Google Scholar
Free search across scholarly articles, theses, books and court opinions, with "cited by" counts and links to full text where available.
- Free plan or free tier
- Shows sources for its answers
Semantic Scholar
Free academic search engine from the Allen Institute for AI, with one-line paper summaries, citation context and a public API.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
- Shows sources for its answers
Consensus
Search engine that answers research questions from peer-reviewed papers and links each statement to the study it came from.
- Free plan or free tier
- Shows sources for its answers
OpenAlex
Free, open catalog of scholarly works, authors, institutions and journals, with an API used for bibliometrics and research tools.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
CORE
Aggregator of open access research papers from repositories and journals worldwide, with full-text search and an API.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
BASE
Bielefeld Academic Search Engine: a free search across records harvested from thousands of academic repositories.
- Free plan or free tier
PubMed
Free search of the biomedical and life sciences literature from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, with MeSH indexing.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
arXiv
Open preprint server for physics, mathematics, computer science, statistics and related fields, free to read and search.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
Dimensions
Research database linking publications, grants, patents, clinical trials and policy documents, with a free version for searching papers.
- Free plan or free tier
Scopus
Subscription abstract and citation database from Elsevier, usually reached through a university library, with an AI search feature.
Web of Science
Subscription citation index from Clarivate, used for documented searches and citation analysis through institutional access.
Connected Papers
Builds a visual graph of papers related to one starting paper, grouping similar work so you can spot clusters and older foundations.
- Free plan or free tier
Litmaps
Citation maps that grow from seed papers, with monitoring that alerts you when new papers connect to your map.
- Free plan or free tier
scite
Shows how a paper has been cited by later work, including whether citing statements support or contrast with its findings.
- Shows sources for its answers
Open Knowledge Maps
Nonprofit, open source tool that turns a search into a visual map of research areas, built on BASE and PubMed.
- Free plan or free tier
- Open source
Elicit
Research assistant that finds papers for a question, summarizes them and extracts details such as methods and outcomes into a table.
- Free plan or free tier
- Shows sources for its answers
SciSpace
Research workspace that searches papers, explains passages in plain language and extracts findings across many papers.
- Free plan or free tier
- Shows sources for its answers
Scholarcy
Breaks papers into summary flashcards with key findings, references and figures, for reading many articles quickly.
Keenious
Recommends papers that relate to the text you are writing, working inside Word and Google Docs as well as on the web.
- Works in Word or Google Docs
Zotero
Free, open source reference manager that saves sources from the browser, stores PDFs and adds citations in Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice.
- Free plan or free tier
- Open source
- Works in Word or Google Docs
Mendeley
Elsevier's reference manager with a PDF reader, shared groups and the Mendeley Cite add-in for citing in Word.
- Free plan or free tier
- Works in Word or Google Docs
EndNote
Long-running paid reference manager from Clarivate, with Cite While You Write for Word and large library support.
- Works in Word or Google Docs
Paperpile
Web-based reference manager built around Google Docs and Google Drive, with citation support for Word as well.
- Works in Word or Google Docs
Citavi
Reference manager that combines citation management with knowledge organization and task planning, with a Word add-in.
- Works in Word or Google Docs
JabRef
Free, open source reference manager that works directly with BibTeX and BibLaTeX files, used by many LaTeX writers.
- Free plan or free tier
- Open source
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe's PDF app, with an AI Assistant that summarizes documents and answers questions about them as a paid add-on.
- Mobile app
Readwise Reader
Reading app for articles, PDFs and newsletters, with highlights that sync to notes apps and an AI that answers questions about a document.
- Mobile app
ChatPDF
Upload a PDF and ask questions about it in chat; answers point to the pages they came from.
- Free plan or free tier
- Shows sources for its answers
Hypothesis
Open source tool for annotating web pages and PDFs, privately or in shared groups, often used in reading seminars.
- Free plan or free tier
- Open source
LiquidText
PDF reading app for tablets and computers where you pull excerpts into a workspace and link them across documents.
- Mobile app
MarginNote
Reading app for Apple devices that turns PDF and ebook highlights into outlines, mind maps and flashcards.
- Mobile app
Overleaf
Online LaTeX editor for writing papers and theses together, with journal templates, change tracking and reference imports.
- Free plan or free tier
Grammarly
Writing assistant that checks grammar, clarity and tone in the browser, Word and Google Docs, with optional AI rewriting.
- Free plan or free tier
- Works in Word or Google Docs
Writefull
Language feedback trained on academic papers, available for Word and Overleaf, with tools for titles and abstracts.
- Works in Word or Google Docs
Paperpal
Academic writing assistant for language editing and submission checks, with versions for the web and Word.
- Free plan or free tier
- Works in Word or Google Docs
Trinka
Grammar and style checker focused on academic and technical writing, with consistency checks and a Word add-in.
- Free plan or free tier
- Works in Word or Google Docs
QuillBot
Paraphrasing tool with grammar checking, summarizing and a citation generator; check your institution's rules before paraphrasing with AI.
- Free plan or free tier
LanguageTool
Grammar and style checker for many languages, with browser, Word and Google Docs add-ons and an open source core.
- Free plan or free tier
- Open source
- Works in Word or Google Docs
DeepL Write
Rewording and correction tool from DeepL that suggests clearer phrasing in English and several other languages.
- Free plan or free tier
Julius AI
Chat-based data analysis: upload a spreadsheet or dataset, ask questions and get code, tables and charts back.
- Free plan or free tier
Google Colab
Hosted Python notebooks in the browser with free GPU access on limited terms and a built-in AI coding assistant.
- Free plan or free tier
GitHub Copilot
AI coding assistant for Python, R and other languages inside VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and RStudio; free access exists for verified students.
- Free plan or free tier
RStudio
Open source IDE for R and Python from Posit, which can connect to GitHub Copilot for code suggestions.
- Free plan or free tier
- Open source
MAXQDA
Qualitative and mixed methods analysis software with AI Assist for summarizing documents and suggesting codes.
ATLAS.ti
Qualitative data analysis software with AI coding suggestions for interviews, focus groups and open-ended survey answers.
NVivo
Long-established qualitative analysis software for coding text, audio and video, with AI-assisted autocoding and summaries.
Covidence
Web platform for systematic reviews: import, deduplicate, screen titles and abstracts, review full texts and extract data as a team.
Rayyan
Screening tool for systematic reviews with blind collaboration and ranking that suggests likely includes; a free plan covers small projects.
- Free plan or free tier
- Mobile app
DistillerSR
Enterprise systematic review and literature review software used by research groups, regulators and companies, with configurable workflows.
ASReview
Free, open source active learning software from Utrecht University that orders records so likely relevant studies come up first.
- Free plan or free tier
- Open source
ChatGPT
OpenAI's assistant, used by researchers for reading uploaded papers, writing and checking code, and a deep research mode with cited reports.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
- Shows sources for its answers
Claude
Anthropic's assistant, used for reading long papers and transcripts, comparing documents and writing analysis code.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
- Shows sources for its answers
Gemini
Google's assistant, connected to Google Docs and Drive when you allow it, with a deep research mode for cited reports.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
- Mobile app
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft's assistant for chat and web answers; university Microsoft 365 accounts may include a version with data protection.
- Free plan or free tier
- Mobile app
Perplexity
AI search engine that answers with numbered citations, with a focus option for academic sources.
- Free plan or free tier
- Developer API
- Shows sources for its answers
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