🔎 Elicit
https://elicit.com
Quick, early-stage literature scanning. It saves time with summaries, but I treat it as a mapping tool, not a replacement for reading the originals.
🧭 ResearchRabbit
https://www.researchrabbit.ai
Great for visualizing citation networks and exploring a field’s landscape, but it works best when you already have a seed paper to start from.
📚 Semantic Scholar
https://www.semanticscholar.org
A solid free academic search engine with helpful AI features, though its coverage feels stronger in STEM than in humanities or social sciences.
📊 Scite
https://scite.ai
Very useful for seeing whether a paper is supported or criticized by others, but I still double-check because the classifications aren’t always perfect.
🗺 Connected Papers
https://www.connectedpapers.com
Excellent for quickly understanding a research area from one key paper, though the free version is quite limited.
🕰 Litmaps
https://www.litmaps.com
Helpful for tracking how a field evolves over time, but it takes some effort to learn the interface and set it up well.
🌐 OpenAlex
https://openalex.org/
Great for open, large-scale academic data exploration, though it’s clearly more for researchers than for casual users.
🧠 Consensus
https://consensus.app
Useful for quick, evidence-based answers to research questions, but complex topics often get oversimplified.
🔍 Perplexity
https://www.perplexity.ai
Good for fast fact-finding with sources, but since it mixes web and academic content, I’m cautious about using it for serious research.
🌐 Liner
https://getliner.com
Good for highlighting and source-checking web content, though it’s more for general research than academic literature.
📄 SciSpace
https://www.scispace.com
Very helpful for asking questions directly about a PDF, though I never fully trust it without checking the original text.
🗂 Scholarcy
https://www.scholarcy.com
Great for rapid screening of many papers, but the summaries can feel too surface-level for deeper understanding.
🧾 Explainpaper
https://www.explainpaper.com
Nice for simplifying difficult paragraphs, but it works better for small sections than for understanding a whole paper.
📎 ChatPDF
https://www.chatpdf.com
Useful for quick, interactive reading, but long or complex papers often get oversimplified.
📎 AskYourPDF
https://askyourpdf.com
Good for quick Q&A with PDFs, but it can miss nuances in longer or more technical papers.
📓 NotebookLM
https://notebooklm.google.com
Interesting for working with multiple documents at once, though it still feels more experimental than research-focused.
✍️ Keenious
https://www.keenious.com
Nice for getting references while writing, though I’m cautious about uploading drafts and trusting the recommendations too much.
🗂 Rayyan
https://www.rayyan.ai
Great for managing systematic review screening, but it’s more about workflow than about AI-driven insight.
🧠 Undermind
https://undermind.ai
I like that it explains why papers are related, but it still feels like an emerging tool with limited coverage.