the best.

Join the Effortless Newsletter. Receive free tips on note-taking, literature review, AI tools, and other productivity topics specifically tailored for academics and students.

There are currently two types of tools on the market:

• Citation-based literature search tools (Litmaps, Connected Papers and Research Rabbit). These use the references between the papers to discover new literature. For example, if 10 papers in your collection all reference the same paper that is not in your collection, these tools would suggest that.
• Semantics-based literature search tools ( Consensus , SciSpace , Elicit). These tools use an AI model like ChatGPT to analyze the abstracts of papers (and sometimes even the full-text if it is open-access) and can find papers using a plain text query.

Despite the AI progress, citation-based tools still most often better, more reliable results. The reason for this is that they rely on human knowledge (i.e. the citations and references between papers that humans put there). Semantic search, however, is useful when you are very early in your research or just want to quickly answer a question in a scientific way (e.g. researching the newest findings on supplements as a layperson). I did not include Google’s keyword-based search (and databases like Pubmed) on this list as most users are familiar with and comfortable with these tools.

If you want to learn how to use both types of tools inside a proven and trusted literature review workflow, join my upcoming webinar on lit reviews:

AI Literature Review Webinar • Oct 26th

► Use  the newest generation of AI tools  to find relevant papers and research questions. ►  Avoid days of reading  by focusing on the most impactful papers with semantic search. ► Use AI to  build high-level understanding  before even reading a single paper. ►  Synthesize your findings effortlessly  with digital notes and mind-mapping.

Over 1000 academics joined the previous Literature Review Webinars.

Citation Based Tools: Litmaps, Research Rabbit, Connected Papers

Citation based tools use the reference or citation network to discover new literature. Usually they do not use AI (even though the latest Litmaps update offers a semantic search as well). The problem here is that co-cited papers might be irrelevant. For example almost every ecological paper uses the R programming language and references a particular paper. This reference is irrelevant, if you are looking for papers on an ecological problem but it will usually show up as highly relevant by the tools.

Let’s get started comparing these tools

Litmaps vs Research Rabbit

Both show papers as graphs connecting papers that cite each other. Unlike ResearchRabbit, the positions on Litmaps are not random; the axes correspond to the publication date and citation count, respectively. This pushes relevant papers to the top right of the graph (i.e. recent, and with many citations). Moreover, ResearchRabbit can be overwhelming since it finds 1000s of papers while Litmaps gives you the most relevant ones 10 at a time.

I find Litmaps, by far one of the best designed and thought out tools out there. The team seems dedicated to improving the usability for new users. Even as someone who used ResearchRabbit in the past I sometimes struggle to find the right button to do what I want. But ResearchRabbit is free, while Litmaps is subscription-based. If you don’t want to pay for a premium tool it is a good alternative.

The best thing about Research Rabbit

ResearchRabbit finds a lot of papers (1000s), and it does so surprisingly fast. It does prioritize them in a list as well. If you want to exhaustively look through literature and quickly grasp the importance of a paper from its title and a glance at the abstract, ResearchRabbit will serve you well. This comes at the cost of a slightly messy and overwhelming interface.

ResearchRabbit allows you to share collections, even with users without an account, and syncs your work back to Zotero, which is very useful when Zotero is your primary reference manager. But, one of the most important features is the search for authors, this allows you to explore a field in more depth, by following its most important scholars.

As with the paper search ResearchRabbit suggests too many authors to be truly useful. In the example above 893 authors are suggested, sorting through them might be overwhelming.

The best thing about Litmaps

Litmaps displays papers in a unique graph that allows one to find relevant literature more easily and more intuitively. Unlike ResearchRabbit, which shows you thousands of papers, Litmaps will show you only the most relevant ones in batches of 10 and displays them graphically (see infographic). At the top are papers with many citations; to the right are recent ones. This allows you to see immediately impactful papers as they naturally gather at the top right.

Litmaps has a few special features like the “Monitor”. Given a collection of papers the Monitor will notify you when new papers become available that are highly relevant to this collection. Additionally collections of papers (or Lit-Maps) can be shared and offer a way to visualize research. In recent months, Litmaps added a “semantic search” feature which can find papers through their abstract similarity (as computed by AI). So far, however, I found it a bit too slow and the results rarely relevant to be useful beyond what Litmaps already does with its search.

One very promising feature is called Co-Authorship search. Here Litmaps will find papers that are co-authored by authors in your collection. As following an author is one of the best ways to discover relevant literature, this method produces good results. Notice the difference to ResearchRabbit that provides 100s of authors, while Litmaps focuses on relevant co-authors and takes away the work of sorting through dozens of names and descriptions.

You can track down the authors that are important in your field and follow them on Google Scholar.

Litmaps vs ResearchRabbit Summary

In my opinion, Litmaps is the winner because of its graphical layout feature; once you understand how it works, you ask yourself, “Why doesn’t everyone do it this way”? Good, mature tools should give you a feeling of pleasure when working with them and this is exactly what Litmaps provides. However, ResearchRabbit is free and provides excellent value at the expense of usability and some extra time. Every PI should provide a budget for tools for their labs as it helps everyone (including them), and Litmaps should be one of these tools.

ResearchRabbit vs Connected Papers

Both tools show papers in an unordered graph, where connections represent citations and allow you to discover new literature. However, ResearchRabbit uses a collection of papers as a starting point, while ConnectedPapers uses only one paper. This makes the discovery process somewhat less directed. On the other hand, ConnectedPapers has a slightly better user interface, making it easier to use.

The Best Thing About Connected Papers

Connected Papers is very fast and has a simple user interface that is much easier to grasp than any other tool. It can instantly switch between the (default) graph view and a list view, allowing you to sort the results by year, citations, references or similarity to the original paper. This allows you to use the 3-cut-technique to identify the most important papers.

Additionally, you can filter out papers that you might not have access to by selecting only “Open Access” papers. The year filter nicely visualizes the amount of papers published in each year and allows you to get an idea of how popular a research field is.

ResearchRabbit vs Connected Papers Summary

The key difference is that ResearchRabbit allows you to use a collection of paper as a source for discovery, while ConnectedPapers accepts only one, limiting your ability for discovery. ResearchRabbit has more features (e.g. Zotero connection and the ability to store paper collections inside the app), is free, but otherwise produces very similar results to ConnectedPapers. ConnectedPapers, on the other hand, has a few usability fixes that make it easier to use. ResearchRabbit is a clear winner, unless you don’t need to go very deep, and the better user interface outweighs the limitations of ConnectedPapers (and its price).

Winner: Litmaps vs ResearchRabbit vs Connected Papers

Litmaps is the winner of discovery apps due to its 2D citation-recency layout of papers, usability and clarity. It has the best usability, guides you through discovery with an intuitive graphical layout, connects well with Zotero, does not overwhelm with 1000s of related papers, and offers additional features like monitoring of your fields and co-authorship search. However if you are not willing to invest 10$/mo, use ResearchRabbit , it is a mature, fast tool that will boost your literature discovery.

Alternative to Litmaps

Litmaps uses the citation network to search for literature, an AI based alternative is called semantic search. Semantics-based literature search tools are Consensus , SciSpace , Elicit. These tools use an AI model like ChatGPT to analyze the abstracts of papers (and sometimes even the full-text if it is open-access) and can find papers using a plain text query.

The problem with semantic AI search is that seemingly similar papers might not be very related. For example ecological literature on plants is often very separated from literature on animals even if they are concerned with the same problem. A tool not mentioned in this comparison is SciSummary, that I recently reviewed as it currently outsources its’s semantic search and is not focusing on it.

If your research is very broad and prone to citation islands (i.e. disconnected sub-fields) semantic search can help discover papers more easily.

As with most things out there, you will get a better solution if you invest a bit of money. In my opinion students and postdocs should not pay for these tools, their labs and grants should, as the result is better research at a negligeble cost. However even without paying the benefit of using the tool vs not using it is massive and can save you hours of your time.

Get comfortable with any of these tools and rather than thinking about which one is best, ask yourself: Which one can I use the best. This strategy will often beat any advantage that a particular tool gives you. This is why I have creteated the Effortless Literature Review Webinar series , visited by 1000s of academics. You can join the 4th webinar in the series to learn everything about using these tools together in a coherent and powerful workflow.

News & Media

• Publications
• Media releases
• Calendar & events
• Announcements
• Experts directory
• Unisa Press

Unisa Gauteng Region Counselling Unit wins best conceptual paper at 44th SAACDHE Conference

At the 44th Southern African Association for Counselling and Development in Higher Education (SAACDHE) Conference, the Unisa Gauteng Region Counselling Unit secured the Best Conceptual Paper award for their paper: "The perceptions and attitudes of students on the intersectionality of languages in higher education". The team, consisting of Kgomotso Nyamakazi, Administrative Officer (Ekurhuleni Counselling Unit), Diksha Lala, Administrative Officer (Sunnyside Counselling Unit), Gloria Sephula, Administrative Officer (Florida Counselling Unit) and Mampe Phora, UCDP Project Administrator (College of Education) were mentored by Dr Bunki Pitsoane, Head of Counselling (Unisa Gauteng Region) and Dr Tonny Matjila, Research Training and Development Officer (College of Graduate Studies).

Gloria Sephula, Administrative Officer (Florida Counselling Unit); Kgomotso Nyamakazi, Administrative Officer (Ekurhuleni Counselling Unit); Bunki Pitsoane, Head Counselling (Gauteng Region); and Diksha Lala, Administrative Officer (Sunnyside Counselling Unit).

Their study explores students' attitudes toward language use in higher education, focusing on English as a dominant language, the inclusion of indigenous languages and the role of multilingualism. They also highlight challenges such as comprehension and engagement with academic content. They propose a more inclusive approach to higher education language policy that better reflects South Africa's diverse linguistic landscape.

Mampe Phora, UCDP Project Administrator (College of Education)

The SAACDHE Conference, themed "Riding the wave", attracted professionals from across Southern Africa to discuss evolving student support services, including mental health services. The Unisa team's research emphasised the importance of embracing language diversity to enhance student well-being and academic performance. Moipone Masalesa, Regional Director of the Unisa Gauteng Region, praised the team for their achievement: "This award is a testament to the significant contribution the Gauteng Region is making to Unisa's research agenda. I am proud of our young researchers for their dedication." Dr Erin Naude thanked Pitsoane and Matjila for mentoring the team. She said: "Their leadership has cultivated a new generation of researchers, and this award reflects their hard work."

Pitsoane expressed her excitement about the recognition: "This award underscores the importance of mentorship and collaboration. It's a collective achievement, marking a step toward creating a more inclusive educational environment."

The SAACDHE Conference continues to serve as a vital platform for student counselling professionals across Southern Africa to share ideas and best practices. The Unisa Gauteng Region team's award-winning paper contributes to a growing understanding of how language diversity impacts students, further solidifying the region's role in advancing Unisa's research mission. 

* By Thembeka Mpapama, Manager: Communication and Marketing (Unisa Gauteng Region)

Publish date: 2024/09/26