Semantic Scholar
For what?
Semantic Scholar is a free scientific search engine for scientific publications in English. The results are presented in the form of short summaries. They can be filtered by criteria like topic, publication date, relevance, or citations. The tool provides data through internet search and partnerships with scientific publishers. Articles that are not freely accessible are also displayed. While the results list is not complete with regard to all available scholarly works on a topic, the tool is still suitable for an overview.
How?
Enter keywords into the search bar and browse articles. The tool offers filters when searching for articles: research field, date, PDF availability, authors, and journals. By clicking on a publication, additional publications related to the article are displayed below.
Login
Go to Semanticscholarg.org and enter a topic in the search bar. The tool can befor free and without login or registration.
Elicit
For what?
Elicit is an AI tool that analyses articles based on a research question and proposes an answer to the research question using articles. In the first step, Elicit evaluates the research question, provides tips for improving it and suggests relevant literature. To do so, Elicit accesses the Semantic Scholar database as well as other internet sources. Not all sources are freely accessible. The AI-generated summaries and thus the proposed answers to the research question are not always accurate, so users must verify the sources and their content. The tool is very well suited for sharpening research questions and providing an overview of the literature or inspiration.
How?
First, enter a research question into the search field and follow the suggested corrections.
Then click on 'Generate Report'. Depending on how much literature exists on the topic, it may take Elicit a few minutes to gather and extract the relevant results. A list of literature with links to the full publications will then appear, along with the extracted content, a summary and a conclusion. All results can be downloaded.
Login
Go to Elicit.com. Users need an account to use the tool. A free version is available (as of 2025).
ResearchRabbit (researchrabbit.ai)
For what?
ResearchRabbit creates a network of literature based on a collection of publications provided by the user. The visualization shows connections between publications and indicates how, by whom, and how often articles have been cited. This gives users an overview of key publications (important works on a topic) and related articles. The tool is very well suited for contextualizing publications and finding additional literature on a topic.
How?
First, enter relevant keywords into the search bar to find articles on the topic. These articles will then be collected into a collection. Then, one or more articles can be selected and, under 'Explore Papers' or 'Explore People', the type of connection to be displayed can be chosen.
Login
Go to researchrabbitapp.com. Users need an account to use the tool. The tool is free of charge (as of 2025).
Tips
- Elicit works well for formulating a research question, structuring arguments, and finding inspiration when developing a research topic.
- ResearchRabbit is very effective for contextualizing publications and discovering new authors or “related clusters” in the research fields.
- Semantic Scholar often provides relevant abstracts faster than Google Scholar, especially for literature in English.
Examplary workflow:
- Refine the research question with Elicit
- Conduct an initial quick literature search in Semantic Scholar
- Find additional authors and publications in ResearchRabbit