good search engines for research papers

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 (short for educational resources information center) is a great academic search engine that focuses on education-related literature. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and produced by the Institute of Education Sciences. 

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 is a “computational knowledge engine” that can answer factual questions posed in natural language. It can be a useful search tool. 

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 🙂

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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!

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Top 10 Best Academic Search Engines for Scholarly Articles in 2024

Jc Chaithanya

14 min read

Best Search Engines to Search for Scientific Papers at a Glance 

Top 10 best search engines to search for scientific papers, google scholar key features , google scholar reviews , base key features , base reviews , scispace key features, scispace reviews , core key features , core reviews , scopus key features , scopus reviews, pubmed key features , pubmed reviews , jstor key features , jstor reviews , science.gov key features , science.gov reviews , semantic scholar key features , semantic scholar reviews , baidu scholar key features , baidu scholar reviews , our selection criteria to pick search engines for search for scientific papers, how to choose the best search engine to search for scientific papers, elephas: the research assistant that halves your research time, conclusion , 1. where can i search for scientific papers, 2. how do you search for scientific papers effectively, 3. how to find research papers on google.

Research is the cornerstone of scientific discovery. However, sifting through the vast amount of scholarly literature can feel overwhelming. Fear not, intrepid researchers! Today, we will equip you with the top 10 search engines designed specifically to streamline your search for scientific papers.

We'll delve into the strengths of each platform, helping you identify the perfect tool for your specific research needs. Whether you're seeking a broad overview or a deep dive into a niche topic, our analysis will ensure you learn about the most relevant and reliable search engines to propel your research forward.

To further maximize your research efficiency, we'll also introduce you to Elephas, a powerful AI writing assistant that can revolutionize your research paper writing process. However, we'll save that discussion for later in our article. For now, let's delve into the best search engines to search for scientific papers.

Google Scholar: General search for scholarly literature across various disciplines.

BASE: Free search engine for scholarly articles with summaries and full-text links.

SciSpace: Powerful search engine with AI-powered recommendations for related research.

CORE: User-friendly search engine for open-access scholarly publications.

Scopus: Search engine for high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific publications.

PubMed: Free search engine for biomedical and life sciences literature.

JSTOR: Comprehensive digital library for scholarly articles, ebooks, and primary sources across disciplines.

Science.gov: Free search engine for scientific research from US government agencies.

Semantic Scholar: Uses AI to find relevant research papers and uncover hidden connections.

Baidu Scholar: Search engine for academic literature in Chinese 

1. Google Scholar 

Google Scholar simplifies searching for scholarly literature. It crawls millions of academic publications across various disciplines, including articles, theses, books, and conference papers. Researchers can set up alerts to stay updated on new publications in their field. Google Scholar is like Google Search but specifically designed for academic research.

Massive Database: Search roughly 200 million scholarly articles.

Find Freely Available Papers: Locate research papers and often access full PDFs.

Stay Updated: Set alerts for new publications in your field.

Explore Research: Discover related articles, references, and citations.

Easy Citation Management: Export citations in various formats.

Formatting: Easily export your search results into common citation formats like APA and MLA.

We could not find any public reviews on Google Scholar, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

2. Base 

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is a free search engine specializing in scholarly articles. With over 136 million publications (including duplicates), BASE allows you to search for research papers across various disciplines. It provides summaries and links to full text whenever available. While BASE doesn't offer features like finding related articles, cited references, or who cited the paper, it excels in its core function: searching for scientific publications effortlessly.

Free Search Engine: Access millions of scholarly publications without any cost.

Focus on Academic Content: Search a vast collection of research papers across various fields.

Article Summaries: Quickly grasp the research topic with summaries (abstracts) provided for each article.

Full Text Links: When available, access the full scientific paper directly through BASE.

Simple Interface: Navigate BASE's user-friendly interface to find what you need efficiently.

We could not find any public reviews on Base search engine, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

3. Scispace

SciSpace is a powerful search engine specifically designed for academic research. With over 300 million scholarly articles across various fields, SciSpace utilizes advanced algorithms to deliver relevant search results. Its user-friendly interface makes navigating millions of research papers simple for both beginners and experienced researchers.

Massive Academic Database: Search over 300 million scholarly articles.

Advanced Search & Filters: Find relevant papers by author, citation count, and more.

AI-powered Recommendations: Get suggestions for related research based on your search.

Integrated Research Tools: Read papers, conduct literature reviews, and generate citations.

User-friendly Interface: Easy to navigate for both novice and experienced researchers.

CORE is a user-friendly search engine designed specifically for scholarly research papers. Unlike traditional search engines, CORE focuses on freely accessible, open-access publications. This means you can easily find millions of scientific articles without any paywalls or restrictions. Every search result on CORE conveniently links directly to the full-text PDF or webpage of the research paper, allowing you to dive deeper into your chosen topic

Vast Collection: Search through over 136 million academic publications.

Full Text Access: Every search result includes a link to the complete article, either in PDF or on the publisher's webpage.

Enhanced Discovery: Easily explore related articles to broaden your research scope.

Simple Interface: CORE's user-friendly design lets you find what you need quickly and efficiently.

Focus on Open Access: CORE prioritizes freely available research, ensuring you can access the latest scientific findings without restrictions.

We could not find any public reviews on Core Search engine, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

Scopus is a search engine for scientific research. It helps researchers find scholarly articles, conference papers, and patents. Unlike regular search engines, Scopus focuses on high-quality, peer-reviewed publications. This ensures you find reliable information to support your research. Scopus also offers advanced search options to help you narrow down your search and find relevant papers quickly.

Extensive Coverage: Search millions of peer-reviewed publications across various disciplines.

Accurate Search: Find relevant research with advanced search options and filters.

Verified Content: Explore high-quality, trusted publications with a focus on peer review.

Author Tracking: Monitor the impact of your research by tracking citations and authorship.

Discover Connections: Explore how different research papers are linked and build upon each other.

PubMed , a free search engine developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), specializes in biomedical and life sciences literature. Offering a vast collection of scholarly articles, journals, clinical trials, and more, PubMed is a trusted resource for medical professionals, researchers, students, and anyone seeking scientific information. 

Extensive Collection: Search millions of scientific citations in medicine, health sciences, and related fields.

Accurate Results: PubMed's curated database ensures the quality and trustworthiness of your search results.

Advanced Search Options: Refine your search using keywords, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms, publication dates, and more.

User-Friendly Interface: The search engine features a user-friendly interface for efficient exploration of scientific data.

We could not find any public reviews on Pubmed, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

JSTOR is a comprehensive digital library for researchers across disciplines. Search for academic journals, books, and primary sources in an easy-to-use interface. Explore millions of images and historical documents alongside scholarly articles. JSTOR offers an interdisciplinary approach, allowing you to research immigration through text and imagery or delve into art history with collections from leading museums.

Search All Content: Find scholarly articles, ebooks, images, and primary sources.

Primary Sources: Explore millions of historical documents, artwork, maps, and photographs.

Image Search: Discover over 3 million images to enhance your research.

Independent Voices: Access alternative publications like underground newspapers and magazines.

Artstor Integration: Search millions of art and cultural artifacts from leading institutions.

We could not find any public reviews on the JSTOR search engine, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

8. Science.gov 

Science.gov is a free search engine designed specifically for scientific research. It simplifies your search by providing access to over 200 million scientific articles and reports from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies in one central location. This eliminates the need to search through individual agency websites, saving you valuable time and effort.

Search across 15+ U.S. government science agencies: Find scientific information from a vast collection of resources.

200 million+ scientific articles and reports: Access a comprehensive database of scientific research.

Links to full text (when available): Access the complete scientific paper if offered by the database.

Export Options: Export your search results in various citation formats for convenient reference management (availability may vary depending on the database).

We could not find any public reviews on science.gov, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

9. Semantic Scholar 

Semantic Scholar is a powerful search engine that uses artificial intelligence to help you find relevant research papers. Its advanced algorithms go beyond keywords to uncover hidden connections and relationships between research topics, delivering more impactful search results.

Natural Language Search: Find research papers using plain language, just like you would search the web.

Comprehensive Coverage: Explore over 40 million scholarly articles across various disciplines.

Detailed Information: Access abstracts, related articles, references, citations, and links to full text (when available).

Export Options: Easily export citations in popular formats like APA, MLA, Chicago, and BibTeX.

We could not find any public reviews on Semantic Scholar, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

10. Baidu Scholar 

Baidu Scholar is a powerful search engine designed specifically for academic literature. Despite its Chinese interface, Baidu Scholar indexes a vast collection of scientific papers in English alongside Chinese publications. With over 100 million articles, it offers a valuable resource for researchers worldwide. While some features are limited, like the lack of "cited by" functionality and only showing snippets of abstracts.

Multilingual Search: Find research papers in both English and Chinese.

Large Database: Explore over 100 million indexed articles.

Abstract and Reference Exploration: Gain insights from snippets of abstracts and identify related and cited articles.

Free to Use: Access and search for scientific papers without any cost.

Our selection process focuses on several key criteria to ensure you get the most relevant and reliable results for your scientific inquiry.

1. Depth and Breadth of Content: A vast library of scientific papers is crucial. We looked for search engines that indexed millions of scholarly articles, journals, and publications across various disciplines.

2. Accuracy and Credibility: Trustworthy information is paramount in science. We prioritized search engines that focused on peer-reviewed publications and curated databases to ensure the quality of your results.

3. User-Friendly Interface: A user-friendly interface makes the search process efficient. We considered search engines with clear navigation, advanced search options, and filtering capabilities to help you refine your research.

4. Open Access: Unrestricted access to scientific knowledge is vital. We included search engines that offered a significant amount of freely available, open-access content, alongside those with subscription-based resources for comprehensive searching.

5. Additional Features: Powerful search engines go beyond basic searches. We considered functionalities like AI-powered recommendations for related research, citation management tools, and the ability to export search results in various formats.

By following these selection criteria, we create the top 10 search engines to search for scientific papers. So, explore all the search engines and find the one that is best to Search for Scientific Papers

There are tons of search engines to search for scientific papers out there, and picking the best one for your scientific research can feel like a real challenge. Don't worry, we will help you find the perfect Search Engine to Search for Scientific Papers

Step 1: Identify Your Needs

Breadth vs. Depth: Are you looking for a general overview of a topic or a deep dive into specific research?

Open Access: Do you need freely available articles, or are you affiliated with an institution with access to a wider range of resources?

Focus: Is your research in a specific field like medicine, engineering, or social sciences?

Step 2: Choosing Your Weapon

Now that you know your needs, let's explore some of the top search engines to search for  scientific papers:

General Search Engines:

Google Scholar: The go-to option for a broad search across many disciplines. It crawls millions of scholarly articles and often provides links to full PDFs.

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine): A search engine with over 136 million publications, offering summaries and links to full text whenever available.

Specialized Search Engines:

SciSpace: Employs AI to deliver relevant results and suggest related research based on your search.

CORE: Focuses on open-access publications, ensuring you can find millions of scientific articles without paywalls.

Scopus: Curates high-quality, peer-reviewed publications for a focus on reliable information.

PubMed: Developed for the medical and life sciences field, PubMed offers a vast collection of articles, journals, and clinical trials.

Additional Powerhouses:

JSTOR: A comprehensive digital library with scholarly articles, ebooks, and primary sources across disciplines, including historical documents and images.

Science.gov: A one-stop shop for scientific research from US government agencies, providing access to over 200 million articles and reports.

Semantic Scholar: Uses artificial intelligence to uncover hidden connections between research topics for more impactful results.

Baidu Scholar: While the interface is in Chinese, Baidu Scholar indexes a vast collection of scientific papers in both English and Chinese.

Remember: No single search engine is perfect. Experiment with a few based on your needs and combine them for a comprehensive search. Many of these engines allow advanced search options to further refine your results.

Now you've got the perfect search engine to find the best research papers, but what about after you've found them? Elephas is an AI writing assistant that can help you with every stage of your research paper writing, from summarizing complex sources to generating creative ideas and even helping you stay on track with your grammar and citations.

Here's how Elephas can make you a research paper writing master:

Summarizes complex research: Struggling to understand a dense academic paper? Elephas can break it down for you, highlighting the key points and saving you valuable time.

Boosts your writing: Whether you need help with brainstorming ideas, structuring your paper, or simply polishing your writing style, Elephas has a variety of features to get you there.

Check your grammar: No more typos or embarrassing mistakes! Elephas ensures your writing is clear, concise, and error-free.

Multiple writing styles: Need your paper to be formal or informal? Funny or serious? Elephas can adapt its writing style to fit your needs.

Works offline: Worried about data privacy? Elephas has an offline mode that lets you work securely without an internet connection.

These are just a few of the ways Elephas can help you write research papers faster and more efficiently. Elephas offers many more features that can significantly reduce your daily workload.

So why not give it a try and see how much time you can save?

In summary, there are many great search engines to search for scientific papers out there, each with its own strengths. The best one for you depends on what you're researching.

Need a quick overview? Try Google Scholar or BASE.

Want in-depth studies? Look at Scopus or PubMed (for medical stuff).

Need free articles? Try CORE or JSTOR (for more than just science).

If you're not sure where to start, try a few and see which one you like best. You can even use them together to find the most information!

Remember, the ideal search engine hinges on your specific requirements.

Are you seeking a broad overview of a particular field, or a deep dive into a niche topic?

Does open-access content suffice, or do you have institutional access to a wider range of resources?

What is your research area's primary discipline (medicine, engineering, social sciences)?

By considering these questions, you can ensure you select the most effective search engine to propel your research forward.

While powerful search engines are essential, there are additional tools that can significantly enhance your research efficiency. Consider Elephas, an advanced AI writing assistant designed to streamline every stage of the research paper writing process. From summarizing complex sources to generating creative ideas and maintaining flawless grammar and citations, Elephas helps you to become a research paper writing master.

You can search for scientific papers in many online search engines like Google Scholar, BASE, CORE, Scopus, PubMed, JSTOR, Science.gov, Semantic Scholar, and Baidu Scholar. Each engine has its strengths, so it depends on your specific needs. 

First, identify your needs. Are you looking for a general overview or a deep dive? Do you need free articles or have access to paid resources? Then choose a search engine that fits your needs. Finally, use the advanced search options in the research search engines to refine your results.

Google Scholar is a search engine specifically designed for scholarly articles. You can search for papers by topic, author, title, and more. It also allows you to find freely available PDFs of many papers.

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Best search engines for researchers

If you’re researching for your current paper, the first thing that comes to mind is to check Google for the latest advancement in a related field. While Google may be quite handy for listing relevant theories and examples of successful practice, it is not so much scientist-friendly as it is layperson-friendly. There are many other options and available search engines for researchers. As an experienced scholar, you are probably aware that science is fast progressing activity, and that hundreds and even thousands of articles are published daily, especially when your topic concerns a hot issue. When a subject is generating multiple responses from across the disciplines, you must consider all relevant research search engines and make sure to include in your reference list the latest advances.

Also check out our guide on Research Tools for Primary and Secondary Research

Therefore, you want to use your time sparingly and to be able to filter through by year of publishing or find arguments of top-notch academics by name. When collecting data online, use the best research engines that will help you assemble relevant information. Here are some suggestions on best scholar engines that will help you collect key data without having to dig up through a mass of irrelevant, unindexed and low-quality sites.

Here you can find a list of the best academic search engines to help you get your research started .

Google Scholar

As indicated by the name, Google Scholar is one of the best search engines for researchers provided by Google. It is much like your regular search engine, but it lists relevant scholarly articles and helps to acquire support for your research. Google Scholar indexes papers from a variety of sources, such as academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and scientific platforms and social sites. You can simply type keywords related to your topic, filter by year of publication or by author, and it will come up with many sources for books, e-books, papers, articles, case studies, working papers, dissertations, etc.

Academic Info

On the top of our list of research search engines, Academic info is an in-depth directory containing useful links and resources from a specified field.  It was developed as an alternative to Google in 1998, posing as a source of authoritative educational content. The website provides an extensive list of influential research sites. The website also offers aspiring students who want to enhance professional credentials and eager-to-improve scientists with a myriad of degrees, online courses and remote learning programs from accredited higher education facilities.

iSeek Education

iSeek is a note-worthy and one of prominent search engines for researchers available online. It was tailored explicitly for students, teachers, scientists, academics, analysts and experts. Using iSeek instead of your regular Google unrelated search allows you to invest time in writing instead of spending hours scrolling to irrelevant resources.

WorldCat is the world’s largest network of library content and services. You can search for popular books, music, audiobooks and videos – all of the physical items you’re used to getting from the library. Moreover, you can access digital content downloadable as audiobooks, article citations with links to their full text, esteemed research materials, documents and photos of local and historic significance and digital versions of rare items that aren’t available to the public.

You can also read our tips for getting published in a research journal                                                                                                                    

If you’re targeting high-quality journals for publication, then the resources you use most definitely must be from high-profile and influential sources. This list of search engines for researchers should help to get you started and save time you can rather invest in perfecting your submission.

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7 of the Best Education Search Engines for Academic Research

If you’re performing work that requires in-depth sources, such as academic studies or a job that requires heavy research, finding quality sources with standard search engines isn’t always easy. Switch up your education search engines for academic research to find exactly what you need.

1. Best for Citations: Google Scholar

2. best for general study: refseek, 3. best search filters: virtual lrc, 4. best ai education search engine: semantic scholar, 5. best for scientific research: science.gov, 6. best for open access research papers: core, 7. best for environmental research: dataone.

Don’t be mistaken: this isn’t just regular Google! This is a branch off “regular” Google searches, called Google Scholar . Instead of a general search, use it to search books, studies, and even court cases.

On the main page, simply enter your search terms. Google Scholar searches through its database and picks out relevant examples. If your research is very time-sensitive (such as technology), use the filters on the left to change how recent you want your sources to be, up to and including the current year.

If you’re writing a piece that has a strict sourcing style, Google Scholar gives you templates (just click the cite link under the result) for its sources. Find the template that suits the style standard, then copy it directly into your citations to save time.

RefSeek is one of the best academic search engines for academic research for general studies. It takes a more website-based approach, bringing up relevant but highly dependable websites for whatever you want to research. It’s a great way to pull up multiple articles relating to a specific object.

RefSeek does more than just searching, however; if you’re studying in a specific field, RefSeek also has a “directory” page, which acts as a great directory of useful websites related to education. Once you choose the category you’d like to browse, RefSeek brings up a list of productive sites to help you with your studies. It’s ideal for exploring new topics as well.

Virtual LRC operates like most search engines, but its filters are what really sets it apart from the rest. When you search, you get general search results. Or, use a topic filter, such as Videos, Sci/Tech/Math, or News/Opinion to trim down the results. You can even filter by date.

On the main search page, click Directory to view a list of categories. Virtual LRC works much like RefSeek, showing you relevant sites to help you with your academic projects. There’s even a list of sites to find images. Alternatively, use our image search engine list to find images for your research.

It’s kind of an outdated design, but don’t let that fool you. It’s one of the more useful education search engines.

Semantic Scholar mixes your typical search engines for academic research with the power of AI to find papers others might miss. While the content itself isn’t AI-generated, the search engine uses AI to find links between resources to help you dive deeper into a topic.

The platform currently searches over 200 million research papers. When you search, there are also handy filters to narrow your results by date, author, field of study, specific journals, and more.

While it doesn’t have as many resources as some others on this list, having it limited to just respectable research papers and journals is a plus.

If you’re interested in more AI search, try these ChatGPT alternatives , or see how to use AI in your browser .

If you’re researching a science-related topic, one of the top education search engines for academic research is easily Science.gov . It’s currently in beta but lets you search through millions of research papers funded by the U.S. government.

The best part is the results come from multiple different government agencies, but the results are all in one convenient location. If you don’t want to dig through hundreds of results for your query, use the available filters. Filter by text, public access, multimedia, organization, date, and more.

You can even create a free account to save your research. You’ll also get alerts when new research is published in your area of interest.

CORE , or connecting repositories, was designed to help better connect academic repositories from around the world. It also includes what’s likely the largest open access collection of research papers, with full text available. The whole idea is to make scholarly literature more accessible and easy to find.

Currently, there are over 300 million resources. Filter results by field, year, type, author, language, and publisher. While not every resource offers full text, many do.

If you’re a research institution, you can partner with CORE to make your datasets available as well.

If your field of study deals with the Earth and environment, look no further than DataONE . It’s the single best education search engine to find the latest research on everything related to our environment.

It’s a unique design that not only includes research papers, but a map showing where the research was done or the area it’s about. Plus, it works as an academic social networking site, where researchers share their findings. Easily follow your favorite researchers as they make new discoveries.

While much of DataONE is free to use, some papers are behind a paywall. However, you’ll find plenty of data in the free version.

Remember, if you’re doing research, ensure you cite your sources. Many of the above include help with citing. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for and Google isn’t digging deep enough, try these deep web search engines .

Image credit: Unsplash . All screenshots by Crystal Crowder.

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Reference management. Clean and simple.

Academic Databases

ERIC research database: complete tutorial

The ERIC database is the premier education literature database for scholarly research. This guide covers search types and strategies, filters, and full text options.

How to efficiently search online databases for academic research

Academic research isn't difficult if you know where and how to search for scholarly articles and research papers. Here's how to do it.

How to use Google Scholar: the ultimate guide

Google Scholar is the number one academic search engine. Our detailed guide covers best practices for basic and advanced search strategies in Google Scholar.

How to use PubMed: the ultimate guide

PubMed is the most popular search engine for biomedical sciences. Learn how to use PubMed, basic and advanced search strategies, and about its limitations and alternatives in this ultimate guide.

Is Google Scholar a database or search engine? [Update 2024]

Google Scholar is the number one free resource to discover scientific literature, but is it an academic database or a search engine?

The best academic research databases [Update 2024]

Your research is stuck and you need to find new sources? Take a look at our compilation of academic research databases: Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, ERIC, JSTOR, DOAJ, Science Direct, and IEEE Xplore.

The best academic search engines [Update 2024]

Your research is stuck, and you need to find new sources. Take a look at our compilation of free academic search engines: ✓ Google Scholar ✓ BASE ✓ CORE ✓ Science.gov

The best research databases for computer science [Update 2024]

The top 4 research databases specifically dedicated to computer science: ✓ ACM Digital Library ✓ IEEE Xplore ✓ dbpl ✓ Springer LNCS

The best research databases for healthcare and medicine [Update 2024]

We have compiled the top list of research databases for healthcare, medicine, and biomedical research: PubMed, EMBASE, PMC, and Cochrane Library.

Bibliometrics

Learn how to calculate your h-index on Google Scholar

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Google Scholar online for free, and which tools to use for a detailed analysis.

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Scopus [3 steps]

Learn how to assess your h-index on Scopus in 3 easy steps.

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Web of Science

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Web of Science in 3 easy steps.

The ultimate how-to-guide on the h-index

Learn what an h-index is, how to calculate it, and why it is important to know about it for your career as a scientist.

What is a good h-index? [with examples]

Curious to know what a good h-index is? Read this guide to learn when an h-index is considered good.

What is a good impact factor?

Do you want to find out what a good impact factor is? Read this guide to learn what an impact factor is, how it is calculated, and what impact factor is considered good.

Credible Sources

Can a blog be a credible source? [Update 2024]

You want to add a blog post to your research paper? In general, blogs are not considered to be credible sources: ➜ check out these reasons to learn more about it.

How can I find credible sources? [7 tips]

Sometimes it is hard to determine whether a source is credible or not. Read our guide to help you find credible sources.

Is Wikipedia a credible source?

We all ❤ Wikipedia, but can you cite it in your research paper? No. Wikipedia is not a credible source, and here is why you should only use it for preliminary research.

What are credible sources?

Credible sources are sources that are trustworthy and can be used as references in your academic papers. This guide will help you identify and evaluate sources for their credibility.

What are predatory journals?

This day and age, you have to be careful where you submit your work for publication. This article helps you spot a predatory journal and has tips and tricks on what to do if you accidentally submitted to one.

Primary and Secondary Sources

Interviews: are they a primary source?

Interviews can add tremendously to your research project. Read on to quickly learn when an interview is considered a primary source.

Is a documentary a secondary source? [with examples]

You are not sure if a documentary is a secondary source? We show you when and why is a documentary either a secondary or a tertiary source.

Is a letter a primary source?

Letters are frequently used in historical research. Read on to see when a letter qualifies as a primary source.

Is a map a primary source? [with examples]

Are you not sure if a map is a primary source? This guide will show you when and why a map is a primary or a secondary source.

Is a painting a primary source? [with examples]

Are you unsure if a painting is a primary source? This guide will show you when and why a painting is either a primary or a secondary source.

Is a textbook a secondary source?

Are you unsure if a textbook is a secondary source? Learn in this guide when and why a textbook is either a primary, secondary, or tertiary source.

Is an autobiography a primary source?

Are you not sure if an autobiography is a primary source? We show you when and why an autobiography is either a primary or secondary source.

Is an encyclopedia a primary source?

Are you unsure if an encyclopedia is a primary source? Find your answer and learn the right way to reference an encyclopedia in this guide.

Is census data a primary source?

You are not sure if census data is a primary source? We will show you when and why census data is a primary source and where to get it.

Is the US Constitution a primary source?

Are you wondering if the US Constitution is a primary source? Find the answer to your question in this guide.

Newspaper articles: primary or secondary sources?

Learn what questions to ask to see if a newspaper article really qualifies as a primary source.

Primary vs. secondary sources: how to distinguish them

Primary and secondary sources are the foundations of every research project. Learn about their differences and when to use them.

What is a primary source?

Primary sources are the most important sources when undertaking a research project. We answer the 5 most asked questions about primary sources.

What is a secondary source?

Secondary sources are your starting point when undertaking a research project. We answer the 5 most asked questions about secondary sources.

Research Methodology

How to do a content analysis [7 steps]

Content analysis is a research method you might come across when analyzing data. Learn what a content analysis is and how to do one in this step-by-step guide.

How to do a thematic analysis [6 steps]

A thematic analysis is a research method you might come across when analyzing qualitative data. Learn what a thematic analysis is and how to write one in this step-by-step guide.

How to write a rhetorical analysis [4 steps]

A rhetorical analysis explores the goals and motivations of an author, the techniques they’ve used to reach their audience, and how successful these techniques were. Learn how to write an excellent rhetorical analysis in this guide.

Qualitative vs. quantitative research - what’s the difference?

Qualitative and quantitative research are effective but very different approaches to study a subject. Learn the difference between them, what they are used for, and how to analyze qualitative and quantitative research in this guide.

What is research methodology? [Update 2024]

Having the right research methodology can be a make-or-break factor for your academic work. What is research methodology, and how can you get ahead?

Scholarly Sources

How to find a DOI [Update 2024]

Are you not sure where to find a DOI? Read this guide to learn exactly where to spot DOIs, and how to include them in your citations!

How to identify if a source is scholarly

Not sure if it is a scholarly source? Looking at these 6 identifiers can help differentiate scholarly from non-scholarly articles.

How to know if an article is peer reviewed [6 key features]

You don't know exactly what 'peer reviewed' articles are? Read this guide to learn all about peer reviewed articles, their features, and how to find them!

Is a book a scholarly source? [with checklist]

Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish scholarly from non-scholarly books. This guide will help you with that. Learn how to identify scholarly books by following our simple guidelines.

What are peer reviewed journals? [Update 2024]

You don't know exactly what 'peer review' means? Read this guide to clear your doubts, and learn more about peer reviewed articles, its process and types!

What is a DOI [with examples]

What is a DOI? Learn what a digital object identifier is and how to include a DOI in APA and other styles.

What is a scholarly source?

Are you wondering what a scholarly source is and what makes it a scholarly source? Learn all about it in this guide, including what elements a scholarly source generally contains.

What is grey literature? [with examples]

Wondering what is grey literature and how to find it? Find all things grey literature in this quick and easy guide filled with sources for grey literature.

The Top 100 Search Engines For Academic Research

From science databases to document collections and more, here are 100 of the best search engines for academic research.

What Are The Top 100 Search Engines For Academic Research?

by TeachThught Staff

Need to get started with a more broad search? These academic search engines are great resources.

See also 7 Pros And Cons Of Using Siri For Learning

ResearchGate

Access over 135 million publication pages and stay up to date with what’s happening in most professional fields.

With more than 1 billion documents, web pages, books, journals, newspapers, and more, RefSeek offers authoritative resources in just about any subject, without all of the mess of sponsored links and commercial results.

Digital Library of the Commons Repository

Check out the DLC to find international literature including free and open access full-text articles, papers, and dissertations.

Microsoft Academic Search

Microsoft’s academic search engine offers access to more than 38 million different publications, with features including maps, graphing, trends, and paths that show how authors are connected.

Google Trends

Google’s super cool search tool will allow you to find searches that correlate with real-world data.

WolframAlpha

Using expert-level knowledge, this search engine doesn’t just find links; it answers questions, does analysis, and generates reports.

BASE is one of the world’s most voluminous search engines, especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 200 million documents from more than 8,000 content providers. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free (Open Access). BASE is operated by Bielefeld University Library.

Databases and Archives

Resources like the Library of Congress have considerable archives and documents available, and many of them have taken their collections online. Use these search tools to get access to these incredible resources.

Library of Congress

In this incredible library, you’ll get access to searchable source documents, historical photos, and amazing digital collections.

Archives Hub

Find the best of what Britain has to offer in the Archives Hub. You’ll be able to search archives from almost 200 institutions from England, Scotland, and Wales.

National Archives

Check out this resource for access to the National Archives. Find online, public access to find historic documents, research, government information, and more in a single search.

arXiv ePrint Archive

Cornell University’s arXiv.org offers open access to a wealth of e-prints in math, science, and related subjects. Search this resource to find what you need among 1,772,647 documents and counting.

National Agricultural Library

A service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, you can find global information for agriculture in the National Agricultural Library.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System

Get access to the considerable resources of the Smithsonian Institution through the Research Information System, a great way to search more than 7.4 million records from the Smithsonian’s museums, archives, and libraries.

The British Library Catalogues & Collection

Explore the British Library catalogs, printed materials, digital collections, and even collection blogs for a wealth of resources.

CIA World Factbook

As the center of intelligence, the CIA has certainly done its job with The World Factbook, offering information on major reference information around the world. History, people, government, economy, and more are all covered in this online publication.

State Legislative Websites Directory

Use this database to find information from the legislatures of all 50 U.S. states, DC, and the Territories. You can look up bills, statutes, legislators, and more with this excellent tool.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

Search through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications to find descriptive records for historical and current publications, with direct links where available.

iSEEK Education

iSeek is an excellent targeted search engine, designed especially for students, teachers, administrators, and caregivers. Find authoritative, intelligent, and time-saving resources in a safe, editor-reviewed environment with iSEEK.

Books & Journals

Instead of heading to the library to bury your face in the stacks, use these search engines to find out which libraries have the books you need, and maybe even find them available online.

Google Scholar

Check out Google Scholar to find only scholarly resources on Google. The search specializes in articles, patents, and legal documents, and even has a resource for gathering your citations.

Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Academic is a semantic academic search engine powered by Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) data and Microsoft Academic Knowledge Exploration Service (MAKES) hosted API’s.

Find items from 10,000 libraries worldwide, with books, DVDs, CDs, and articles up for grabs. You can even find your closest library with WorldCat’s tools.

Google Books

Supercharge your research by searching this index of the world’s books. You’ll find millions for free and others you can preview to find out if they’re what you’re looking for.

Science Direct

For scientific information only, Scirus is a comprehensive research tool with more than 460 million scientific items including journal content, courseware, patents, educational websites, and more.

Open Library

Find the world’s classic literature, open e-books, and other excellent open and free resources in the Open Library. You can even contribute to the library with information, corrections to the catalog, and curated lists.

Bioline International

Search Bioline International to get connected with a variety of scientific journals. The search is managed by scientists and librarians as a collaborative initiative between Bioline Toronto and the Reference Center on Environmental Information.

Directory of Open Access Journals

When you need top-quality journal writings for free, the Directory of Open Access Journals is a great place to check out. You’ll get access to a searchable journal of full-text quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.

In this curated academic search engine, you’ll get results from over 4,000 free scholarly e-journals in the arts and humanities.

With a focus on science, these academic search engines return all-science, all the time.

Science.gov

In this government science portal, you can search more than 60 databases and 2,200 selected websites across more than 200 million pages and 12 federal agencies. This is an incredible resource for millions of pages of U.S. government science information.

CERN Document Server

This organization for nuclear research serves up a great search and directory for experiments, archives, articles, books, presentations, and so much more within their documents.

WorldWideScience

Use WorldWideScience.org as a global science gateway, offering excellent search results in the sciences, and even the option to select specific databases and find resources in your own language.

Math & Technology

Keep your results limited to only the best math and technology resources by using these search engines.

ZMATH Online Database

Zentralblatt MATH’s online database has millions of entries from thousands of serials and journals dating back as far as 1826. Nearly 35,000 items were added in 2012 alone.

This database was made for scientists and engineers by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. You’ll find nearly 13 million abstracts and research literature, primarily in the fields of physics and engineering.

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies

Find more than 3 million references to journal articles, conference papers, and technical reports in computer science with this bibliography collection.

Social Science

Researchers working in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and related subjects will find great results using these search engines.

Behavioral Brain Science Archive

Check out this searchable archive to find extensive psychology and brain science articles.

Social Science Research Network

In this research network, you can find a wide variety of social science research from a number of specialized networks including cognitive science, leadership, management, and social insurance.

Social Sciences Citation Index

The Thomson Reuters Social Sciences Citation Index is a paid tool, but well worth its cost for the wealth of relevant articles, search tools, and thorough resources available.

Search the languages of the world with Ethnologue, offering an encyclopedic reference of all the world’s known living languages. You’ll also be able to find more than 28,000 citations in the Ethnologue’s language research bibliography.

Find awesome resources for history through these search engines that index original documents, sources, and archives.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Use the LUNA Browser to check out David Rumsey’s Map Collection with more than 30,000 images, searchable by keyword.

Find excellent sources for women’s history with the Genesis dataset and extensive list of web resources.

Get access to historical military records through Fold3, the web’s premier collection of original military records and memorials.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Use the Internet Modern History Sourcebook to find thousands of sources in modern history. Browse and search to find full texts, multimedia, and more.

Library of Anglo-American Culture and History

Use the history guide from the Library of Anglo-American Culture and History for a subject catalog of recommended websites for historians, with about 11,000 to choose from.

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook

The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook is a great place to study human origins, with full text and search on topics including Mesopotamia, Rome, the Hellenistic world, Late Antiquity, and Christian origins.

History Engine

In this tool for collaborative education and research, students can learn history by researching, writing, and publishing, creating a collection of historical articles in U.S. history that can be searched for here by scholars, teachers, and the general public.

Business and Economics

Using these search engines, you’ll get access to business publications, journal articles, and more.

Virtual Library Labour History

Maintained by the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, this library offers historians excellent content for learning about economics, business, and more.

Visit EconLit to access more than 120 years of economics literature from around the world in an easily searchable format. Find journal articles, books, book reviews, articles, working papers, and dissertations, as well as historic journal articles from 1886 to 1968.

National Bureau of Economic Research

On this site, you can learn about and find access to great resources in economic research.

Research Papers in Economics

Find research in economics and related sciences through the RePEc, a volunteer-maintained bibliographic database of working papers, articles, books, and even software components with more than 1.2 million research pieces.

Corporate Information

Perfect for researching companies, Corporate Information offers an easy way to find corporate financial records.

Economists will enjoy this excellent site for finding economics resources, including jobs, courses, and even conferences.

Google Finance

Easily look up stocks with this search engine to monitor the stock market and your portfolio.

EDGAR Search

The SEC requires certain disclosures that can be helpful to investors, and you can find them all here in this helpful, next-generation system for searching electronic investment documents.

Other Niches

Find even more specialized information in these niche search engines.

From the U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed is a great place to find full-text medical journal articles, with more than 19 million available.

Find reliable, authoritative information for legal search with the Lexis site.

Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database

Visit this database to find more than 6,300 records relating to human health in the circumpolar region.

Education Resources Information Center

In the ERIC Collection, you’ll find bibliographic records of education literature, as well as a growing collection of full-text resources.

MedlinePlus

A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Medline Plus offers a powerful search tool and even a dictionary for finding trusted, carefully chosen health information.

Semantic Scholar

A free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature.

Artcyclopedia

Search Artcyclopedia to find everything there is to know about fine art, with 160,000 links, 9,000 artists listed, and 2,900 art sites indexed.

Get connected with great reference material through these search tools.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus

Use this online dictionary and thesaurus to quickly find definitions and synonyms.

References.net

Through References.net, you can get connected with just about every reference tool available, from patents to almanacs.

Need the right thing to say? Check out Quotes.net to reference famous words from famous people.

The Literary Encyclopedia

A library and search database for literature and literary books and documents.

CORE’s mission is to aggregate all open access research outputs from repositories and journals worldwide and make them available to the public. In this way, CORE facilitates free unrestricted access to research for all.

More Academic Search Engines

Africa Journals Online

United States Department of Agriculture: National Agricultural Library

Anthropological Index Online

Analytical Sciences Digital Library

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Streamline your research using academic search engines

Specialist search engines can put the most relevant literature at your fingertips, but which is the best one for you, and how can you optimise your searches?

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.css-1txxx8u{overflow:hidden;max-height:81px;text-indent:0px;} Can we really decolonise the university?

Universities need to act now to bridge the gen z gap, school visits are a triple-win for academics, schools and society, why visible senior leadership in sustainability matters, why the search for research funding is like romance.

Knowing what has already been established within the field is the first step in any research project. So all researchers need to combine an in-depth understanding of their topic with a broad awareness of the discipline at large to push the boundaries of existing knowledge.

But reconceptualising volumes of peer-reviewed literature over extended periods of time is not a straightforward process. How can academic search engines (ASEs) help streamline a literature search and allow researchers to better formulate insightful research questions?

• Why does open access make publishing more complicated?
• Using literature reviews to strengthen research: tips for PhDs and supervisors
• Understanding peer review: what it is, how it works and why it is important

What is an academic search engine?

Academic search engines aim to combine the convenience and power of web-based search engines with the rigour of peer-reviewed scholarly sources. In contrast to traditional academic databases, which often sit behind a paywall, most ASEs are freely accessible and often link to full-text research articles. ASE searches return publications that are sorted by topic and significance in the field, with the most frequently cited publications appearing higher in the list by default. Researchers can strategically use ASEs to compile an expansive bibliography and streamline the literature review process.

How do academic search engines work?

The underlying algorithms used by search engines are often referred to as “web crawlers”; these index a constant stream of online traffic. The metadata generated through this pre-filtering process are what allow search engines to return immediate results in response to keyword queries. The metadata generated by the search engine algorithms (and in some cases artificial intelligence tools) can be used to find networks of related articles, all of which can be saved into customisable reading lists or batch exported into reference management software.

What is the best academic search engine for your needs?

ASEs with a broad multidisciplinary focus will naturally have the biggest database of sources, and Google Scholar has traditionally been the leader on this front. Other ASEs are all playing catch-up, but Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) , Semantic Scholar and Refseek have all expanded the number of documents hosted within their databases. To generate metadata for millions of sources, Google Scholar harnesses the ubiquity of Google’s web-crawling algorithm, while Semantic Scholar uses AI-driven techniques. The proprietary nature of these tools can limit transparency and user control, and the iterative nature of these tools can compromise search reproducibility. In fact, even consecutive queries using identical search terms in Google Scholar may yield inconsistent results . In contrast, BASE uses an internationally standardised protocol for harvesting metadata while disclosing their list of content providers , and may be better suited for meta-analyses or systematic literature reviews.

While ASEs are typically free for end users, the availability of full-text research articles can be quite limited. CORE mitigates this by hosting only articles published in open access journals, but that may not be a viable option for your topic.

Access to ASEs may also vary depending on your location – for instance, Google is blocked or censored in some parts of the world – and it can be difficult to rely on ASEs as their only literature search tool. The ASE landscape can be quite volatile overall, with Microsoft Academic – the previous main competitor to Google Scholar – shutting down its operations in 2021 . The best approach may still be to pair an ASE with a more traditional academic database (such as Web of Science or Scopus ) along with databases specifically tailored for your discipline ( ERIC , SSRN , Pubmed , CiteseerX ).

Top search tips

Regardless of which ASE you choose, as a researcher, you need to use a consistent approach when planning a search.

• Summarise your topic or research questions into one or two sentences.
• Underline keywords in your topic and list their synonyms as alternate search terms.
• Search using different combinations of keywords, and assess if there are too many or too few relevant results.
• Sort the results by publication time frame and citation counts, and save any relevant articles to a personalised reading list.
• Use the “cited by” or “related articles” functionality of ASEs to expand the scope of your key references.

A common search mistake is not incorporating Boolean operators into your search strategy. Google Scholar, for example, uses the following Boolean operators:

• AND limits results by only returning articles that are relevant to all the search terms (for example, learning AND teachers)
• OR expands your results by returning articles relevant to either of the search terms (for example, learning OR teachers)
• The minus sign (-) limits results by excluding keywords (so, learning -teachers)
• -site excludes results from a website (teachers -site:wikipedia.org)
• ~ expands your results by including synonyms for the key term in the search (~teachers)
• “” limits your results by only showing articles with the exact phrasing (“professional learning for teachers”).

Making it work

ASEs are just another tool in a researcher’s toolkit, and you can be creative in how you choose to use them. You can make a separate reading list for every new paper you are writing, and quickly share these reference lists with your co-authors to speed up the final copy-editing process. You can create email alerts every time a prominent author in the field (yourself included!) publishes a new paper, or when a new study cites your work. ASEs can be used strategically to improve the public accessibility of academic literature and to help you form new collaborations.

Jack Wang is an associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland. He was awarded 2020 Australian University Teacher of the Year.

If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the THE Campus newsletter .

This video gives more tips on how to use academic search engines such as Google Scholar in research.

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• Writing Tips

​​How to Master Academic Search Engines

4-minute read

• 4th August 2022

Academic search engines provide a simple, convenient method for finding scholarly literature (e.g., articles, books, and theses) across many topics. However, these databases provide access to, quite literally, millions of sources. Therefore, using them effectively is key to streamlining your research process and finding sources that will help you write a great research paper.

We’ve put together our five top tips on mastering academic search engines to help you get started:

1. Briefly summarize your research topic to prepare for your academic search.

2. Identify the keywords that you’ll use to generate focused and relevant search results.

3. Conduct advanced searches to further narrow your results.

4. Build personalized reading lists to keep your sources organized in one place.

5. Track and create your citations to make building your reference list easier.

Read on to look at these tips in more detail or watch the video.

1. Summarize Your Research Topic

Before conducting a search, it’s important to understand the topic and objective of your research in order to find relevant supporting sources. Try summarizing your research topic and/or questions into one or two concise sentences containing the most vital information, and then you’ll be ready for the next step!

2. Identify Your Keywords

Academic search engines work most effectively – and return more results – when you search keywords (i.e., words or short phrases) rather than full sentences. Once you’ve written your summary sentences, highlight the keywords and then put together a list of synonyms and other similar words or phrases that you could use as alternate search terms.

In addition to searching keywords, there are also some helpful hacks regarding the ways in which you search for those terms, such as with the use of Boolean operators :

Find this useful?

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●  “AND” indicates that you want the terms on both sides to be included in the sources.

●  “NOT” or the minus sign “-” can be placed in front of terms to exclude sources in which they are used.

●  “OR” will give equal weight to the sources that match the terms on either side.

●  Quote marks (“ ”) will generate only sources that include exact matches to the phrase placed within them.

3. Utilize Advanced Searches

Most academic search engines will have advanced search options, which are helpful to further refine your results. You can restrict your searches to fields such as the source author, title, publication, or date.

Also, if you find sources that are particularly useful, there are often “cited by” and “related articles” links that can lead you to additional relevant sources that may be beneficial to your research.

4. Build Personalized Reading Lists

Locating really great sources during the research process is only half the battle! It’s also equally important to stay organized. Fortunately, many academic search engines also offer tools to help you create personalized reading lists, which you can use to sort your sources by topic or research project.

You can also sign up to receive alerts when new sources become available in particular publications, from your favorite authors, or on any topics of interest!

5. Track and Create Your Citations

Whenever you quote or reference another person’s work in your own writing, it’s crucial to acknowledge those authors using citations . Your personalized reading lists can be a great way to track the sources you want to cite in your work, and many academic search engines allow you to either export those lists into a reference management tool or can generate the citations for you according to your required referencing system (e.g., APA, MLA, or Harvard).

Proofreading and Editing Services

Hopefully, these hacks will help you master academic search engines to find the best sources during your research phase. Once you’ve moved on to compiling your research and presenting it in your essay or article , we have expert editors who can help ensure that your writing is clear, concise, and error-free, and that your references are consistent with your required system. You can upload a free trial document today to learn more!

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PraxiLabs A virtual world of science

Top 5 Search Engines for Scientific Research

Last Updated on June 20, 2022 by Mostafa

Internet has played a very important role in serving researchers and scientists in various fields as tool for distance learning by providing many scientific sources that are accessible at any time and place. In this article, we will address 5 of the most important scientific search engines on the internet. They include many research papers and Ph.D And Master theses, in addition to a lot of scientific references in various fields. But first, let’s discuss what scientific research is, its importance, types, and steps.

Researchers always seek accurate information and clear facts in all fields. They carry out this process according to a clear methodology for studying contemporary issues. They rely on scientific research as an objective tool to investigate and refute evidences. The first to use the scientific research method was psychologists and sociologists in the nineteenth century. It is recalled that the psychologist Ernest Weber was the first to try to measure specific models of human behavior in the 1940s of the century.

Table of Contents

Definition of scientific research:

There are many different definitions of scientific research. It is defined as the systematic method that follows a number of successive steps, from knowledge of the problem to analysis, data collection and documentation, in order to extract a number of solutions derived from analysis, comparison and statistics.

It is also defined as an organized and systematic investigative process with the aim of ascertaining the truth of facts or proving new facts. Provided that scientific methods are followed while conducting the scientific research and preparing its reports and results.

It is also considered by some to be a systematic study built to meet lack of knowledge,  and to link disparate or mixed concepts, or to achieve a new knowledge derived from scientific research procedures and results.

The importance of scientific research:

The importance of scientific research is reflected in many of the skills acquired by researchers while working on their research. It also shows great effects on societies that in turn benefit greatly from the results of such research. Therefore, we can summarize the importance of scientific research in the following points:

1- To develop the scientific research skills of researchers, and help them identify the best scientific means to access accurate scientific information and avoid randomization.

2- To increase the knowledge of researchers and expand their knowledge. This is one of the importance of research at an individual level, where a researcher can access new information in the area of their specialization.

3- To develop the sectors of the state. This can directly reflect on the general public, as the latest technologies can be provided in various areas of life making it easier for them to perform their daily activities.

4- To develop industries through the use of modern technologies, which affects the rate of production and eliminates the use of traditional means of manufacturing.

5- To check and review previous scientific studies on similar scientific subjects. New researchers can then clarify the validity of the results of these previous researches.

Types of scientific research:

Scientific research can divided according to:

1- Purpose of research.

2- Research method.

First: Division by purpose of research:

Theoretical research: This is a scientific research that produces a set of theoretically proven laws and theories. It contributes to the growth of knowledge, serves the studies, and establishes a documented ground for applied science.

Applied Research: Researches that concerned with the practical side and the application of available knowledge to discover more accurate facts, solve various problems, and develop methods of work to achieve higher levels of production. There are a lot of new techniques that could be used in this researches such as virtual labs .

Second: Division by method:

Descriptive research: It aims to describe the various phenomena, monitor the spatial and temporal conditions, and try to reach a clear understanding of these phenomena. This type includes several methods, such as: observation, personal interview, and paper or electronic survey tests.

Historical research: It has the same descriptive form, but it is limited to the events that have already occurred. It aims to document the past and analyse its events in order to provide new methods for avoiding past pitfalls and predict a better future.

Experimental research: This research is concerned with the analysis of problems and phenomena based on the experimental method through observation, development of hypotheses, and checking the details for authenticity to verify their validity. In this type, researchers adjusts all the variables and control them in terms of serving the content of their research. This is perhaps what distinguishes experimental research from other types.

Scientific writing steps:

1- Identify and select the research title.

2- Introduction to research.

3- Clarify the problem.

4- Research questions.

5- Write the research objectives.

6- Clarify the importance of the research.

7-  Methodology of the study.

8- Study tools.

9- Research plan.

10- References.

Top 5 Scientific Research Engines:

1- Google Scholar

It is one of the most important and easiest ways to search for scientific materials. It provides many diverse sources in different disciplines and in different forms such as theses, papers, articles, text books, and opinions of reviewers.

One of the largest scientific search engines in the world, it is managed by the University of Bielefeld, Germany.

3- Academic Info

Provides a comprehensive and in-depth guide to a huge set of links, and the most useful resources in various research fields.

4- Library of Congress

Contains thousands of documents, including photographs, maps, manuscripts, historical newspapers and others.

A search engine that provides more than one billion articles for students and researchers, including web pages, books, encyclopedias and scientific journals.

About Mostafa Elhashash

Top 10 Free Search Engines for Scientific and Academic Research

Search engines are vital tools that ease the process of research for scientific and research professors, lecturers and students. It enables anyone searching for scientific information to precisely find and pick up the information they need including peer-reviewed articles, genuine information, author home pages, and university web sites.

There are many search engines that can shorten the time required for data collection and we are taking a look at the best free search engines you can get benefit from in the following list:

1- Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine that allows the researcher to find out articles, technical reports, theses, citations, books and other documents including selected Web pages. It is a free tool, and is considered the world's largest academic search engine in January 2018. Many researchers find Google scholar as powerful as many subscription-based search engines when looking for citation of articles.

2- Google Books

Google Books is a free tool that enables the researcher to search for full texts inside the books and magazines scanned in Google database. It was firstly developed under the name Google Print in 2004. By the end of 2019, the number of scanned books reached over 40 million titles.

3- Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Academic is a free tool developed by Microsoft. It was firstly named Microsoft Academic Search and ended in 2012, then re-launched in 2016 as Microsoft Academic. It provides the researcher with the opportunity to search academic publications, literature and to perform citation analysis. It covers over 220 million publications including about 88 million journal articles. Bibliometricians suggest Microsoft Academic as a strong competitor to Google Scholar.

PubMed is a free search engine for references and abstracts on medical, life sciences, and biomedical topics. Starting from 1971, its online access was restricted to the use of academic institutions as University libraries. Since 1997, it was made available to online public use. At the beginning of 2020, PubMed has over 30 million citations and abstracts.

Refseek is an academic search engine that is considered simpler than Google as it excludes information overload. It focuses on scientific and academic topics for scientists and students. It aims mainly at making academic information easily accessible to everyone. It indexes more than 5 billion documents including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers. It was launched in 2009.

6- CiteSeerX

CiteSeerX  is a public search engine for scientific and academic topics specially computer and information science. It was created in 1997 under the name of CiteSeer and became public in 1998. CiteSeerX replaced CiteSeer, and it was released in 2008. It has many features as Autonomous citation indexing (ACI), Citation statistics, Author disambiguation, Automatic metadata extraction, Full-text indexing, and many more features.

7- Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar was created by a team at the Allen Institute for AI, and was released at the end of 2015 as a search engine for academic publications. In comparison to Google Scholar and PubMed, Semantic Scholar is designed to spot the light on the most important papers, and to identify the connections between them. By 2019, Semantic Scholar indexed more than 180 million papers which include all fields of science.

8- ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a site that was founded in 2008. It is currently dominated by users searching and providing information on biology and medicine. It also includes computer science, engineering and psychology. This search engine currently provides results from over 135 million publication pages. It also provides an iOS mobile app which has many features as connecting with people in your field and messaging them directly, and Keeping track of your notifications, reads, and citations of your work.

9- ScienceOpen

ScienceOpen was founded in 2013, and has more than 63 million publications. It offers many free tools such as multi-dimensional search by 18 filters, exporting search results in EndNote, BibTex, and Reference Manager (RIS) formats (Up to 200 citations exported at a time), track usage, citations, and altmetrics of your publications on ScienceOpen, follow researchers for updates on their activities, and many more powerful features.

10- Europe PMC

Europe PMC is an open sience platform that has 37 million abstracts, 6.1 million full text articles, and more than 23500 books and documents. It gives you the ability to claim your articles by linking them to your ORCID.

The above mentioned academic search engines are among the most reputable and free search engines for scientific researchers. They provide information on the major topics of science including medicine, biology, computer science and other areas of academic research. Thanks a million for the efforts of the developers that are responsible for research and development of useful tools that help researchers and scientists to acquire the information they need to finish their researches for the greater good for the humanity.

Author: Mohamed Eldesouki

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• Using the deep web search for research

Exploring the deep web search engines for academic and scholarly research

But what is the deep web exactly? And what purpose does it serve for the greater research community as a whole? Read our guide to find out everything you need to know about the deep web, including what it means, where it lives, and how you can use it to your advantage.

The Deep Web: A Proper Definition

Google trawls the web for static webpage results using what’s known as a “spider-based crawler.” It returns them to you when you punch the right terms into the search bar. This only covers a very small portion of the actual information that’s available on the web.

The results you get back from a basic Google search are what’s known as the “Surface Web”. The Surface Web covers your basics: social media, news sites, shopping, blogs, etc.

Then there’s the Deep Web, which is not to be confused with the “Dark Web.” The Dark Web is a portion of the internet most often associated with privacy protection connection services like  TOR  and online drug marketplaces like the now-defunct Silk Road.

See also:   How to access the deep web and darknet

The deep web contains a constantly updated torrent of raw, unchecked information, surging with complex technical terms and so many diagrams it’s enough to make Google’s Deep Dream AI blow a circuit board. These are documents that keep records for things like census data, NASA mission data, patents, and academic paper databases.

It’s estimated that the whole of the entire surface web only amounts to about 20 terabytes of information, or five percent of the information available for open search. On the other hand, the deep web occupies about 7.5 peta bytes of information, or just around 95 percent of the total.

How to Search the Deep Web

Knowing where to look when diving into the deep   end of the web is the first, and probably most important step you should take before starting anything else. The deep web is almost infinitely vast when it comes to the amount of information you can find. However, unlike what most people are used to when searching for something in Google, all of that data isn’t centralized in the same place.

This means for as many different subjects you can think of (finance, software, business, economics, academia, etc), there are an equal number of search engines designed to dive into the deep web archives of those particular subjects.

One issue that some researchers run into though is the problem of paywalls. There’s no getting around it: in order to run these websites/databases and keep the lights on, many of the sites mentioned below will keep their content hidden behind a paywall. It can cost upwards of $50 to read a single document. Alternatively, subscription plans can get you access to all content for a flat fee.

Avoiding paywalls

If paywalls are a problem for you, one tool we recommend checking out is  the Google Chrome browser extension Unpaywall . Unpaywall automatically scours the web for a free version of any content you’re trying to access that says it’s behind a paywall. You may not always get back a free result for every paper you search, however it’s still nice to the know the option is there if you need it in a pinch.

Best deep web research tools

JSTOR  — The first — and probably most obvious — addition to this list is the JSTOR database. Established in 1995, this treasure trove of research continues to be one of the first stops for any academic researcher on their way down the rabbit hole.

Offering full-text searches for over 2,000 individual journals and 15,000+ books, JSTOR is a must-have for anyone who prefers a more “one-stop shop” approach during their data deep dives.

JSTOR is also home to Artstor, which allows art historians and the like to search through 825,557 items drawn from 305 collections. Content is sourced from artists, photo archives, museums, libraries, scholars. It includes rare materials not available anywhere else.

A free JSTOR account will let you search across selected open access journals, ebooks, research reports, images, media, and special collections. The full range may be accessible through your public library or school. If not, an individual research subscription costs $19.50 a month/$199 per year, and will provide you with access to 85% of full journal runs on JSTOR and up to 120 PDF downloads.

Archive.org – A gigantic database of media that’s been entered into the public domain. Sound recordings, old videos, rare books, pretty much anything you might need to build your next great presentation at school, work, or both! It’s partnered with the Wayback Machine, which has over 280 billion webpages that have been indexed since nearly the inception of the internet itself. All content is free to access.

Library of Congress – Digitized archives of everything that’s entered the Library of Congress. Its collections contain more than 171 million books, recordings, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, images, music, and electronic resources. Online librarians and specialists are available to help locate material.

Osti.gov  – Government research archives, complete with a history of all studies undertaken by the government. Your tax dollars paid for these, so why shouldn’t they belong to you? 100 percent searchable, and capable of returning results from within any document you’re trying to search for.

GPO’s Catalog of US Government Publications — A federal publications database that includes descriptive information for historical and current publications, with links to the full document when available.

The National Archives — National Archives’ research tools and online database. If there is anything you need to know about America’s history or the current state of the nation, this is the place. It’s a permanent store for the between 1% and 3% of government documents that are deemed important enough to be kept forever.

HighWire Press  —  Online catalog of the largest repository of free full-text and non-free text, peer-reviewed content, from over 1,000 different journals. It’s hit or miss as far as what’s behind a paywall and what isn’t. The only way to find out is to filter down your search terms to a point where you can see enough publications on both the paid and non-paid side of the aisle to decide whether or not you’ll need to pull out that wallet.

Encyclopedia Britannica — The original Google, now online with all the great pictures and text you still remember from the books! It’s seemingly random whether the information you want will be locked behind a paywall. Unlimited access costs $8.99 a month or $74.95 a year.

FRED  — Up-to-date financial data covering 470,000 time series from 85 different resources, this database is provided free of charge thanks to the helping hands over at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRED links out to a number of other equally impressive resources for economic data. It should be the primary resource for anyone doing research in the fields of finance and economic theory in the US.

Google Books  – The most obvious choice. Though the other listings below are fine for what they do, but none can quite measure up to Google’s book-scanning prowess. Some books will have partial previews, others fully available, and even more still won’t let you see anything at all. All text is digitized (and searchable), but whether or not you’ll be able to read your results depends entirely on the state of the copyright license on that particular piece of text.

Scribd  — This may not exactly fill the role of your ultimate academic research database, however the monthly subscription service is still a good way to stay up to date on any new articles that might be running in your favorite magazines or be able to search through books that just hit the shelves. The documents section allows users to upload pretty much anything with few restrictions, so it’s become a repository for many textbooks and other academic content.

Project Gutenberg — Provides 70,000 free e-books available online, and is part of the Archive.org searchable database. Browse bookshelves of related books or download catalogs.

The Online Books Page — A searchable database of over three million free online books. The site is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

Getty Research Institute  – The Getty Research Institute library collections include over one million books, study photographs, periodicals and auction catalogs. There’s also a pretty deep collection of rare or unique materials that focus on art history and architecture.

Law and Politics

Law Library of Congress — Claims to be the largest collection of law books and other legal resources in the world. Its collection currently consists of more than one million titles, and over three million microform items. A searchable online catalog is available .

LexisNexis — Solid resource for any aspiring law student or practicing lawyer. Daily updated database of information, though it doesn’t come cheap. Prices for different services offered by LexisNexis will vary depending on the service and even what state you’re searching in, but expect to spend upwards of $125/month for services like Lexis Advance, which let you search through millions of court and legal documents submitted in actual cases from all around the United States. Before forking out any money, check whether your local library can help with access.

Medical and Health

Science.gov  — Gateway to science info provided by US government agencies. Searches an aggregated database of 200 million different publications and journals. It’s recommended for anyone trying to do research on topics that are covered specifically under the “science” category.

PubMed  — The U.S. National Library of Medicine contains over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals reaching all the way back to the 1950’s. One of the first, and still one of the best medical databases available online today. Many articles are free to access.

New England Journal of Medicine — One of the leading medical journals with full text past issues available online. Be ready to pay for some content, but quite a bit is available for free as well. Subscriptions are available for $169 a year.

Science and Academic

Geography and geology.

US Geologic Survey – Packed with as many maps and images as you can stomach, covering many different aspects of the the US geological topography. Search through more than  160,000 publications authored by USGS scientists. 

US National Map by USGS  – The source for current geospatial data from the USGS. All maps provided are both interactively available on the web, as well as in their downloadable formats.

USGS Real-Time Water Data — A map of the United States showing real-time water quality data of the country’s rivers and reservoirs.

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — Maps of the world showing real-time earthquake data. Has an interactive map that you can use to jump from location to location, fun for anyone who’s even got a passing level of interest in what’s really happening just under our feet.

Physics and Astronomy

The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System – A physics and astronomy data engine for academic papers. It’s one of the best ways to get your hands on the raw data pouring out from telescopes and physics experiments from all around the globe. Papers you want to read must be individually requested, which can be time consuming.

Academic Index – Splits into two different types of searches: the main search which basically returns more fine-tuned Google results, and the other that searches deep web academic troves.  It aims to increase the visibility of academic information without the information overload of mainstream search engines.

Engineering and Technology

IEEE Xplore Digital Library  — Contains over 1.4 million documents from the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers. Searchable database of up-to-date materials regarding almost anything and everything to do with electrical engineering and technology as a whole.

National Technical Reports Library — Claims to have the largest collection of U.S. government-sponsored technical reports in existence. These are free to access.

Miscellaneous

Core  — The world’s largest searchable database of open access research papers. Huge database of aggregated papers and research, all text-searchable. Should be your first stop for any early research that may not require as deep of a dive as somewhere else.

Arxiv  — Cornell University repository. Access to 700,000+  technical papers on everything from quantitative biology to computer science. Appears to offer full text in several formats.

DeepDyve — A commercial trawler that has aggregated quite literally millions of articles across thousands of scientific journals. If you’re searching for anything in the way of STEM projects, this is a great place to start — though you’ll have to pay for the privilege. A monthly subscription costs $49.

Video Resources 

VideoLectures.net  – Really strong set of video lectures from high authority sources, nearly 26,000 lectures to choose from and over 30,000 informational videos in total.

TED — Diverse platform with more than 4,300 videos from industry speakers discussing topics in the fields of technology, design, science and global issues.

Image credit: “ Library ” from Pixabay licensed under  CC BY 2.0

5 Comments Leave a comment

As a former medical librarian and now a professor at a major research university for more than a decade, I was glad to see the word “library” used so many times in this article; it is mysteriously missing from so many OTHER articles on this topic. A few clarifications are needed, though:

1. JSTOR has what is called a “moving wall” which means that depending on the content you are looking for, and the agreements publishers have reached with this vendor, you may be looking at articles no more recent than 3 years old. How much this matters depends on what content you are looking for. Read about the “moving wall” at: http://support.jstor.org/additional-resources-student-and-faculty/2015/7/21/what-the-what-is-a-moving-wall

2. Your comment (in the section on JSTOR) that “If you can’t afford that, many universities (more specifically, their professors) should have a subscription they’d be willing to let you use as long as you ask nicely enough!” struck me as rather bizarre. I really wouldn’t recommend writing a professor and asking them to hand over their passwords to their university computer systems. Even if we had time, we are unlikely to do this. Rather, seek out the closest public university to which your tax dollars guarantee you access, visit that university’s library and search for yourself using one of that library’s computers. It is not uncommon for public universities to have things called “community cards” which cost $25-30 a year and let you in to exploit those tax dollars to your heart’s content.

3. Finally, public libraries are able to help you obtain copies of articles, and the larger ones subscribe to some of the same databases of full-text content that the academic ones do.

Libraries are the best way to avoid paywalls I know.

Very good effort

The deep web is indeed a fascinating resource, one I have spent much time with. Since this article lists OSTI.gov, where I was Senior Consultant for Innovation for a decade, here are some refinements.

OSTI has ten different “collections” as they call them: https://www.osti.gov/home/catalogue-collections

However, the two biggest are actually portals performing federated search on other people’s collections, so they are not OSTI collections. These portals use a specific approach, where each distant collection is first searched using its own search engine, then the results are re-ranked collectively. No interoperability is needed among the collections, something the repository community might find useful. The technology is pretty amazing, yet inexpensive. It is provided by Deep Web Technologies — http://www.deepwebtech.com/ . I recommend them highly.

The first of these federated portals is Science.gov — https://www.science.gov/ , which the article incorrectly puts under Medical and Health. It actually searches over 60 federal document databases (plus 2200 websites) so the scope is all of funded science.

But the really big one (which I helped build) is WorldWideScience.org — https://worldwidescience.org/ , which is not listed. OSTI organized and operates WWS.org. Here is the OSTI description: “OSTI hosts this international gateway to approximately 100 national science collections from more than 70 participating nations.  WorldWideScience.org offers simultaneous, real-time searching of the most current information from around the world in fields such as energy, medicine, agriculture, environment, and basic sciences.  Multilingual translation capabilities are available for ten languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.  Content includes text-based and multimedia information, as well as research data.” Science.gov is just one of the 100 or so federated collections, so WWS.org is a monster second order federation.

I am proud to say that the multilingual translation feature, built and operated by Microsoft, was my idea. A query entered in a given user language is translated into the language needed to search each national collection, many of which are not in English. The search results are then all translated back into the user’s language. Of course machine translation is limited and the results can be pretty rough but it is still a great step forward. I can search Chinese, Arabic, Russian, German, Japanese, …. language science collections simultaneously and read all the results. Woohoo!

David Wojick http://insidepublicaccess.com/

One option for searching some of the databases like JSTOR, PubMed, and others is to run a site-limited query in Google that returns only results from the database to which the query is limited. For example a JSTOR-limited search: “marshall plan” OR “european recovery program” AND U.S. AND strategy AND site:jstor.org. The advanced search syntaxes work; for example a title search: intitle:vaccines AND children AND site:medlineplus.gov.

Thank you for this fascinating trove of information sources. mario

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4 Good AI Academic Search Engines

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: August 1, 2024

Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, generative AI has taken center stage in technological innovation. This transformative technology is making steady inroads into all aspects of our lives, including education. We’ve witnessed a proliferation of AI tools enhancing both teaching and learning. Even established edtech platforms like Khan Academy, Kahoot, and Quizlet have embraced the AI revolution, integrating it into their systems. In essence, AI, and more specifically generative AI, is reshaping education in unprecedented ways.

As this generative AI revolution unfolded, I shifted the focus of my academic research to this emerging technology, becoming deeply interested in its educational potential. To this end, I authored a book titled “ ChatGPT for Teachers ,” which explains the fundamentals of generative AI, outlines practical prompting strategies for educators, and discusses the limitations of AI, especially within educational settings.

Currently, I’m working on another book that explores the use of AI in academic research. This post draws insights from this ongoing work. Today, I aim to share a collection of AI-powered academic search engines that will enable you to find research papers and journal articles with unprecedented ease. I often find myself wishing these tools had been available during my doctoral studies; they could have saved me considerable time and effort.

While these AI academic search engines are valuable at any stage of research, I find them particularly helpful in conducting literature reviews, which typically involve extensive exploration of existing scholarship. Using these AI tools will allow you to access relevant research materials more efficiently and organize your papers more effectively. You can also combine these with the PDF Chat Tools I covered in an earlier post to further streamline your research process.

AI Academic Search Engines

These AI-powered search engines are most beneficial during the initial stages of research, where you’re engaging in extensive literature review. They enable quicker access to relevant research materials and more efficient organization of papers. For an even more streamlined research process, consider combining these tools with the PDF Chat Tools I discussed in a previous post.

1. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an AI-powered search engine for over 214 million scientific publications across all disciplines. It allows refined searches using filters such as journals, conferences, authors, publication formats, and date ranges. Results can be sorted by recency, relevance, or citation count. One standout feature is the “highly influential citations,” which identifies publications with significant impact based on a machine-learning model analyzing citations. Other features include saving papers to your library, creating author alerts for recent publications, and setting up topic alerts for new papers.

I’ve used Semantic Scholar for years, and the platform has integrated several AI features to enhance functionality. These include TLDR, which provides concise summaries for papers, and AI-powered paper recommendations based on your library. You can also explore topics with AI-generated definitions and related papers. The “Ask This Paper” feature lets you interact with a paper’s content by asking specific questions, and the Semantic Reader facilitates reading by offering citation cards, TLDR summaries, and a table of contents to help navigate between sections.

2. Consensus

Consensus is an AI-powered academic search engine that helps you quickly find relevant research papers. Simply input your research questions and enable the ‘Synthesize’ toggle. Consensus then synthesizes insights from a vast pool of academic papers and presents results in a user-friendly format, with each tile representing a single paper. Each tile includes information about the journal, authors, and citations, along with a grey box containing key insights from the paper or answers to your questions.

The ‘Study Snapshot’ is one of my favourite features. It provides an AI-generated summary of the paper’s population, sample size, methods, and outcomes. Clicking on the paper title reveals detailed information, including references, links to full texts, and quality metrics. Consensus also offers powerful research filters to refine searches by sample size, study design, methodology, and more, and includes paper quality indicators to assess credibility. This helps streamline the literature review process by extracting main insights and citing sources, allowing you to explore relevant literature and expand your research efficiently.

Elicit is an AI-powered academic search engine ideal for preparing literature reviews. Simply input your question, and Elicit synthesizes insights from relevant papers, providing titles, authors, journals, citations, summaries, and external links for further exploration. You can refine your search with filters such as publication year, journal quality, study type, PDF availability, and more. For example, using the ‘Abstract Keywords’ filter, Elicit returns papers with abstracts containing your specified keywords. Additionally, you can filter papers using over 30 predefined columns or create custom ones.

Elicit offers a library service to save and organize papers and a notebook feature to capture thoughts and highlights. You can upload PDFs to extract insights, aiding in reading papers. An interesting feature is the ‘List of Concepts,’ which allows you to search for related concepts across different papers. This helps you learn more about your research topic and discover new research avenues. Elicit excels at citing sources and provides comprehensive information to streamline your literature review process.

4. R Discovery

R Discovery is an AI tool designed to assist with academic research, making it easy to find relevant papers. Start by creating an account and customizing your feed by selecting your research area and adding topics or journals. This will generate a feed of research papers tailored to your interests. Each paper in the feed includes details like the abstract, DOI link, options to export to Zotero or Mendeley, an audio version, translation, and more. The ‘Similar Papers’ feature is particularly useful, providing an AI-curated collection of papers on the same topic, helping you discover relevant materials to enrich your research.

R Discovery also features a custom GPT called Ask GPT, allowing real-time interaction with the R Discovery bot inside ChatGPT. You can ask questions, and Ask GPT will fetch and synthesize answers from its extensive database of scientific and academic papers, providing a seamless way to enhance your literature review process.

Final thoughts

I hope you have found these tools helpful in navigating your academic research. Each of these AI-powered search engines can significantly streamline your literature review process, saving you time and effort. Stay tuned for my upcoming book on AI tools for academic research, which will be a treasure trove of resources and insights to enhance your research journey. From detailed guides to practical tips, this book will provide everything you need to leverage AI effectively in your academic work.

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Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational technology landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

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The Best AI Search Engines to Try in 2024

Updated: August 05, 2024

Published: July 29, 2024

Like most of you, I have fallen down countless rabbit holes in Google searches. “How to make a latte?” turns into “Latte vs. americano?” which turns into “How bad is caffeine for you?” and ends with “Coffee alternatives.”

Often, though, I’ve found myself frustrated by how many times I have to reword the same query in traditional search engines to nudge the browser to comprehend what I’m asking.

Not to mention how exasperating it is to scroll through unrelated sponsored ads before getting to the meat of my search.

Enter AI-generated search engines.

Table of Contents

What are AI search engines?

How i test ai search engines, 7 best ai search engines.

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AI search engines are search engines that use some combination of web crawlers, innate artificial intelligence, and user data to improve users’ search experiences and provide more pertinent responses. They have become some of the top search engines today due to their intuitiveness.

You’ll find less of a need to clarify your query with AI search engines because they are built to better understand human intent. And, your responses will often be summed up in AI-generated copy with cited sources, rather than forcing you to click through several URLs to check their relevance.

Since all these tools have the same purpose — answering your question by scouring the web for suitable sources and links that can be combined with innate AI knowledge or chat capabilities to provide the most accurate answer — it was easy for me to test them all in the same way.

I simply used the same two questions across every AI search engine and measured the success of the search engine by how it answered the questions. One being more of a straightforward, factual question and the other a broader question. Below are the seven best options from my research.

1. Perplexity

I kicked off with Perplexity, which has been all the rage lately. There’s a lot to know about this search engine, but most importantly, many are admitting Perplexity has replaced Google in their lives .

It’s like a mix of ChatGPT and Google. Meaning that it can answer your questions in a human-like manner, but it pulls its facts from a quick search of all the articles available, rather than having an innate knowledge base.

I started with my straightforward question: What’s the biggest city in America? The first thing I noted was that Perplexity has a very similar interface to ChatGPT since it uses OpenAI's language models.

Outside of the sources linked at the top and referred to throughout the answer, Perplexity also shares relevant images on the right-hand side, with an option to search videos or generate images.

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4. Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is an AI companion tool specifically meant to be paired with Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

It reminds me a lot of ChatSpot , HubSpot’s chatbot and AI Assistant, in that it is best used when paired with our own products.

Copilot seamlessly integrates into Microsoft 365 apps to help with the most appropriate tasks, from writing thought-starters in Word to design help in PowerPoint to email inbox efficiency in Outlook.

The “Learn More” feature lists follow-up questions to continue your search.

Searching in “Research” mode is very limited in the free version, with a strict once-daily limit. This mode is very unique to Komo and would be ideal if made more available to free users.

Basic plan: $8/month

Premium plan: $15/month

Business plan: Contact the Komo team for pricing.

You.com, aptly named for how it can be personalized for how you best want to use it, is an AI search engine with four AI assistants and the ability to explore 16 AI models.

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