best way to search 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.

Great for academic research, you can use Google Scholar to find articles from academic journals, conference proceedings, theses, and dissertations. The results returned by Google Scholar are typically more relevant and reliable than those from regular search engines like Google.

#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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• Corrections

Search Help

Get the most out of Google Scholar with some helpful tips on searches, email alerts, citation export, and more.

Finding recent papers

Your search results are normally sorted by relevance, not by date. To find newer articles, try the following options in the left sidebar:

• click "Since Year" to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance;
• click "Sort by date" to show just the new additions, sorted by date;
• click the envelope icon to have new results periodically delivered by email.

Locating the full text of an article

Abstracts are freely available for most of the articles. Alas, reading the entire article may require a subscription. Here're a few things to try:

• click a library link, e.g., "FindIt@Harvard", to the right of the search result;
• click a link labeled [PDF] to the right of the search result;
• click "All versions" under the search result and check out the alternative sources;
• click "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result to explore similar articles.

If you're affiliated with a university, but don't see links such as "FindIt@Harvard", please check with your local library about the best way to access their online subscriptions. You may need to do search from a computer on campus, or to configure your browser to use a library proxy.

Getting better answers

If you're new to the subject, it may be helpful to pick up the terminology from secondary sources. E.g., a Wikipedia article for "overweight" might suggest a Scholar search for "pediatric hyperalimentation".

If the search results are too specific for your needs, check out what they're citing in their "References" sections. Referenced works are often more general in nature.

Similarly, if the search results are too basic for you, click "Cited by" to see newer papers that referenced them. These newer papers will often be more specific.

Explore! There's rarely a single answer to a research question. Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" to see closely related work, or search for author's name and see what else they have written.

Searching Google Scholar

Use the "author:" operator, e.g., author:"d knuth" or author:"donald e knuth".

Put the paper's title in quotations: "A History of the China Sea".

You'll often get better results if you search only recent articles, but still sort them by relevance, not by date. E.g., click "Since 2018" in the left sidebar of the search results page.

To see the absolutely newest articles first, click "Sort by date" in the sidebar. If you use this feature a lot, you may also find it useful to setup email alerts to have new results automatically sent to you.

Note: On smaller screens that don't show the sidebar, these options are available in the dropdown menu labelled "Year" right below the search button.

Select the "Case law" option on the homepage or in the side drawer on the search results page.

It finds documents similar to the given search result.

It's in the side drawer. The advanced search window lets you search in the author, title, and publication fields, as well as limit your search results by date.

Select the "Case law" option and do a keyword search over all jurisdictions. Then, click the "Select courts" link in the left sidebar on the search results page.

Tip: To quickly search a frequently used selection of courts, bookmark a search results page with the desired selection.

Access to articles

For each Scholar search result, we try to find a version of the article that you can read. These access links are labelled [PDF] or [HTML] and appear to the right of the search result. For example:

A paper that you need to read

Access links cover a wide variety of ways in which articles may be available to you - articles that your library subscribes to, open access articles, free-to-read articles from publishers, preprints, articles in repositories, etc.

When you are on a campus network, access links automatically include your library subscriptions and direct you to subscribed versions of articles. On-campus access links cover subscriptions from primary publishers as well as aggregators.

Off-campus access

Off-campus access links let you take your library subscriptions with you when you are at home or traveling. You can read subscribed articles when you are off-campus just as easily as when you are on-campus. Off-campus access links work by recording your subscriptions when you visit Scholar while on-campus, and looking up the recorded subscriptions later when you are off-campus.

We use the recorded subscriptions to provide you with the same subscribed access links as you see on campus. We also indicate your subscription access to participating publishers so that they can allow you to read the full-text of these articles without logging in or using a proxy. The recorded subscription information expires after 30 days and is automatically deleted.

In addition to Google Scholar search results, off-campus access links can also appear on articles from publishers participating in the off-campus subscription access program. Look for links labeled [PDF] or [HTML] on the right hand side of article pages.

Anne Author , John Doe , Jane Smith , Someone Else

In this fascinating paper, we investigate various topics that would be of interest to you. We also describe new methods relevant to your project, and attempt to address several questions which you would also like to know the answer to. Lastly, we analyze …

You can disable off-campus access links on the Scholar settings page . Disabling off-campus access links will turn off recording of your library subscriptions. It will also turn off indicating subscription access to participating publishers. Once off-campus access links are disabled, you may need to identify and configure an alternate mechanism (e.g., an institutional proxy or VPN) to access your library subscriptions while off-campus.

Email Alerts

Do a search for the topic of interest, e.g., "M Theory"; click the envelope icon in the sidebar of the search results page; enter your email address, and click "Create alert". We'll then periodically email you newly published papers that match your search criteria.

No, you can enter any email address of your choice. If the email address isn't a Google account or doesn't match your Google account, then we'll email you a verification link, which you'll need to click to start receiving alerts.

This works best if you create a public profile , which is free and quick to do. Once you get to the homepage with your photo, click "Follow" next to your name, select "New citations to my articles", and click "Done". We will then email you when we find new articles that cite yours.

Search for the title of your paper, e.g., "Anti de Sitter space and holography"; click on the "Cited by" link at the bottom of the search result; and then click on the envelope icon in the left sidebar of the search results page.

First, do a search for your colleague's name, and see if they have a Scholar profile. If they do, click on it, click the "Follow" button next to their name, select "New articles by this author", and click "Done".

If they don't have a profile, do a search by author, e.g., [author:s-hawking], and click on the mighty envelope in the left sidebar of the search results page. If you find that several different people share the same name, you may need to add co-author names or topical keywords to limit results to the author you wish to follow.

We send the alerts right after we add new papers to Google Scholar. This usually happens several times a week, except that our search robots meticulously observe holidays.

There's a link to cancel the alert at the bottom of every notification email.

If you created alerts using a Google account, you can manage them all here . If you're not using a Google account, you'll need to unsubscribe from the individual alerts and subscribe to the new ones.

Google Scholar library

Google Scholar library is your personal collection of articles. You can save articles right off the search page, organize them by adding labels, and use the power of Scholar search to quickly find just the one you want - at any time and from anywhere. You decide what goes into your library, and we’ll keep the links up to date.

You get all the goodies that come with Scholar search results - links to PDF and to your university's subscriptions, formatted citations, citing articles, and more!

Library help

Find the article you want to add in Google Scholar and click the “Save” button under the search result.

Click “My library” at the top of the page or in the side drawer to view all articles in your library. To search the full text of these articles, enter your query as usual in the search box.

Find the article you want to remove, and then click the “Delete” button under it.

• To add a label to an article, find the article in your library, click the “Label” button under it, select the label you want to apply, and click “Done”.
• To view all the articles with a specific label, click the label name in the left sidebar of your library page.
• To remove a label from an article, click the “Label” button under it, deselect the label you want to remove, and click “Done”.
• To add, edit, or delete labels, click “Manage labels” in the left column of your library page.

Only you can see the articles in your library. If you create a Scholar profile and make it public, then the articles in your public profile (and only those articles) will be visible to everyone.

Your profile contains all the articles you have written yourself. It’s a way to present your work to others, as well as to keep track of citations to it. Your library is a way to organize the articles that you’d like to read or cite, not necessarily the ones you’ve written.

Citation Export

Click the "Cite" button under the search result and then select your bibliography manager at the bottom of the popup. We currently support BibTeX, EndNote, RefMan, and RefWorks.

Err, no, please respect our robots.txt when you access Google Scholar using automated software. As the wearers of crawler's shoes and webmaster's hat, we cannot recommend adherence to web standards highly enough.

Sorry, we're unable to provide bulk access. You'll need to make an arrangement directly with the source of the data you're interested in. Keep in mind that a lot of the records in Google Scholar come from commercial subscription services.

Sorry, we can only show up to 1,000 results for any particular search query. Try a different query to get more results.

Content Coverage

Google Scholar includes journal and conference papers, theses and dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, abstracts, technical reports and other scholarly literature from all broad areas of research. You'll find works from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies and university repositories, as well as scholarly articles available anywhere across the web. Google Scholar also includes court opinions and patents.

We index research articles and abstracts from most major academic publishers and repositories worldwide, including both free and subscription sources. To check current coverage of a specific source in Google Scholar, search for a sample of their article titles in quotes.

While we try to be comprehensive, it isn't possible to guarantee uninterrupted coverage of any particular source. We index articles from sources all over the web and link to these websites in our search results. If one of these websites becomes unavailable to our search robots or to a large number of web users, we have to remove it from Google Scholar until it becomes available again.

Our meticulous search robots generally try to index every paper from every website they visit, including most major sources and also many lesser known ones.

That said, Google Scholar is primarily a search of academic papers. Shorter articles, such as book reviews, news sections, editorials, announcements and letters, may or may not be included. Untitled documents and documents without authors are usually not included. Website URLs that aren't available to our search robots or to the majority of web users are, obviously, not included either. Nor do we include websites that require you to sign up for an account, install a browser plugin, watch four colorful ads, and turn around three times and say coo-coo before you can read the listing of titles scanned at 10 DPI... You get the idea, we cover academic papers from sensible websites.

That's usually because we index many of these papers from other websites, such as the websites of their primary publishers. The "site:" operator currently only searches the primary version of each paper.

It could also be that the papers are located on examplejournals.gov, not on example.gov. Please make sure you're searching for the "right" website.

That said, the best way to check coverage of a specific source is to search for a sample of their papers using the title of the paper.

Ahem, we index papers, not journals. You should also ask about our coverage of universities, research groups, proteins, seminal breakthroughs, and other dimensions that are of interest to users. All such questions are best answered by searching for a statistical sample of papers that has the property of interest - journal, author, protein, etc. Many coverage comparisons are available if you search for [allintitle:"google scholar"], but some of them are more statistically valid than others.

Currently, Google Scholar allows you to search and read published opinions of US state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, US federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791. In addition, it includes citations for cases cited by indexed opinions or journal articles which allows you to find influential cases (usually older or international) which are not yet online or publicly available.

Legal opinions in Google Scholar are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed lawyer. Google does not warrant that the information is complete or accurate.

We normally add new papers several times a week. However, updates to existing records take 6-9 months to a year or longer, because in order to update our records, we need to first recrawl them from the source website. For many larger websites, the speed at which we can update their records is limited by the crawl rate that they allow.

Inclusion and Corrections

We apologize, and we assure you the error was unintentional. Automated extraction of information from articles in diverse fields can be tricky, so an error sometimes sneaks through.

Please write to the owner of the website where the erroneous search result is coming from, and encourage them to provide correct bibliographic data to us, as described in the technical guidelines . Once the data is corrected on their website, it usually takes 6-9 months to a year or longer for it to be updated in Google Scholar. We appreciate your help and your patience.

If you can't find your papers when you search for them by title and by author, please refer your publisher to our technical guidelines .

You can also deposit your papers into your institutional repository or put their PDF versions on your personal website, but please follow your publisher's requirements when you do so. See our technical guidelines for more details on the inclusion process.

We normally add new papers several times a week; however, it might take us some time to crawl larger websites, and corrections to already included papers can take 6-9 months to a year or longer.

Google Scholar generally reflects the state of the web as it is currently visible to our search robots and to the majority of users. When you're searching for relevant papers to read, you wouldn't want it any other way!

If your citation counts have gone down, chances are that either your paper or papers that cite it have either disappeared from the web entirely, or have become unavailable to our search robots, or, perhaps, have been reformatted in a way that made it difficult for our automated software to identify their bibliographic data and references. If you wish to correct this, you'll need to identify the specific documents with indexing problems and ask your publisher to fix them. Please refer to the technical guidelines .

Please do let us know . Please include the URL for the opinion, the corrected information and a source where we can verify the correction.

We're only able to make corrections to court opinions that are hosted on our own website. For corrections to academic papers, books, dissertations and other third-party material, click on the search result in question and contact the owner of the website where the document came from. For corrections to books from Google Book Search, click on the book's title and locate the link to provide feedback at the bottom of the book's page.

General Questions

These are articles which other scholarly articles have referred to, but which we haven't found online. To exclude them from your search results, uncheck the "include citations" box on the left sidebar.

First, click on links labeled [PDF] or [HTML] to the right of the search result's title. Also, check out the "All versions" link at the bottom of the search result.

Second, if you're affiliated with a university, using a computer on campus will often let you access your library's online subscriptions. Look for links labeled with your library's name to the right of the search result's title. Also, see if there's a link to the full text on the publisher's page with the abstract.

Keep in mind that final published versions are often only available to subscribers, and that some articles are not available online at all. Good luck!

Technically, your web browser remembers your settings in a "cookie" on your computer's disk, and sends this cookie to our website along with every search. Check that your browser isn't configured to discard our cookies. Also, check if disabling various proxies or overly helpful privacy settings does the trick. Either way, your settings are stored on your computer, not on our servers, so a long hard look at your browser's preferences or internet options should help cure the machine's forgetfulness.

Not even close. That phrase is our acknowledgement that much of scholarly research involves building on what others have already discovered. It's taken from Sir Isaac Newton's famous quote, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

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• Key guides for students

Literature Review

How to search effectively.

• Find examples of literature reviews
• How to write a literature review
• Grey literature

The  Literature searching interactive tutorial  includes self-paced, guided activities to assist you in developing  effective search skills..

1. Identify search words

Analyse your research topic or question.

• What are the main ideas?
• What concepts or theories have you already covered?
• Write down your main ideas, synonyms, related words and phrases.
• If you're looking for specific types of research, use these suggested terms: qualitative, quantitative, methodology, review, survey, test, trend (and more).
• Be aware of UK and US spelling variations. E.g. organisation OR organization, ageing OR aging.
• Interactive Keyword Builder
• Identifying effective keywords

2. Connect your search words

Find results with one or more search words.

Use OR between words that mean the same thing.

E.g.  adolescent  OR  teenager

This search will find results with either (or both) of the search words.

Find results with two search words

Use AND between words which represent the main ideas in the question.

E.g. adolescent AND “physical activity”

This will find results with both of the search words.

Exclude search words

Use NOT to exclude words that you don’t want in your search results.

E.g. (adolescent OR teenager) NOT “young adult”

3. Use search tricks

Search for different word endings.

Truncation *

The asterisk symbol * will help you search for different word endings.

E.g. teen* will find results with the words: teen, teens, teenager, teenagers

Specific truncation symbols will vary. Check the 'Help' section of the database you are searching.

Search for common phrases

Phrase searching “...........”

Double quotation marks help you search for common phrases and make your results more relevant.

E.g. “physical activity” will find results with the words physical activity together as a phrase.

Search for spelling variations within related terms

Wildcards ?

Wildcard symbols allow you to search for spelling variations within the same or related terms.

E.g. wom?n will find results with women OR woman

Specific wild card symbols will vary. Check the 'Help' section of the database you are searching.

Search terms within specific ranges of each other

Proximity  w/#

Proximity searching allows you to specify where your search terms will appear in relation to each other.

E.g.  pain w/10 morphine will search for pain within ten words of morphine

Specific proximity symbols will vary. Check the 'Help' section of the database you are searching.

4. Improve your search results

All library databases are different and you can't always search and refine in the same way. Try to be consistent when transferring your search in the library databases you have chosen.

Narrow and refine your search results by:

• year of publication or date range (for recent or historical research)
• document or source type (e.g. article, review or book)
• subject or keyword (for relevance). Try repeating your search using the 'subject' headings or 'keywords' field to focus your search
• searching in particular fields, i.e. citation and abstract. Explore the available dropdown menus to change the fields to be searched.

When searching, remember to:

Adapt your search and keep trying.

Searching for information is a process and you won't always get it right the first time. Improve your results by changing your search and trying again until you're happy with what you have found.

Keep track of your searches

Keeping track of searches saves time as you can rerun them, store references, and set up regular alerts for new research relevant to your topic.

Most library databases allow you to register with a personal account. Look for a 'log in', 'sign in' or 'register' button to get started.

• Literature review search tracker (Excel spreadsheet)

Manage your references

There are free and subscription reference management programs available on the web or to download on your computer.

• EndNote - The University has a license for EndNote. It is available for all students and staff, although is recommended for postgraduates and academic staff.
• Zotero - Free software recommended for undergraduate students.
• Previous: How to write a literature review
• Next: Where to search when doing a literature review
• Last Updated: May 28, 2024 9:42 AM
• URL: https://uow.libguides.com/literaturereview

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How to find Research Papers: A Cheat Sheet for Graduate Students

• July 23, 2022
• PRODUCTIVITY

“I will read this paper later.” I thought to myself before adding another paper to my overflowing internet browser.

Of course, I didn’t read it later.

Since my workflow was unorganized, I missed out on reading many important papers.

This was a crucial period in my undergraduate career. I had been working with a company for my final year project and knew success would require a solid intellectual foundation. For many hours, I read papers, determined to master the literature in my field.

“How to find research papers quickly?” has been a never-ending question for me.

However, I was unable to succeed despite my best intentions, largely due to inefficiency. In addition, I did not have a system in place for keeping track of new papers being published daily in my topic area or checking if I had missed key studies.

Nothing is worse than forgetting where you saved an important research paper. If I couldn’t find that specific paper, I couldn’t do anything else, and sometimes a day would pass before I found it.

As I was about to begin my PhD, I convinced myself that I should be more organized.

This is the first post of the four-part blog series:  The Bulletproof Literature Management System . Follow the links below to read the other posts in the series:

• How to How to find Research Papers (You are here)
• How to Manage Research Papers
• How to Read Research Papers
• How to Organize Research Papers

My workflow has evolved through many iterations, and I have finally found a system that suits my needs after lots of trial and error.

These tips will help you how to find research papers quickly and more efficiently.

Get recommendations from your supervisor

You may have already received a folder of information from your supervisor regarding your thesis topic. Your supervisor should have already been working on the proposal before you were hired for a funded project.

My supervisor, for example, has a folder named “Literature” for each project folder that contains all the important papers one might need to complete that project.

Therefore, asking your supervisor is one of the most straightforward ways to find research papers.

Even though your supervisor has not put up a folder like that, you can still ask them for recommendations, and they can point out a couple of pertinent articles. From there, you can find the references in the papers they recommended.

Use feed aggregators

Feed aggregators, such as Feedly , Inoreader , and NewsBlur , help me organize my feeds. In the morning, I dedicate five minutes to scanning my feed. For most papers, I just glance at the title and scroll past. Whenever I come across something interesting, I add it to my ‘Read Later’ folder.

Instead of storing papers in an unsecured location, my papers are more secure. As a result, it is much easier for me to look at that folder later on.

Use literature mapping tools

ResearchRabbit , Inciteful , Litmaps , and Connected Papers are literature-mapping tools you can use to dig deeper into a topic. It lets you see which papers are the most groundbreaking in a given field based on their citation networks.

This might not be very helpful if you’re doing research in a relatively new area. Finding relevant research papers in such cases may be more challenging.

This is why checking research databases would be a better option.

Use standard research databases

Scopus has strong searching capabilities and publishes metrics that can measure the relative importance of papers in their fields. However, it may take up to 2 years before an article is included in Scopus.

It has more features for sorting and filtering, so you might not feel overwhelmed when searching.

Therefore, if you are just starting your research, SCOPUS might be an excellent option for finding research papers.

ResearchGate

In addition to traditional searching for publications, ResearchGate offers the following features:

• Follow researchers in your field, so you can keep up with their work.
• Keep up-to-date with the research projects of other researchers by following their research projects, and
• Comment on publications, ask questions, and send direct messages to interact with others.

As most of the comments on ResearchGate are coming from experts in their respective fields, the QnA section may be a great resource for finding the right paper for your research.

An RSS(Really Simple Syndication) feed, as the name implies, is a straightforward solution. By subscribing to RSS, users can access content from specific websites.

You can find RSS feeds for nearly every major journal and preprint server on their home pages – just look for the orange icon. As new articles are added to PubMed or Google Scholar, you can even subscribe to specific keywords.

Use academic textbooks the right way

If you are new to a particular research area, it would be best to start by reading textbooks to understand the topic better.

Despite the lack of depth and detail in a textbook, it can provide you with the basic concepts you need to read further. Furthermore, textbooks often include extensive lists of references as well as this information to get you started . Download the relevant articles from these references.

You might feel overwhelmed if you try to read an academic textbook from beginning to end. For this reason, read only the sections which contain the information you need for your project.

Review papers are game changers

A review paper on your topic is a great starting point for finding good references and getting a broad overview of your research topic.

After reading the review paper, you can read the references cited therein.

You are reading a much more comprehensive summary of the topic than you would have found reading ten individual research papers on the same topic if you found a highly relevant review paper for your research.

Look for technical reports and theses

Make sure you don’t limit yourself to research papers when looking for references. A technical report or code document on your topic may contain important citations (as well as practical information).

There is nothing that compares to a PhD thesis when it comes to the depth and extent of analytical work. See which references students have cited in their theses on your topic.

If you find a relevant thesis for your literature review, you will have extensive information about the research topic in one place, saving you a ton of time.

Google Scholar

The best for the last!

Due to its versatility and efficiency in finding academic papers, I decided to include Google Scholar separately from the database section.

I enjoy using Google Scholar among all the fancy databases available. One drawback to Google Scholar is that it lacks the ability to search for keywords and filter results.

Therefore, if you are just starting your research and aren’t sure what “keywords” to search for, Google Scholar might not be your first choice.

The advantage of Google Scholar is that if you are already familiar with your field of study and already know what you are doing, you will be able to find relevant research papers more quickly.

Use Google Scholar’s search function to locate relevant articles. Furthermore, you can subscribe to updates from colleagues in your field to access the latest references. The publisher of a journal paper may also report an article faster to Google Scholar than another database, which can take up to two years to include an article.

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Aruna Kumarasiri

Founder at Proactive Grad, Materials Engineer, Researcher, and turned author. In 2019, he started his professional carrier as a materials engineer with the continuation of his research studies. His exposure to both academic and industrial worlds has provided many opportunities for him to give back to young professionals.

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18 Google Scholar tips all students should know

Dec 13, 2022

[[read-time]] min read

Think of this guide as your personal research assistant.

“It’s hard to pick your favorite kid,” Anurag Acharya says when I ask him to talk about a favorite Google Scholar feature he’s worked on. “I work on product, engineering, operations, partnerships,” he says. He’s been doing it for 18 years, which as of this month, happens to be how long Google Scholar has been around.

Google Scholar is also one of Google’s longest-running services. The comprehensive database of research papers, legal cases and other scholarly publications was the fourth Search service Google launched, Anurag says. In honor of this very important tool’s 18th anniversary, I asked Anurag to share 18 things you can do in Google Scholar that you might have missed.

1. Copy article citations in the style of your choice.

With a simple click of the cite button (which sits below an article entry), Google Scholar will give you a ready-to-use citation for the article in five styles, including APA, MLA and Chicago. You can select and copy the one you prefer.

2. Dig deeper with related searches.

Google Scholar’s related searches can help you pinpoint your research; you’ll see them show up on a page in between article results. Anurag describes it like this: You start with a big topic — like “cancer” — and follow up with a related search like “lung cancer” or “colon cancer” to explore specific kinds of cancer.

Related searches can help you find what you’re looking for.

3. And don’t miss the related articles.

This is another great way to find more papers similar to one you found helpful — you can find this link right below an entry.

4. Read the papers you find.

Scholarly articles have long been available only by subscription. To keep you from having to log in every time you see a paper you’re interested in, Scholar works with libraries and publishers worldwide to integrate their subscriptions directly into its search results. Look for a link marked [PDF] or [HTML]. This also includes preprints and other free-to-read versions of papers.

5. Access Google Scholar tools from anywhere on the web with the Scholar Button browser extension.

The Scholar Button browser extension is sort of like a mini version of Scholar that can move around the web with you. If you’re searching for something, hitting the extension icon will show you studies about that topic, and if you’re reading a study, you can hit that same button to find a version you read, create a citation or to save it to your Scholar library.

Install the Scholar Button Chrome browser extension to access Google Scholar from anywhere on the web.

6. Learn more about authors through Scholar profiles.

There are many times when you’ll want to know more about the researchers behind the ideas you’re looking into. You can do this by clicking on an author’s name when it’s hyperlinked in a search result. You’ll find all of their work as well as co-authors, articles they’re cited in and so on. You can also follow authors from their Scholar profile to get email updates about their work, or about when and where their work is cited.

7. Easily find topic experts.

One last thing about author profiles: If there are topics listed below an author’s name on their profile, you can click on these areas of expertise and you’ll see a page of more authors who are researching and publishing on these topics, too.

8. Search for court opinions with the “Case law” button.

Scholar is the largest free database of U.S. court opinions. When you search for something using Google Scholar, you can select the “Case law” button below the search box to see legal cases your keywords are referenced in. You can read the opinions and a summary of what they established.

9. See how those court opinions have been cited.

If you want to better understand the impact of a particular piece of case law, you can select “How Cited,” which is below an entry, to see how and where the document has been cited. For example, here is the How Cited page for Marbury v. Madison , a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established that courts can strike down unconstitutional laws or statutes.

10. Understand how a legal opinion depends on another.

When you’re looking at how case laws are cited within Google Scholar, click on “Cited by” and check out the horizontal bars next to the different results. They indicate how relevant the cited opinion is in the court decision it’s cited within. You will see zero, one, two or three bars before each result. Those bars indicate the extent to which the new opinion depends on and refers to the cited case.

In the Cited by page for New York Times Company v. Sullivan, court cases with three bars next to their name heavily reference the original case. One bar indicates less reliance.

11. Sign up for Google Scholar alerts.

Want to stay up to date on a specific topic? Create an alert for a Google Scholar search for your topics and you’ll get email updates similar to Google Search alerts. Another way to keep up with research in your area is to follow new articles by leading researchers. Go to their profiles and click “Follow.” If you’re a junior grad student, you may consider following articles related to your advisor’s research topics, for instance.

12. Save interesting articles to your library.

It’s easy to go down fascinating rabbit hole after rabbit hole in Google Scholar. Don’t lose track of your research and use the save option that pops up under search results so articles will be in your library for later reading.

13. Keep your library organized with labels.

Labels aren’t only for Gmail! You can create labels within your Google Scholar library so you can keep your research organized. Click on “My library,” and then the “Manage labels…” option to create a new label.

14. If you’re a researcher, share your research with all your colleagues.

Many research funding agencies around the world now mandate that funded articles should become publicly free to read within a year of publication — or sooner. Scholar profiles list such articles to help researchers keep track of them and open up access to ones that are still locked down. That means you can immediately see what is currently available from researchers you’re interested in and how many of their papers will soon be publicly free to read.

15. Look through Scholar’s annual top publications and papers.

Every year, Google Scholar releases the top publications based on the most-cited papers. That list (available in 11 languages) will also take you to each publication’s top papers — this takes into account the “h index,” which measures how much impact an article has had. It’s an excellent place to start a research journey as well as get an idea about the ideas and discoveries researchers are currently focused on.

16. Get even more specific with Advanced Search.

Click on the hamburger icon on the upper left-hand corner and select Advanced Search to fine-tune your queries. For example, articles with exact words or a particular phrase in the title or articles from a particular journal and so on.

17. Find extra help on Google Scholar’s help page.

It might sound obvious, but there’s a wealth of useful information to be found here — like how often the database is updated, tips on formatting searches and how you can use your library subscriptions when you’re off-campus (looking at you, college students!). Oh, and you’ll even learn the origin of that quote on Google Scholar’s home page.

18. Keep up with Google Scholar news.

Don’t forget to check out the Google Scholar blog for updates on new features and tips for using this tool even better.

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How to Find Sources | Scholarly Articles, Books, Etc.

Published on June 13, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on May 31, 2023.

It’s important to know how to find relevant sources when writing a  research paper , literature review , or systematic review .

The types of sources you need will depend on the stage you are at in the research process , but all sources that you use should be credible , up to date, and relevant to your research topic.

There are three main places to look for sources to use in your research:

Research databases

• Your institution’s library
• Other online resources

Table of contents

Library resources, other online sources, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about finding sources.

You can search for scholarly sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar . These provide a range of search functions that can help you to find the most relevant sources.

If you are searching for a specific article or book, include the title or the author’s name. Alternatively, if you’re just looking for sources related to your research problem , you can search using keywords. In this case, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the scope of your project and of the most relevant keywords.

Databases can be general (interdisciplinary) or subject-specific.

• You can use subject-specific databases to ensure that the results are relevant to your field.
• When using a general database or search engine, you can still filter results by selecting specific subjects or disciplines.

Example: JSTOR discipline search filter

Check the table below to find a database that’s relevant to your research.

Google Scholar

To get started, you might also try Google Scholar , an academic search engine that can help you find relevant books and articles. Its “Cited by” function lets you see the number of times a source has been cited. This can tell you something about a source’s credibility and importance to the field.

Example: Google Scholar “Cited by” function

Boolean operators

Boolean operators can also help to narrow or expand your search.

Boolean operators are words and symbols like AND , OR , and NOT that you can use to include or exclude keywords to refine your results. For example, a search for “Nietzsche NOT nihilism” will provide results that include the word “Nietzsche” but exclude results that contain the word “nihilism.”

Many databases and search engines have an advanced search function that allows you to refine results in a similar way without typing the Boolean operators manually.

Example: Project Muse advanced search

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You can find helpful print sources in your institution’s library. These include:

• Journal articles
• Encyclopedias
• Newspapers and magazines

Make sure that the sources you consult are appropriate to your research.

You can find these sources using your institution’s library database. This will allow you to explore the library’s catalog and to search relevant keywords. You can refine your results using Boolean operators .

Once you have found a relevant print source in the library:

• Consider what books are beside it. This can be a great way to find related sources, especially when you’ve found a secondary or tertiary source instead of a primary source .
• Consult the index and bibliography to find the bibliographic information of other relevant sources.

You can consult popular online sources to learn more about your topic. These include:

• Crowdsourced encyclopedias like Wikipedia

You can find these sources using search engines. To refine your search, use Boolean operators in combination with relevant keywords.

However, exercise caution when using online sources. Consider what kinds of sources are appropriate for your research and make sure the sites are credible .

Look for sites with trusted domain extensions:

• URLs that end with .edu are educational resources.
• URLs that end with .gov are government-related resources.
• DOIs often indicate that an article is published in a peer-reviewed , scientific article.

Other sites can still be used, but you should evaluate them carefully and consider alternatives.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

You can find sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar . Use Boolean operators or advanced search functions to narrow or expand your search.

For print sources, you can use your institution’s library database. This will allow you to explore the library’s catalog and to search relevant keywords.

It is important to find credible sources and use those that you can be sure are sufficiently scholarly .

• Consult your institute’s library to find out what books, journals, research databases, and other types of sources they provide access to.
• Look for books published by respected academic publishing houses and university presses, as these are typically considered trustworthy sources.
• Look for journals that use a peer review process. This means that experts in the field assess the quality and credibility of an article before it is published.

When searching for sources in databases, think of specific keywords that are relevant to your topic , and consider variations on them or synonyms that might be relevant.

Once you have a clear idea of your research parameters and key terms, choose a database that is relevant to your research (e.g., Medline, JSTOR, Project MUSE).

Find out if the database has a “subject search” option. This can help to refine your search. Use Boolean operators to combine your keywords, exclude specific search terms, and search exact phrases to find the most relevant sources.

There are many types of sources commonly used in research. These include:

You’ll likely use a variety of these sources throughout the research process , and the kinds of sources you use will depend on your research topic and goals.

Scholarly sources are written by experts in their field and are typically subjected to peer review . They are intended for a scholarly audience, include a full bibliography, and use scholarly or technical language. For these reasons, they are typically considered credible sources .

Popular sources like magazines and news articles are typically written by journalists. These types of sources usually don’t include a bibliography and are written for a popular, rather than academic, audience. They are not always reliable and may be written from a biased or uninformed perspective, but they can still be cited in some contexts.

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Ryan, E. (2023, May 31). How to Find Sources | Scholarly Articles, Books, Etc.. Scribbr. Retrieved August 26, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/finding-sources/

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A systematic approach to searching: an efficient and complete method to develop literature searches

Associated data.

Creating search strategies for systematic reviews, finding the best balance between sensitivity and specificity, and translating search strategies between databases is challenging. Several methods describe standards for systematic search strategies, but a consistent approach for creating an exhaustive search strategy has not yet been fully described in enough detail to be fully replicable. The authors have established a method that describes step by step the process of developing a systematic search strategy as needed in the systematic review. This method describes how single-line search strategies can be prepared in a text document by typing search syntax (such as field codes, parentheses, and Boolean operators) before copying and pasting search terms (keywords and free-text synonyms) that are found in the thesaurus. To help ensure term completeness, we developed a novel optimization technique that is mainly based on comparing the results retrieved by thesaurus terms with those retrieved by the free-text search words to identify potentially relevant candidate search terms. Macros in Microsoft Word have been developed to convert syntaxes between databases and interfaces almost automatically. This method helps information specialists in developing librarian-mediated searches for systematic reviews as well as medical and health care practitioners who are searching for evidence to answer clinical questions. The described method can be used to create complex and comprehensive search strategies for different databases and interfaces, such as those that are needed when searching for relevant references for systematic reviews, and will assist both information specialists and practitioners when they are searching the biomedical literature.

INTRODUCTION

Librarians and information specialists are often involved in the process of preparing and completing systematic reviews (SRs), where one of their main tasks is to identify relevant references to include in the review [ 1 ]. Although several recommendations for the process of searching have been published [ 2 – 6 ], none describe the development of a systematic search strategy from start to finish.

Traditional methods of SR search strategy development and execution are highly time consuming, reportedly requiring up to 100 hours or more [ 7 , 8 ]. The authors wanted to develop systematic and exhaustive search strategies more efficiently, while preserving the high sensitivity that SR search strategies necessitate. In this article, we describe the method developed at Erasmus University Medical Center (MC) and demonstrate its use through an example search. The efficiency of the search method and outcome of 73 searches that have resulted in published reviews are described in a separate article [ 9 ].

As we aimed to describe the creation of systematic searches in full detail, the method starts at a basic level with the analysis of the research question and the creation of search terms. Readers who are new to SR searching are advised to follow all steps described. More experienced searchers can consider the basic steps to be existing knowledge that will already be part of their normal workflow, although step 4 probably differs from general practice. Experienced searchers will gain the most from reading about the novelties in the method as described in steps 10–13 and comparing the examples given in the supplementary appendix to their own practice.

CREATING A SYSTEMATIC SEARCH STRATEGY

Our methodology for planning and creating a multi-database search strategy consists of the following steps:

• Determine a clear and focused question
• Describe the articles that can answer the question
• Decide which key concepts address the different elements of the question
• Decide which elements should be used for the best results
• Choose an appropriate database and interface to start with
• Document the search process in a text document
• Identify appropriate index terms in the thesaurus of the first database
• Identify synonyms in the thesaurus
• Add variations in search terms
• Use database-appropriate syntax, with parentheses, Boolean operators, and field codes
• Optimize the search
• Evaluate the initial results
• Check for errors
• Translate to other databases
• Test and reiterate

Each step in the process is reflected by an example search described in the supplementary appendix .

1. Determine a clear and focused question

A systematic search can best be applied to a well-defined and precise research or clinical question. Questions that are too broad or too vague cannot be answered easily in a systematic way and will generally result in an overwhelming number of search results. On the other hand, a question that is too specific will result into too few or even zero search results. Various papers describe this process in more detail [ 10 – 12 ].

2. Describe the articles that can answer the question

Although not all clinical or research questions can be answered in the literature, the next step is to presume that the answer can indeed be found in published studies. A good starting point for a search is hypothesizing what the research that can answer the question would look like. These hypothetical (when possible, combined with known) articles can be used as guidance for constructing the search strategy.

3. Decide which key concepts address the different elements of the question

Key concepts are the topics or components that the desired articles should address, such as diseases or conditions, actions, substances, settings, domains (e.g., therapy, diagnosis, etiology), or study types. Key concepts from the research question can be grouped to create elements in the search strategy.

Elements in a search strategy do not necessarily follow the patient, intervention, comparison, outcome (PICO) structure or any other related structure. Using the PICO or another similar framework as guidance can be helpful to consider, especially in the inclusion and exclusion review stage of the SR, but this is not necessary for good search strategy development [ 13 – 15 ]. Sometimes concepts from different parts of the PICO structure can be grouped together into one search element, such as when the desired outcome is frequently described in a certain study type.

4. Decide which elements should be used for the best results

Not all elements of a research question should necessarily be used in the search strategy. Some elements are less important than others or may unnecessarily complicate or restrict a search strategy. Adding an element to a search strategy increases the chance of missing relevant references. Therefore, the number of elements in a search strategy should remain as low as possible to optimize recall.

Using the schema in Figure 1 , elements can be ordered by their specificity and importance to determine the best search approach. Whether an element is more specific or more general can be measured objectively by the number of hits retrieved in a database when searching for a key term representing that element. Depending on the research question, certain elements are more important than others. If articles (hypothetically or known) exist that can answer the question but lack a certain element in their titles, abstracts, or keywords, that element is unimportant to the question. An element can also be unimportant because of expected bias or an overlap with another element.

Schema for determining the optimal order of elements

Bias in elements

The choice of elements in a search strategy can introduce bias through use of overly specific terminology or terms often associated with positive outcomes. For the question “does prolonged breastfeeding improve intelligence outcomes in children?,” searching specifically for the element of duration will introduce bias, as articles that find a positive effect of prolonged breastfeeding will be much more likely to mention time factors in their titles or abstracts.

Overlapping elements

Elements in a question sometimes overlap in their meaning. Sometimes certain therapies are interventions for one specific disease. The Lichtenstein technique, for example, is a repair method for inguinal hernias. There is no need to include an element of “inguinal hernias” to a search for the effectiveness of the Lichtenstein therapy. Likewise, sometimes certain diseases are only found in certain populations. Adding such an overlapping element could lead to missing relevant references.

The elements to use in a search strategy can be found in the plot of elements in Figure 1 , by following the top row from left to right. For this method, we recommend starting with the most important and specific elements. Then, continue with more general and important elements until the number of results is acceptable for screening. Determining how many results are acceptable for screening is often a matter of negotiation with the SR team.

5. Choose an appropriate database and interface to start with

Important factors for choosing databases to use are the coverage and the presence of a thesaurus. For medically oriented searches, the coverage and recall of Embase, which includes the MEDLINE database, are superior to those of MEDLINE [ 16 ]. Each of these two databases has its own thesaurus with its own unique definitions and structure. Because of the complexity of the Embase thesaurus, Emtree, which contains much more specific thesaurus terms than the MEDLINE Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus, translation from Emtree to MeSH is easier than the other way around. Therefore, we recommend starting in Embase.

MEDLINE and Embase are available through many different vendors and interfaces. The choice of an interface and primary database is often determined by the searcher’s accessibility. For our method, an interface that allows searching with proximity operators is desirable, and full functionality of the thesaurus, including explosion of narrower terms, is crucial. We recommend developing a personal workflow that always starts with one specific database and interface.

6. Document the search process in a text document

We advise designing and creating the complete search strategies in a log document, instead of directly in the database itself, to register the steps taken and to make searches accountable and reproducible. The developed search strategies can be copied and pasted into the desired databases from the log document. This way, the searcher is in control of the whole process. Any change to the search strategy should be done in the log document, assuring that the search strategy in the log is always the most recent.

7. Identify appropriate index terms in the thesaurus of the first database

Searches should start by identifying appropriate thesaurus terms for the desired elements. The thesaurus of the database is searched for matching index terms for each key concept. We advise restricting the initial terms to the most important and most relevant terms. Later in the process, more general terms can be added in the optimization process, in which the effect on the number of hits, and thus the desirability of adding these terms, can be evaluated more easily.

Several factors can complicate the identification of thesaurus terms. Sometimes, one thesaurus term is found that exactly describes a specific element. In contrast, especially in more general elements, multiple thesaurus terms can be found to describe one element. If no relevant thesaurus terms have been found for an element, free-text terms can be used, and possible thesaurus terms found in the resulting references can be added later (step 11).

Sometimes, no distinct thesaurus term is available for a specific key concept that describes the concept in enough detail. In Emtree, one thesaurus term often combines two or more elements. The easiest solution for combining these terms for a sensitive search is to use such a thesaurus term in all elements where it is relevant. Examples are given in the supplementary appendix .

8. Identify synonyms in the thesaurus

Most thesauri offer a list of synonyms on their term details page (named Synonyms in Emtree and Entry Terms in MeSH). To create a sensitive search strategy for SRs, these terms need to be searched as free-text keywords in the title and abstract fields, in addition to searching their associated thesaurus terms.

The Emtree thesaurus contains more synonyms (300,000) than MeSH does (220,000) [ 17 ]. The difference in number of terms is even higher considering that many synonyms in MeSH are permuted terms (i.e., inversions of phrases using commas).

Thesaurus terms are ordered in a tree structure. When searching for a more general thesaurus term, the more specific (narrower) terms in the branches below that term will also be searched (this is frequently referred to as “exploding” a thesaurus term). However, to perform a sensitive search, all relevant variations of the narrower terms must be searched as free-text keywords in the title or abstract, in addition to relying on the exploded thesaurus term. Thus, all articles that describe a certain narrower topic in their titles and abstracts will already be retrieved before MeSH terms are added.

9. Add variations in search terms (e.g., truncation, spelling differences, abbreviations, opposites)

Truncation allows a searcher to search for words beginning with the same word stem. A search for therap* will, thus, retrieve therapy, therapies, therapeutic, and all other words starting with “therap.” Do not truncate a word stem that is too short. Also, limitations of interfaces should be taken into account, especially in PubMed, where the number of search term variations that can be found by truncation is limited to 600.

Databases contain references to articles using both standard British and American English spellings. Both need to be searched as free-text terms in the title and abstract. Alternatively, many interfaces offer a certain code to replace zero or one characters, allowing a search for “pediatric” or “paediatric” as “p?ediatric.” Table 1 provides a detailed description of the syntax for different interfaces.

Field codes in five most used interfaces for biomedical literature searching

Searching for abbreviations can identify extra, relevant references and retrieve more irrelevant ones. The search can be more focused by combining the abbreviation with an important word that is relevant to its meaning or by using the Boolean “NOT” to exclude frequently observed, clearly irrelevant results. We advise that searchers do not exclude all possible irrelevant meanings, as it is very time consuming to identify all the variations, it will result in unnecessarily complicated search strategies, and it may lead to erroneously narrowing the search and, thereby, reduce recall.

Searching partial abbreviations can be useful for retrieving relevant references. For example, it is very likely that an article would mention osteoarthritis (OA) early in the abstract, replacing all further occurrences of osteoarthritis with OA . Therefore, it may not contain the phrase “hip osteoarthritis” but only “hip oa.”

It is also important to search for the opposites of search terms to avoid bias. When searching for “disease recurrence,” articles about “disease free” may be relevant as well. When the desired outcome is survival , articles about mortality may be relevant.

10. Use database-appropriate syntax, with parentheses, Boolean operators, and field codes

Different interfaces require different syntaxes, the special set of rules and symbols unique to each database that define how a correctly constructed search operates. Common syntax components include the use of parentheses and Boolean operators such as “AND,” “OR,” and “NOT,” which are available in all major interfaces. An overview of different syntaxes for four major interfaces for bibliographic medical databases (PubMed, Ovid, EBSCOhost, Embase.com, and ProQuest) is shown in Table 1 .

Creating the appropriate syntax for each database, in combination with the selected terms as described in steps 7–9, can be challenging. Following the method outlined below simplifies the process:

• Create single-line queries in a text document (not combining multiple record sets), which allows immediate checking of the relevance of retrieved references and efficient optimization.
• Type the syntax (Boolean operators, parentheses, and field codes) before adding terms, which reduces the chance that errors are made in the syntax, especially in the number of parentheses.
• Use predefined proximity structures including parentheses, such as (() ADJ3 ()) in Ovid, that can be reused in the query when necessary.
• Use thesaurus terms separately from free-text terms of each element. Start an element with all thesaurus terms (using “OR”) and follow with the free-text terms. This allows the unique optimization methods as described in step 11.
• When adding terms to an existing search strategy, pay close attention to the position of the cursor. Make sure to place it appropriately either in the thesaurus terms section, in the title/abstract section, or as an addition (broadening) to an existing proximity search.

The supplementary appendix explains the method of building a query in more detail, step by step for different interfaces: PubMed, Ovid, EBSCOhost, Embase.com, and ProQuest. This method results in a basic search strategy designed to retrieve some relevant references upon which a more thorough search strategy can be built with optimization such as described in step 11.

11. Optimize the search

The most important question when performing a systematic search is whether all (or most) potentially relevant articles have been retrieved by the search strategy. This is also the most difficult question to answer, since it is unknown which and how many articles are relevant. It is, therefore, wise first to broaden the initial search strategy, making the search more sensitive, and then check if new relevant articles are found by comparing the set results (i.e., search for Strategy #2 NOT Strategy #1 to see the unique results).

A search strategy should be tested for completeness. Therefore, it is necessary to identify extra, possibly relevant search terms and add them to the test search in an OR relationship with the already used search terms. A good place to start, and a well-known strategy, is scanning the top retrieved articles when sorted by relevance, looking for additional relevant synonyms that could be added to the search strategy.

We have developed a unique optimization method that has not been described before in the literature. This method often adds valuable extra terms to our search strategy and, therefore, extra, relevant references to our search results. Extra synonyms can be found in articles that have been assigned a certain set of thesaurus terms but that lack synonyms in the title and/or abstract that are already present in the current search strategy. Searching for thesaurus terms NOT free-text terms will help identify missed free-text terms in the title or abstract. Searching for free-text terms NOT thesaurus terms will help identify missed thesaurus terms. If this is done repeatedly for each element, leaving the rest of the query unchanged, this method will help add numerous relevant terms to the query. These steps are explained in detail for five different search platforms in the supplementary appendix .

12. Evaluate the initial results

The results should now contain relevant references. If the interface allows relevance ranking, use that in the evaluation. If you know some relevant references that should be included in the research, search for those references specifically; for example, combine a specific (first) author name with a page number and the publication year. Check whether those references are retrieved by the search. If the known relevant references are not retrieved by the search, adapt the search so that they are. If it is unclear which element should be adapted to retrieve a certain article, combine that article with each element separately.

Different outcomes are desired for different types of research questions. For instance, in the case of clinical question answering, the researcher will not be satisfied with many references that contain a lot of irrelevant references. A clinical search should be rather specific and is allowed to miss a relevant reference. In the case of an SR, the researchers do not want to miss any relevant reference and are willing to handle many irrelevant references to do so. The search for references to include in an SR should be very sensitive: no included reference should be missed. A search that is too specific or too sensitive for the intended goal can be adapted to become more sensitive or specific. Steps to increase sensitivity or specificity of a search strategy can be found in the supplementary appendix .

13. Check for errors

Errors might not be easily detected. Sometimes clues can be found in the number of results, either when the number of results is much higher or lower than expected or when many retrieved references are not relevant. However, the number expected is often unknown, and very sensitive search strategies will always retrieve many irrelevant articles. Each query should, therefore, be checked for errors.

One of the most frequently occurring errors is missing the Boolean operator “OR.” When no “OR” is added between two search terms, many interfaces automatically add an “AND,” which unintentionally reduces the number of results and likely misses relevant references. One good strategy to identify missing “OR”s is to go to the web page containing the full search strategy, as translated by the database, and using Ctrl-F search for “AND.” Check whether the occurrences of the “AND” operator are deliberate.

Ideally, search strategies should be checked by other information specialists [ 18 ]. The Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies (PRESS) checklist offers good guidance for this process [ 4 ]. Apart from the syntax (especially Boolean operators and field codes) of the search strategy, it is wise to have the search terms checked by the clinician or researcher familiar with the topic. At Erasmus MC, researchers and clinicians are involved during the complete process of structuring and optimizing the search strategy. Each word is added after the combined decision of the searcher and the researcher, with the possibility of directly comparing results with and without the new term.

14. Translate to other databases

To retrieve as many relevant references as possible, one has to search multiple databases. Translation of complex and exhaustive queries between different databases can be very time consuming and cumbersome. The single-line search strategy approach detailed above allows quick translations using the find and replace method in Microsoft Word (<Ctrl-H>).

At Erasmus MC, macros based on the find-and-replace method in Microsoft Word have been developed for easy and fast translation between the most used databases for biomedical and health sciences questions. The schema that is followed for the translation between databases is shown in Figure 2 . Most databases simply follow the structure set by the Embase.com search strategy. The translation from Emtree terms to MeSH terms for MEDLINE in Ovid often identifies new terms that need to be added to the Embase.com search strategy before the translation to other databases.

Schematic representation of translation between databases used at Erasmus University Medical Center

Dotted lines represent databases that are used in less than 80% of the searches.

Using five different macros, a thoroughly optimized query in Embase.com can be relatively quickly translated into eight major databases. Basic search strategies will be created to use in many, mostly smaller, databases, because such niche databases often do not have extensive thesauri or advanced syntax options. Also, there is not much need to use extensive syntax because the number of hits and, therefore, the amount of noise in these databases is generally low. In MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), and CINAHL (EBSCOhost), the thesaurus terms must be adapted manually, as each database has its own custom thesaurus. These macros and instructions for their installation, use, and adaptation are available at bit.ly/databasemacros.

15. Test and reiterate

Ideally, exhaustive search strategies should retrieve all references that are covered in a specific database. For SR search strategies, checking searches for their recall is advised. This can be done after included references have been determined by the authors of the systematic review. If additional papers have been identified through other non-database methods (i.e., checking references in included studies), results that were not identified by the database searches should be examined. If these results were available in the databases but not located by the search strategy, the search strategy should be adapted to try to retrieve these results, as they may contain terms that were omitted in the original search strategies. This may enable the identification of additional relevant results.

A methodology for creating exhaustive search strategies has been created that describes all steps of the search process, starting with a question and resulting in thorough search strategies in multiple databases. Many of the steps described are not new, but together, they form a strong method creating high-quality, robust searches in a relatively short time frame.

Our methodology is intended to create thoroughness for literature searches. The optimization method, as described in step 11, will identify missed synonyms or thesaurus terms, unlike any other method that largely depends on predetermined keywords and synonyms. Using this method results in a much quicker search process, compared to traditional methods, especially because of the easier translation between databases and interfaces (step 13). The method is not a guarantee for speed, since speed depends on many factors, including experience. However, by following the steps and using the tools as described above, searchers can gain confidence first and increase speed through practice.

What is new?

This method encourages searchers to start their search development process using empty syntax first and later adding the thesaurus terms and free-text synonyms. We feel this helps the searcher to focus on the search terms, instead of on the structure of the search query. The optimization method in which new terms are found in the already retrieved articles is used in some other institutes as well but has to our knowledge not been described in the literature. The macros to translate search strategies between interfaces are unique in this method.

What is different compared to common practice?

Traditionally, librarians and information specialists have focused on creating complex, multi-line (also called line-by-line) search strategies, consisting of multiple record sets, and this method is frequently advised in the literature and handbooks [ 2 , 19 – 21 ]. Our method, instead, uses single-line searches, which is critical to its success. Single-line search strategies can be easily adapted by adding or dropping a term without having to recode numbers of record sets, which would be necessary in multi-line searches. They can easily be saved in a text document and repeated by copying and pasting for search updates. Single-line search strategies also allow easy translation to other syntaxes using find-and-replace technology to update field codes and other syntax elements or using macros (step 13).

When constructing a search strategy, the searcher might experience that certain parentheses in the syntax are unnecessary, such as parentheses around all search terms in the title/abstract portion, if there is only one such term, there are double parentheses in the proximity statement, or one of the word groups exists for only one word. One might be tempted to omit those parentheses for ease of reading and management. However, during the optimization process, the searcher is likely to find extra synonyms that might consist of one word. To add those terms to the first query (with reduced parentheses) requires adding extra parentheses (meticulously placing and counting them), whereas, in the latter search, it only requires proper placement of those terms.

Many search methods highly depend on the PICO framework. Research states that often PICO or PICOS is not suitable for every question [ 22 , 23 ]. There are other acronyms than PICO—such as sample, phenomenon of interest, design, evaluation, research type (SPIDER) [ 24 ]—but each is just a variant. In our method, the most important and specific elements of a question are being analyzed for building the best search strategy.

Though it is generally recommended that searchers search both MEDLINE and Embase, most use MEDLINE as the starting point. It is considered the gold standard for biomedical searching, partially due to historical reasons, since it was the first of its kind, and more so now that it is freely available via the PubMed interface. Our method can be used with any database as a starting point, but we use Embase instead of MEDLINE or another database for a number of reasons. First, Embase provides both unique content and the complete content of MEDLINE. Therefore, searching Embase will be, by definition, more complete than searching MEDLINE only. Second, the number of terms in Emtree (the Embase thesaurus) is three times as high as that of MeSH (the MEDLINE thesaurus). It is easier to find MeSH terms after all relevant Emtree terms have been identified than to start with MeSH and translate to Emtree.

At Erasmus MC, the researchers sit next to the information specialist during most of the search strategy design process. This way, the researchers can deliver immediate feedback on the relevance of proposed search terms and retrieved references. The search team then combines knowledge about databases with knowledge about the research topic, which is an important condition to create the highest quality searches.

Limitations of the method

One disadvantage of single-line searches compared to multi-line search strategies is that errors are harder to recognize. However, with the methods for optimization as described (step 11), errors are recognized easily because missed synonyms and spelling errors will be identified during the process. Also problematic is that more parentheses are needed, making it more difficult for the searcher and others to assess the logic of the search strategy. However, as parentheses and field codes are typed before the search terms are added (step 10), errors in parentheses can be prevented.

Our methodology works best if used in an interface that allows proximity searching. It is recommended that searchers with access to an interface with proximity searching capabilities select one of those as the initial database to develop and optimize the search strategy. Because the PubMed interface does not allow proximity searches, phrases or Boolean “AND” combinations are required. Phrase searching complicates the process and is more specific, with the higher risk of missing relevant articles, and using Boolean “AND” combinations increases sensitivity but at an often high loss of specificity. Due to some searchers’ lack of access to expensive databases or interfaces, the freely available PubMed interface may be necessary to use, though it should never be the sole database used for an SR [ 2 , 16 , 25 ]. A limitation of our method is that it works best with subscription-based and licensed resources.

Another limitation is the customization of the macros to a specific institution’s resources. The macros for the translation between different database interfaces only work between the interfaces as described. To mitigate this, we recommend using the find-and-replace functionality of text editors like Microsoft Word to ease the translation of syntaxes between other databases. Depending on one’s institutional resources, custom macros can be developed using similar methods.

Results of the method

Whether this method results in exhaustive searches where no important article is missed is difficult to determine, because the number of relevant articles is unknown for any topic. A comparison of several parameters of 73 published reviews that were based on a search developed with this method to 258 reviews that acknowledged information specialists from other Dutch academic hospitals shows that the performance of the searches following our method is comparable to those performed in other institutes but that the time needed to develop the search strategies was much shorter than the time reported for the other reviews [ 9 ].

CONCLUSIONS

With the described method, searchers can gain confidence in their search strategies by finding many relevant words and creating exhaustive search strategies quickly. The approach can be used when performing SR searches or for other purposes such as answering clinical questions, with different expectations of the search’s precision and recall. This method, with practice, provides a stepwise approach that facilitates the search strategy development process from question clarification to final iteration and beyond.

SUPPLEMENTAL FILE

Acknowledgments.

We highly appreciate the work that was done by our former colleague Louis Volkers, who in his twenty years as an information specialist in Erasmus MC laid the basis for our method. We thank Professor Oscar Franco for reviewing earlier drafts of this article.

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Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > The Ultimate Student Guide To Finding Credible Sources

Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

The Ultimate Student Guide To Finding Credible Sources

Updated: June 19, 2024

Published: January 1, 2020

When it comes to writing a research paper, it’s crucial that you use credible sources to make sure that the information you are stating is actually true. Knowing the difference between credible sources and unreliable sources doesn’t always come so easily with endless information flooding the internet. Thankfully, there are some simple tips that you can use to ensure that you are always using credible sources for research.

What is a Research Paper?

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that uses original research on a specific topic. There are many different types of research papers, ranging from a high school term paper to a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation.

Photo by  Wallace Chuck  from  Pexels

How to start a search for sources, 1. start simple.

If you’re wondering how to find sources for a research paper, the easiest and best way to start is simple! Just try browsing through some common search engines to see what you find.

2. Cross Wikipedia off

Wikipedia, although it’s a massive pool of information, should always be avoided when writing a research paper since it allows the public to edit information. Sites such as these often run the risk of lacking accuracy, and is not one of the most credible sources for research.

3. Yes to scholarly databases

Scholarly databases are your best friend when it comes to finding credible sources for research. Online scholarly databases that can be trusted and are known to provide useful information for students include LexisNexis and EBSCO.

4. Newspapers and magazines

Although sometimes biased, newspapers and magazines can also be a great place to find information about current events.

5. The library

While the library seems to be the most obvious place to find information, somehow it’s often forgotten when it comes to research in the modern age. Don’t forget how useful it can truly be!

Types of Credible Sources for Research

1. what are some credible websites.

Many online sources do not necessarily contain information that is correct or has been checked. That’s why it’s of utmost importance to make sure that you’re using the right websites for your research, with government and educational websites generally being the most reliable.

Credible sources for research include: science.gov, The World Factbook, US Census Bureau, UK Statistics, and Encyclopedia Britannica.

2. What are some credible journal articles?

When it comes to journal articles, determining how credible they are comes much easier than other sources. This is generally due to the fact that many of these websites will include valuable information such as how many times the article has been cited, and if its been peer reviewed.

Some great examples of reliable websites for journal articles include Google Scholar, Oxford Academic, Microsoft Academic, Cornell University Library, and SAGE Publishing.

If you are ever not sure how to find credible sources, then there’s the CRAAP test, which takes into account the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose of the article. Take all of these factors into consideration before using a source and determining whether or not it’s credible enough. Even if it takes more time, you’ll be saving yourself tons of time in the long run by not using unreliable sources.

Photo by  Canva Studio  from  Pexels

3. what are some credible news sources.

When it comes to news articles, more caution must be taken since it’s hard to know which sources are truly reliable and unbiased. The CRAAP test is also useful in this type of article for research.

A few examples of credible news sources include The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post.

The Credibility of a Source

As you search for your research information, you will surely come across the question of how to find credible sources for a research paper. Here are some criteria to focus on to ensure that you only use the most credible of sources.

1. What’s the depth of it?

Always look at the depth of an article, not just the written content. See how long the article is, and if it contains the necessary information such as an abstract, a reference list, and documented data.

2. Who is reading it?

When judging the credibility of an article, it’s important to always ask yourself who the target audience of the article is. Sometimes, sources have a specific goal in mind and it can create certain biases.

3. What’s the goal?

Just as you should do with the audience, also ask yourself what the article is trying to achieve. What is their ultimate goal and how are they persuading you of that?

4. Who wrote it?

Always ask yourself who wrote the article and how reputable they are in the specific field. Look at what other published works they have as well.

5. Can it be trusted?

Overall, it’s key to ask yourself how reputable the source is. What kind of website is it published on? Look at the big picture.

6. Is it relevant to now?

Look at the date of the article, or about the specific things they are mentioning in the article. If it’s from a few years ago, it’s probably not too relevant to your current research.

7. Can it be proven?

While an article may sound incredibly convincing, many people have a way with words and persuasion. Stop and ask yourself whether or not what they are claiming can actually be proven.

Photo by  bruce mars  from  Pexels

How to evaluate source credibility.

By using unreliable sources in your research, it can discredit your status, which is why it’s incredibly important to make sure that any information you are using is up-to-date and accurate.

Here’s how to find credible sources.

1. What is a credible source?

Generally, materials that have been published within the past 10 years are considered to be credible sources for research. Another important factor to consider is the author — if they are well known and respected in their specific fields, that’s also generally a sign that the article is credible. Educational and government-run websites (.gov, .edu) tend to also be a safe source to use, as well as academic databases. Google Scholar is also a no-fail source for reliable information.

2. What is a potentially unreliable source?

Anything that is out of date, meaning it’s been published more than 10 years ago should be avoided. Materials published on social media platforms such as Facebook or personal blogs don’t tend to be the most credible. Always make sure that an article contains proper citations and that the website you are using ends in .com or .org.

Free Resources For Learning

There are many free resources for research available known as open educational resources . They are licensed for free use, with the intention of teaching. They can be determined as credible sources for research if they have a Creative Common license, and if the author has proven to be an expert in their field. Always make sure that the content you are using contains no biases.

Sites For Scholarly Research

When performing scholarly research, it’s extra important to make sure that your sources are credible. Government-run research is considered credible, but beware of any political sites. University and educational websites also tend to be reliable, but still take everything you read with a grain of salt. Company websites also tend to be reliable, although their ultimate goal is usually to promote a product. Organizations which are .org websites can be professional and reliable, however, sometimes they also have their own interests.

Which Sites Can Be Relied On

The internet has no shortage of information out there. That’s why you’ll need these handy tips to determine which to use, and how to distinguish through the vast choices without feeling overwhelmed.

List of Credible Research Sources to Consider

1. government entities.

These websites tend to be reliable since they are highly regulated. Examples include the CIA World Factbook and the United States Justice Statistics.

2. Research Think Tanks

Examples of reliable research think tanks include Rand Corporation, Pew Research Center and The Milken Institute.

3. Academic Libraries and Databases

ProQuest, Scopus, and Jstor are great examples of academic libraries and databases that can be trusted.

4. Professional Standards Organizations

The American Bar Association and The American Psychological Association (APA) are highly credible sources when it comes to professional standards.

How to Write a Research Paper: Step-by-Step

Now that you’re an expert on finding credible sources for research, you’re ready to go! But how do you even start to write a research paper? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

For starters, it’s important to get clear instructions from your professor on what they want. The next step is to start brainstorming ideas for a topic of research. Once you’ve decided and feel confident about it, you’re ready to create your outline and plan out the goal of your research paper.

Befriend your librarian and start to search for quality and credible sources through a variety of means. Make sure you understand your topic from top to bottom before you start writing.  As you write, be sure to always keep things factual, and that you finalize your thesis statement throughout your paper — not just at the end. That’s what’s going to guide your writing. Be sure to always keep format in mind, never forget to cite your sources, and to never skip those edits and final checks.

Now you are ready to write a high-quality, fact-driven research paper that’s sure to impress your professors.

In this article

At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone. Read More

How to Search and Organize Research Articles

• by Tiffany Yue Zhang
• November 01, 2021

Quick Summary

• Organizing research articles using a reference manager and other strategies will make life as a graduate student much easier.

As PhD students, reading is part of our life. There are so many new papers coming out every day, so many research blogs to follow, so many books to read. But, how would you find them and organize them? Certainly, I’ve seen people downloading everything to their desktop and piling up 100 pdfs with no labeling or grouping. To be honest, that was me at one point. When you start to write a report or research paper, it can become a nightmare to organize the reference list. If you are first year graduate student doing research, or if you are just looking for a method to organize your scientific literature, this blog can hopefully help.

Finding Articles

The best resources for starting to build your reading list are your advisor and lab mates.  This is definitely the fastest way to gain background on your research area. Simply ask around the lab about key articles in the research field. The downside of this method is that the pool of articles is limited by what’s already known by your advisor or lab mates. Starting by reading a review paper in your field, then finding and reading the most relevant references listed for the review, is also a good method.

Searching by key words is another common way to find scientific literature. I use Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus, mostly.  Searches can be done by entering the key words, subject area, document type (e. g. review, articles), and sort by relevance. Start to read from the most cited papers in your field. If you are interested in a specific researcher’s publications, you can follow them on Google Scholar and you’ll get notified when they publish new articles. Lens.org is another good resource for searching, analyzing and managing patent and scholarly data.

Subscribing to RSS feeds is another good way to keep up with recent research. There are a variety of apps that can send notifications when new research papers of interest are coming out, such as Researcher, Feedly and Academia. Pick your favorite topics or journals to follow and get your daily feeds about research topics. You can even track when a paper is cited. These tools are good for scientific literature, but you can also use them for your hobbies, your favorite magazines, etc.

Following blogs can be helpful, as well. As a chemistry student, I follow some of the ACS (American Chemical Society), RSC (The Royal Society of Chemistry) blogs, as well as blogs written by researchers and professors. If you are looking for something interesting to read, follow Retraction Watch. There, you’ll find the research articles that are retracted for fraud, ethical violations, and many other reasons.  Some stories can be quite interesting.

Listening to podcasts can be a good way to broaden your knowledge. Usually, the content in podcasts is less technical and you can learn some basics for topics that you are not familiar with.

Organizing Research Papers

Different people find different ways to organize research articles. Some prefer to print everything out and put them in binders, some prefer to read the digital versions and sort them in folders. Personally, I like to read on a computer screen and sort research papers by project. I usually keep important references in a reference manager. For papers that I want to go over multiple times, I usually print them out and read them carefully. It’s easier to take notes with a printed version and, for some reason, it seems like I can memorize the content longer when I read the printed paper. The main drawback in using hard copies is that it can be difficult to find a specific paper when you have a large pile. With digital versions, it’s much easier to locate specific research articles by keywords.

There are many digital reference managers. This type of software tool can allow you to keep research articles in different folders for each research project. Within the reference manager, you can also take notes, sort by author, year, or topic. Most reference managers also help with searching for research articles. When you write a report or publication, reference managers allow for import of references from these databases directly into Microsoft Word, which is very convenient.  Here are three of the most commonly used reference managers: EndNote, Mendeley  (Figure 1)  and Zotero. All of them can sync between devices and be shared between different people. EndNote is not free, but it is very powerful. It supports many unusual or complex citation formats. Some versions of Mendeley are free. It’s good at dealing with pdfs files and can extract citations from pdfs, as well as searching from pdfs. Zotero is also free and allows for saving snapshots of web pages and annotating them in your library, which is good for web-based publications.

When I read a paper, I usually ask myself the following questions: 1) what’s the purpose of reading this article?; 2) how is the article important or relevant to my work?; and, 3) what’s the take home message?. If the paper is important, I then write down the conclusions and methods. Taking notes makes reading more efficient ( Figure 2).  Notion is a good application to keep track of reading notes and allows for creation of lists of papers for different topics. You can also assign properties to each paper and tag papers with keywords. Notion also supports markdown which makes your notes clean and easy to read. When I read a research article, I usually start with the title and abstract and try to figure out the big picture conclusions or contributions to the research field.  Then, I skim through the figures and the figure captions to get an idea of the key points. If a figure is important, I keep it in my notes. I usually skip the introduction at first if I’m familiar with the author or the research field, instead jumping directly into the results and conclusion sections. From there, I’ll decide if I want to read the paper in detail or not. Different people have different ways of reading papers; find the one that works for you.

I hope you find these methods helpful for finding and organizing research articles and happy reading!

Marcus, Adam, and Ivan Oransky. Retraction Watch , Oct 24 2021, https://retractionwatch.com/. 

“Which Reference Manager? Comparision of Endnote, Medeley and Zotero.” Library Guides , Mar 2 2021, https://aut.ac.nz.libguides.com/managingreferences.

“How to (Seriously) Read a Scientific Paper.” Science , Mar 21 2016, https://www.science.org/content/article/how-seriously-read-scientific-paper.

Primary Category

Secondary categories.

The Best Method for Finding Research Papers

Do you struggle to find the relevant literature for your assignments or research projects? The search for academic sources works differently to the approach we might use when we search the Internet. In this article, we’ll learn how to search through academic databases effectively and identify the most relevant papers.

‍ The Database Search

First, you’ll need some keywords to limit your search. Which words or phrases relate best to the information you want to find? If you have papers already or other reading material, this can be a good place for keyword inspiration. Keep a note of these words so that you can expand on them later. You might come up with alternative words, such as synonyms and abbreviations, or try some spelling variations. Alternatively, you can make use of genei’s keywords section and use these results to guide your search. Second, take some time to learn about ‘power searching’ by using ‘Boolean operators’. These are simple techniques that involve adding words or symbols to narrow down or widen your search using your key terms. You can find some of these advanced techniques here . Additionally, you can limit the scope of your search by defining essential criteria such as date, language, publication type (ebook or journal article), or the journal you’re interested in. This can refine the results that get returned to you. Similarly, you can begin to make note of key journals or authors that come up, and conduct a separate search by defining that journal or look up the author to see their other work.

Tracking Logs

Now that you’ve made a start, it’s a good idea to keep track of the databases you have searched, and the key words or search techniques used. This will make it easier to keep up with what you have or haven’t done so far. If you’re working on a research project and need to conduct an extensive literature review, this is particularly important. Here’s an example of a literature search tracking log. While this documents the search process, it’s also important to store and organise the papers you want to check out. You could organise the papers using date, author names, or your keywords. Reference managers often have ‘tagging’ tools to organise papers. However, this could simply be picking a naming convention such as ‘Year_FirstAuthor_Keyword1’ in a folder on your computer.

Connected Papers

Another effective way to source out relevant literature is by identifying connecting papers. It can be useful to start with a recent research paper because this will point to older research on that topic. As mentioned earlier, this could also help you to identify key authors for your search. genei makes finding connected papers easy by generating a reference list of the sources used and their links. Likewise, in order to find out if the paper is relevant to your particular research interest, it’s best to read the abstract, then introduction and conclusion. However, genei generates AI-powered summaries that allow you to skim the entire paper, saving you time and allowing you to identify key topics within the paper.

Amirah Khan

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Reference management. Clean and simple.

The top list of academic research databases

2. Web of Science

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Coverage: approx. 19.5 million items

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

• Coverage: over 8 million records
• Provider: DOAJ

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

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

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

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

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

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Expert Commentary

How to find an academic research paper

Looking for research on a particular topic? We’ll walk you through the steps we use here at Journalist's Resource.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by David Trilling, The Journalist's Resource October 18, 2017

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/home/find-academic-research-paper-for-journalists/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

Journalists frequently contact us looking for research on a specific topic. While we have published a number of resources on how to understand an academic study and how to pick a good one — and why using social science research enriches journalism and public debate — we have little on the mechanics of how to search. This tip sheet will briefly discuss the resources we use.

Google Scholar

Let’s say we’re looking for papers on the opioid crisis. We often start with Google Scholar, a free service from Google that searches scholarly articles, books and documents rather than the entire web: scholar.google.com .

But a search for the keyword “opioids” returns almost half a million results, some from the 1980s. Let’s narrow down our search. On the left, you see options “anytime” (the default), “since 2013,” “since 2016,” etc. Try “since 2017” and the results are now about 17,000. You can also insert a custom range to search for specific years. And you can include patents or citations, if you like (unchecking these will slightly decrease the number of results).

Still too many results. To narrow the search further, try any trick you’d use with Google. (Here are some tips from MIT on how to supercharge your Google searches.) Let’s look for papers on opioids published in 2015 that look at race and exclude fentanyl (Google: “opioids +race -fentanyl”). Now we’re down to 2,750 results. Better.

Unless you tell Google to “sort by date,” the search engine will generally weight the papers that have been cited most often so you will see them first.

Try different keywords. If you’re looking for a paper that studies existing research, include the term “meta-analysis.” Try searching by the author’s name, if you know it, or title of the paper. Look at the endnotes in papers you like for other papers. And look at the papers that cited the paper you like; they’ll probably be useful for your project.

If you locate a study and it’s behind a paywall, try these steps:

• Click on “all versions.” Some may be available for free. (Though check the date, as this may include earlier drafts of a paper.)
• Reach out to the journal and the scholar. (The scholar’s email is often on the abstract page. Also, scholars generally have an easy-to-find webpage.) One is likely to give you a free copy of the paper, especially if you are a member of the press.
• In regular Google, search for the study by title and you might find a free version.

More tips on using Google Scholar from MIT and Google .

Other databases

• PubMed Central at the National Library of Medicine: If you are working on a topic that has a relationship to health, try this database run by the National Institutes of Health. This free site hosts articles or abstracts and links to free versions of a paper if they are available. Often Google Scholar will point you here.
• If you have online access to a university library or a local library, try that.
• Directory of Open Access Journals .
• Digital Public Library of America .
• Subscription services include org and Web of Science .

For more on efforts to make scholarly research open and accessible for all, check out SPARC , a coalition of university libraries.

Citations as a measure of impact

How do you know if a paper is impactful? Some scholars use the number of times the paper has been cited by other scholars. But that can be problematic: Some papers cite papers that are flawed simply to debunk them. Some topics will be cited more often than others. And new research, even if it’s high-quality, may not be cited yet.

The impact factor measures how frequently a journal, not a paper, is cited.

This guide from the University of Illinois, Chicago, has more on metrics.

Here’s a useful source of new papers curated by Boston Globe columnist Kevin Lewis for National Affairs.

Another way to monitor journals for new research is to set up an RSS reader like Feedly . Most journals have a media page where you can sign up for press releases or newsletters featuring the latest research.

Relevant tip sheets from Journalist’s Resource:

• 10 things we wish we’d known earlier about research
• How to tell good research from bad: 13 questions journalists should ask  (This post also discusses how to determine if a journal is good.)
• Lessons on online search techniques, reading studies, understanding data and methods
• Guide to critical thinking, research, data and theory: Overview for journalists

About The Author

David Trilling

Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

How and Where to Find Research Papers for Literature Reviews

The literature review is an integral part of the research process. Finding the correct research papers for a literature review can be a daunting task, especially for early career researchers. This is more so in the digital age, where the sheer quantum of research available can drown researchers who attempt to sift through case studies, journals, online platforms, repositories, and databases. Regardless of whether you are just starting a career in research or are a veteran in the field, looking for relevant sources for a literature review can be time-consuming and frustrating.

In this article, we will provide valuable tips and explore various resources to understand how to find research papers relevant to literature reviews efficiently.

Table of Contents

Academic Databases and Search Engines

To master how to find research papers, start with academic databases and search engines. Platforms such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Scopus are indispensable for accessing a diverse array of scholarly articles. Enhance your search effectiveness by using advanced search options, employing specific keywords, and exploring related terms. Understanding and using the subject headings or descriptors provided by these databases is crucial for honing in on the most relevant papers quickly.

Reference Lists and Citation Networks

An effective strategy for finding research papers lies within the reference lists of the papers you already have. These lists can be gateways to additional, highly relevant sources. Similarly, investigating citation networks—observing which papers have cited key articles in your field—can unveil contemporary studies and emerging perspectives.

Accessing University Libraries

University libraries are a primary source of information on where you can find research papers. They offer access to a wealth of research papers and journals, including databases like JSTOR and ScienceDirect, for those seeking free resources. Library catalogs are instrumental in finding papers by title, author, or subject, and librarians can provide expert navigation through these resources.

Engaging with Online Academic Platforms

Platforms such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu, aside from being academic social networks, are valuable for finding research papers. They facilitate access to scholarly articles and enable researchers to share their work and connect with peers. Repositories like arXiv, bioRxiv, and SSRN provide early access to preprints across various disciplines, broadening your research scope.

Networking through Professional Associations and Conferences

For insights on where to find research papers, tap into professional associations and conferences. These platforms often grant members access to specialized publications and maintain online libraries of scholarly work. Conferences are also a goldmine for obtaining preprints or drafts of papers and for networking with fellow researchers.

Institutional Repositories

Institutional repositories are a go-to resource for finding research papers. These digital collections, hosted by academic institutions, offer open access to a variety of research outputs. Use keywords and subject categories to navigate these repositories for a rich selection of freely available scholarly material.

Government Reports and Policy Documents

Government agencies and research institutes are sometimes overlooked but can be significant sources of research papers. Their published reports and policy documents often include references to pertinent studies, providing valuable insights for your literature review.

By applying these expert strategies, you can streamline your search for relevant research papers. Remember, the quest is not just about where to find scientific articles; it’s about adopting a systematic and informed approach to locate the best resources. Utilizing targeted keywords, keeping abreast of the latest research, and exploring various sources will immensely enhance the quality of your literature reviews.

References:  

• https://www.academictransfer.com/en/blog/how-to-find-papers-when-you-do-your-literature-review/  
• https://www.scribendi.com/academy/articles/free_online_journal_and_research_databases.en.html  

R Discovery is a literature search and research reading app that uses your interests to instantly create personalized reading feeds. Researchers can stay updated on the latest, most relevant content from its continually expanding library of 115M+  research articles  sourced from trusted aggregators like  CrossRef ,  Unpaywall ,  PubMed,   PubMed  Central, Open Alex as well as prestigious publishing houses like  Springer Nature ,  JAMA , IOP,  Taylor & Francis , NEJM,  BMJ ,  Karger , SAGE,  Emerald Publishing  and more. The top-rated app in its space, R Discovery’s carefully curated features give you the power to choose what, where, and how you read research.    

Try the app for free or upgrade to  R Discovery Prime , which unlocks unlimited access to premium features that let you listen to research on the go, read in your language, invite collaborators, auto sync with top reference managers, multiple feeds, and more. It’s like having the world of research  at your fingertips ! Choose a simpler, smarter way to find and read research –  Get R Discovery Prime now at just  US $39 a year!

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Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers for 2024

• August 22, 2024 Updated

The future of research writing is here, driven by AI technology that combines precision and efficiency like never before. With the best AI Tools for Writing Research Papers, you can elevate your work to new heights, ensuring that every word is meticulously crafted and every argument is clearly articulated.

Choosing the right AI writing tool is crucial for producing high-quality research papers that meet academic standards . These tools enhance productivity and make sure your work is original, well-structured, and free from errors .

Over the years, AI writing tools have significantly evolved . What started as simple grammar checkers have become sophisticated platforms offering content generation, style optimization, and citation management, making the research writing process more streamlined .

Whether looking for a tool to refine your writing or seeking advanced features for managing citations and references , the best AI writing tools for 2024 provide various options to suit your academic needs . Let’s explore these tools and how they can elevate your research writing.

Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers: Quick Comparison

In this section, I’ll cover the best AI writing tools designed specifically for Writing Research Papers . These tools are essential for enhancing academic writing by offering features such as grammar checks, content generation, and citation management, ensuring that your research paper is polished and professional.

To help you choose the right tool, I’ve created a quick comparison table that outlines the key features and pricing of the top AI tools available. Depending on your needs, you might find that one of these options is also among the best AI tools in 2024 available for various writing tasks.

Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers: In-Depth Analysis

Let’s take a closer look at the best AI tools available for Writing Research Papers . Each tool offers unique features that cater to different aspects of academic writing, from grammar and style to content generation and citation management.

1. Jenni AI : Your Go-To Tool for Research Writing

Jenni AI is a powerful writing assistant designed to streamline research paper writing . With features like AI Autocomplete , in-text citations , and the ability to generate content from various sources, Jenni AI enables you to create well-structured and comprehensive research papers efficiently.

One of the standout features of Jenni AI is its support for five languages , making it accessible to a global audience.

Additionally, the tool allows you to produce 200+ words per day , which is ideal for consistent progress on lengthy academic projects. With 5+ user seats available, Jenni AI is perfect for collaborative research efforts, enabling multiple users to contribute to a single project.

While Jenni AI excels in areas such as multilingual support and ease of use , it does lack a plagiarism checker , which is an important feature for ensuring the originality of academic work. However, its intuitive interface and mobile compatibility make it easy to use, whether you’re working from a desktop or on the go.

Jenni AI shines with its AI Autocomplete and multilingual support , making it an excellent choice for researchers and students alike. However, the absence of a plagiarism checker means you might need to use additional tools to ensure your work is free from unintentional duplication.

• Intuitive and user-friendly interface.
• Strong AI Autocomplete and in-text citation features.
• Supports multiple languages.
• Lacks a built-in plagiarism checker.
• Limited template options.
• Some advanced features are not applicable.

Customer Support and Refund Policy

Jenni AI offers robust customer support, which is available through various channels, including email and live chat.

The tool also provides a refund policy, though specific details on coverage days are not provided. If you’re considering Jenni AI , it’s worth reading a more detailed Jenni AI review to understand its full capabilities.

2. Paperpal: My Go-To Tool for Research Manuscript Writing

Paperpal is an AI-powered tool explicitly designed for article writing and manuscript writing . It leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) , Machine Learning (ML) , and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide comprehensive writing assistance, from grammar checks to plagiarism detection.

Paperpal is particularly useful for researchers and authors who need to ensure their manuscripts meet the highest standards of academic writing.

From the moment you log in, Paperpal is intuitive and straightforward to use. It offers a seamless integration with MS Word through an add-in, allowing you to access its features directly within your document.

The tool supports over 25 languages and provides 7,000 words per month of plagiarism-checked content, making it a versatile option for multilingual writers.

However, while Paperpal excels in language support and data security, its limited word count for the free version and lack of detailed template options may be drawbacks for some users.

Paperpal shines with its AI-driven capabilities, offering robust grammar checks and language support. This makes it a great choice for academic and professional writers.

However, the tool is rated slightly lower due to its limited word count in the free version and the absence of extensive template options.

• Strong integration with MS Word.
• Supports over 25 languages, making it versatile for multilingual writing.
• Offers robust grammar and plagiarism checks.
• Limited word count for the free version.
• Lack of detailed templates.
• No clear specification on the number of user seats.

Paperpal offers customer support via email, ensuring users can get assistance when needed. The tool also provides a money-back guarantee , with 30 days coverage for annual subscriptions and 7 days for monthly subscriptions.

For a deeper insight into Paperpal’s capabilities, consider checking out a comprehensive Paperpal review .

3. QuillBot : My Essential Tool for Paraphrasing and Research Writing

QuillBot has become my go-to tool when paraphrasing text or refining my research writing . It’s particularly effective for rephrasing complex ideas, which is essential when avoiding plagiarism while still accurately conveying my research findings.

Whether I’m working on articles or longer academic papers, QuillBot’s range of features helps me maintain clarity and precision.

What I appreciate most about QuillBot is its easy use, from logging in to exploring its various features. It integrates smoothly with Google Docs , Microsoft Word , and MacOS , so I can work across different platforms without hassle.

The tool supports 30 languages and offers unlimited word count, which is useful when working on large research projects.

However, while QuillBot excels in paraphrasing and grammar checking, it doesn’t offer advanced templates, which could be a downside if you need more structured content creation.

QuillBot is invaluable for paraphrasing and ensuring the accuracy of my research writing. However, the lack of advanced templates and a short refund period may be limiting for some users.

• Excellent paraphrasing and grammar-checking features.
• Works well with Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and MacOS.
• It supports 30 languages, making it versatile for multilingual research.
• Doesn’t offer advanced templates for structured academic writing.
• Customer support is limited to website messaging.
• Short refund period of only 3 days.

QuillBot offers customer support through messages on their website, which is convenient for quick inquiries.

They also provide a 100% money-back guarantee , but the refund period is only 3 days , so you must decide quickly if it’s the right tool. For a more detailed exploration of QuillBot’s features, I suggest checking out a full QuillBot review .

4. Anyword: Your Precision Tool for Research and Academic Writing

Anyword is a powerful AI-driven writing assistant designed to support various writing needs, particularly research writing , academic content creation , and legal writing .

What makes Anyword especially useful for research writing is its predictive performance model , which offers insights into how effectively your academic content will resonate with its intended audience, ensuring your work makes the desired impact.

When I began using Anyword for my research writing, I was immediately impressed by its user-friendly interface. The tool simplifies the writing process from when you log in, offering seamless navigation through its features.

With support for 30+ languages and 100+ templates , Anyword is versatile enough to handle complex research documents, ensuring they are both clear and compelling.

The integration with Google Chrome is particularly handy, allowing me to draft and refine my research papers directly in the browser.

However, while Anyword excels in predictive content performance and template variety, its higher pricing tiers and the absence of refunds for canceled subscriptions may limit some users, particularly those in academia, on a budget.

Anyword excels in providing content analytics and predictive performance , making it an excellent choice for researchers and academics who require data-driven insights to enhance the effectiveness of their writing.

However, the tool’s lack of a refund policy and the higher costs associated with advanced plans may be a concern for budget-conscious users in academia.

• Predictive performance scores provide valuable insights for optimizing research papers.
• It offers a wide range of templates and supports over 30 languages , which is useful for multilingual research.
• Smooth integration with Google Chrome for efficient browser-based writing.
• Higher pricing tiers , particularly for small research teams or students, can be expensive.
• There are no refunds for canceled subscriptions, which might be a drawback for some users.
• Advanced features like custom-built AI models are only available in the business plan .

Anyword offers customer support via email, which I find effective for quickly resolving issues during my research writing. However, it’s important to note that they do not offer refunds for canceled subscriptions, so it’s wise to fully assess your needs before committing to a plan.

For a more detailed comparison with other AI writing tools, I recommend reading a thorough Anyword review to see if it aligns with your research writing requirements.

5. Bit AI: The Ultimate Tool for Research Document Collaboration

But AI is cloud-based document collaboration and knowledge management software , making it ideal for researchers and academic teams that need to create, share, and track their research documents in real time .

It streamlines document collaboration, enhances knowledge sharing , and significantly boosts productivity , making it indispensable for teams working on research papers , proposals , and academic reports .

When I first started using Bit AI for my research writing, I was immediately impressed by its intuitive interface and ease of use .

The tool integrates seamlessly with over 100 popular applications , which allows me to embed various types of digital content directly into my documents.

This feature is incredibly useful for creating rich, interactive research papers that go beyond text to include images, videos, and other media.

I also appreciate Bit AI’s mobile compatibility , which enables me to manage my research documents on the go.

However, while Bit AI excels in collaboration features and integration , the limitations of the free plan and the lack of advanced grammar and plagiarism checks might be drawbacks for some researchers.

Bit AI is particularly strong in document collaboration and knowledge management , making it a great choice for academic teams that require real-time collaboration on research papers. However, its limited free plan and the absence of specified grammar and plagiarism detection features may be restrictive for researchers who need comprehensive writing tools.

• Extensive integration with over 100 applications enhances document functionality, ideal for embedding research data and media.
• It offers comprehensive knowledge management and collaboration tools that are perfect for managing complex research projects.
• Mobile compatibility allows for document management on the go, ensuring you can keep up with your research tasks anywhere.
• The free plan is limited , especially for larger research teams needing more advanced features.
• Lacks specified grammar check and plagiarism detection features, which are crucial for academic integrity.
• There are no refunds for canceled subscriptions, which could be a drawback for some researchers.

Bit AI offers customer support via phone, email, and live chat, which I find very responsive and helpful, particularly when managing complex research documents.

However, it’s important to note that Bit AI does not offer refunds for canceled subscriptions, so it’s essential to consider this before committing to a paid plan.

6. Writesonic : Your Go-To AI for Research Writing and Content Creation

Writesonic is a versatile AI-powered writing assistant designed to enhance research writing and content creation efficiency and quality .

Whether you’re brainstorming article ideas , crafting concise summaries , or generating SEO meta-descriptions for your research publications, Writesonic provides various tools tailored to meet your academic needs.

When I first started using Writesonic , I found the platform incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate.

The user experience is seamless, from logging in to exploring its features. The tool supports 24+ languages and offers access to over 100+ templates , making it ideal for creating structured and polished research documents.

Additionally, Writesonic’s integration with platforms like Google Docs and WordPress simplifies incorporating research content into various formats.

However, while Writesonic excels in generating high-quality content, some users might find the limited credits in the free plan restrictive, especially when working on extensive research projects.

Writesonic is particularly strong in content generation and language support , making it an excellent tool for researchers who must produce well-structured and engaging academic content.

However, the limited credits in the free plan and the need for a premium plan to access unlimited features may be a consideration for those working on larger projects.

The best AI for writing research papers helps streamline the writing process with advanced features.

• Extensive template library with over 100 templates, perfect for various research writing tasks.
• It supports 24+ languages , making it suitable for multilingual research teams.
• Seamless integration with popular platforms like Google Docs and WordPress.
• Limited credits in the free plan may restrict usage for extensive research projects.
• Premium plans require unlimited access to word count and other advanced features.
• Some advanced features, such as brand voice , are better suited for marketing than academic writing.

Writesonic offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, which I find particularly helpful when working on research projects that require quick assistance.

They also offer a 100% refund within 7 days , which provides peace of mind when trying out the platform.

If you want to explore how Writesonic compares to other AI writing tools for research, consider reading a comprehensive Writesonic review to see if it fits your academic needs.

7. Scalenut: Elevate Your Research Writing with AI-Driven Content Optimization

Scalenut is a comprehensive AI-driven writing assistant that excels at research writing , especially content planning , SEO optimization , and content creation .

Designed to help researchers create impactful and optimized content, Scalenut’s capabilities extend beyond writing. It also offers tools to research SEO topics and analyze traffic , making it an all-in-one platform for academic and research professionals aiming to increase their online visibility.

From the moment I started using Scalenut , I was struck by how user-friendly it is.

The platform makes it easy to log in and craft well-structured research content with its intuitive interface.

One of the standout features is its deep learning model and NLP-generated key terms , significantly enhancing the quality and relevance of your research writing.

Moreover, Scalenut’s integration with WordPress ensures you can directly publish your optimized content without any hassles.

However, while Scalenut offers extensive features, its English-only language support and potential data-sharing practices might be limiting factors for some researchers.

Scalenut is particularly effective in content optimization and SEO-driven research writing , making it a top choice for researchers who want to enhance the reach and impact of their work. However, the tool’s English-only support and potential data-sharing practices may not suit everyone, particularly those working in multilingual or highly confidential research environments.

• AI-driven content optimization with deep learning models enhances the quality and reach of research papers.
• It provides over 40+ templates for various writing tasks, which is ideal for structured academic writing.
• Integration with WordPress allows for seamless publishing of research content.
• English-only language support may be limiting for non-English researchers.
• Potential data-sharing practices might raise concerns for those handling sensitive research data.
• Customer support options are not clearly provided , which could be a drawback if you need immediate assistance.

Scalenut offers a 7-day free trial for users to explore its features, which I found useful for getting acquainted with the platform. However, the tool does not clearly provide customer support options, and there is no refund policy mentioned, so it’s important to consider these factors before subscribing.

For a more detailed comparison with other AI writing tools, I recommend reading a comprehensive Scalenut review to see if it aligns with your research writing needs.

8. ChatGPT: Your Essential AI for Research Writing and Content Generation

ChatGPT , developed by OpenAI, is a powerful AI-driven writing assistant that has quickly become a go-to tool for research writing and content generation .

Whether you’re drafting complex research papers, summarizing intricate topics, or translating documents, ChatGPT offers a versatile platform that can significantly enhance your academic work.

With the ability to handle large language models (LLMs) , ChatGPT is particularly adept at generating high-quality content on diverse and complex topics, making it an invaluable tool for researchers.

When I started using ChatGPT for my research writing, I found the platform incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate.

The tool supports 50+ languages , making it highly adaptable to various research tasks. The mobile compatibility on iOS and Android further ensures that I can work on my research projects anywhere, anytime.

However, while ChatGPT excels in generating and summarizing content, the lack of a built-in plagiarism check and limited advanced grammar features may require additional tools to ensure the academic integrity of your work.

ChatGPT stands out for its ability to handle complex research topics and generate comprehensive content, making it a top choice for academics and researchers.

However, the tool’s lack of integrated plagiarism detection and the absence of refunds could be a consideration for those needing these specific features.

These Best AI tools for research in 2024 provide top-notch support for academic work.

• Extensive language support with over 50 languages, making it suitable for multilingual research.
• Access on multiple platforms (web, iOS, Android), ensuring flexibility in research writing.
• Offers a vast array of templates and tools , including access to GPT-4 and other advanced AI capabilities.
• No built-in plagiarism checker , which may require the use of additional tools for academic integrity.
• Limited advanced grammar features , making it less comprehensive compared to dedicated grammar tools.
• No refunds for subscriptions, which could be a drawback for some users.

ChatGPT offers customer support via live chat, which I find helpful for quick queries and troubleshooting.

However, it’s important to note that ChatGPT does not offer refunds for canceled subscriptions, so it’s crucial to evaluate the tool’s features thoroughly during the free trial.

To dive deeper into how ChatGPT compares to other AI tools, consider reading a comprehensive ChatGPT review to determine if it fits your research writing needs.

9. Research Rabbit: Your Go-To Tool for Efficient Research and Literature Mapping

Research Rabbit is a unique, citation-based literature mapping tool designed to optimize your time when searching for references, whether you’re starting an essay, a minor project, or a comprehensive literature review.

This free tool is invaluable for researchers who want to streamline their research process by finding relevant papers quickly and efficiently.

When I first used Research Rabbit for my research writing, I was impressed by how it simplifies the literature review process.

The tool’s ability to search for relevant literature based on a “seed paper” concept is a game-changer. It allows me to input one or more research papers and receive suggestions for additional relevant papers.

This eliminates the need to switch between various databases, making the research process faster and more efficient.

Additionally, Research Rabbit is continuously evolving, with a mission-first team dedicated to advancing human knowledge.

The platform is easy to navigate, but it is primarily focused on literature mapping and lacks more advanced content generation features like those found in ChatGPT .

Research Rabbit excels in citation-based literature mapping , making it a must-have tool for any researcher looking to optimize their literature review process.

However, it is specialized in this area and does not offer broader content generation or editing features, which could limit its utility for those needing a more comprehensive tool like ChatGPT .

Free AI tools for research papers writing offer valuable resources for generating high-quality content.

• Free access to a powerful citation-based literature mapping tool, making it accessible to all researchers.
• Efficient literature searching through the “seed paper” concept saves significant time during the research process.
• The mission-first team focused on advancing human knowledge and continuously improving the tool.
• Limited to literature mapping , lacking broader content creation or editing features.
• English-only support may limit its use for non-English research materials.
• Does not offer advanced integrations or additional research tools in more comprehensive platforms.

Research Rabbit offers customer support via email at [email protected] , which I found responsive and helpful. As the tool is completely free, there is no refund policy, which is understandable given its no-cost model.

To complement your research toolkit with broader capabilities, consider exploring other tools like ChatGPT to see how they can work alongside Research Rabbit.

10. Perplexity AI: Your Real-Time Research Assistant for Accurate Information Retrieval

Perplexity AI is a cutting-edge AI-powered research assistant designed to provide real-time information retrieval and fact-checking, making it an ideal tool for research writing .

Whether you’re conducting in-depth research on complex topics or need quick access to accurate and up-to-date information, Perplexity AI’s real-time web search and transparent source citation capabilities ensure that you get the most relevant and trustworthy results for your research projects.

When I began using Perplexity AI for my research writing, I was immediately struck by how efficient and user-friendly the platform is.

The Perplexity Copilot feature integrates real-time web searches with transparent citations, providing reliable sources for every answer, which is crucial for academic integrity.

The interface is clean and intuitive, allowing me to focus on my research without distractions.

Perplexity AI is particularly strong in real-time information retrieval and source transparency , making it an excellent tool for researchers who need accurate and trustworthy data quickly.

However, the platform’s lack of advanced grammar or plagiarism checking features and limited information on data security may require users to complement it with other tools for a more comprehensive research writing process.

• Real-time web search provides up-to-date information crucial for current research topics.
• Transparent source citation enhances academic integrity, ensuring that all information is traceable.
• A User-friendly interface allows for a distraction-free research experience.
• No built-in plagiarism or grammar checks , which may require additional tools.
• Limited data security details which could be a concern for sensitive research.
• The Professional plan may be necessary for more advanced features, which adds to the cost.

Perplexity AI offers customer support via email at [email protected] , which is responsive and helpful for addressing user inquiries.

The platform provides a 24-hour window for refunds after purchase, with a full refund available within 72 hours for annual subscriptions, making it relatively risk-free to try.

For a more detailed comparison with other research tools, consider exploring a comprehensive Perplexity AI review to see how it fits into your research writing workflow.

How To Choose The Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers?

When I set out to find the best AI tools for writing research papers, I focused on several key factors:

• Content Accuracy and Credibility : The tool’s ability to generate well-researched and accurate content is crucial for producing credible research papers.
• Language Capabilities : It was essential to choose AI tools that support a wide range of languages, ensuring they can assist with research papers in different regional contexts.
• Integration Capabilities : I looked for AI tools that seamlessly integrate with platforms like Google Docs or WordPress, enhancing the writing process and allowing for smooth transitions between the writing and editing stages.
• Data Security and Privacy : Ensuring the AI tool complies with data protection standards is vital, particularly for researchers handling sensitive academic work, especially in regions with strict data privacy regulations.

This detailed guide on artificial intelligence provides more insights into how I evaluate AI tools and what factors to consider. Moreover, the best AI tool for writing research papers in 2024 meets the demands of modern academic writing.

How do AI Writing Tools Help Write Research Papers?

In my experience, AI writing tools have greatly enhanced my ability to produce high-quality research papers by offering several key benefits:

• Efficiency : AI tools speed up tasks like organizing references and generating literature reviews, allowing more time for analysis and critical thinking.
• Accuracy : These tools improve grammar, sentence structure, and clarity by leveraging natural language processing (NLP), ensuring professional-quality writing.
• Data Analysis : AI can quickly scan and summarize large volumes of data, making it easier to identify trends and build stronger research arguments.
• Collaboration : Many AI tools support real-time collaboration, enabling seamless teamwork across different regions, especially useful for international research projects.

For more on how AI tools enhance research writing, understanding the basics of NLP (Natural Language Processing) can provide deeper insights into these advancements.

Want to Read More? Explore Best AI Writing Tools Guides!

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Can I use AI to write my research paper?

What is the best ai for summarizing research papers, is there a completely free ai writing tool, can professors detect ai-written papers, can chatgpt summarize a research paper.

Choosing the best AI Tools for writing Research Papers involves considering content accuracy, language capabilities, integration options, and data security. AI tools like ChatGPT, Quillbot, and Research Rabbit offer unique features that cater to different aspects of the research writing process, making them valuable assets for academics.

You should explore these AI writing tools to enhance your content writing projects, whether you’re working on a research paper, summarizing literature, or managing complex academic tasks. By integrating these tools into your workflow, you can improve both the efficiency and quality of your writing.

Digital marketing enthusiast by day, nature wanderer by dusk. Dave Andre blends two decades of AI and SaaS expertise into impactful strategies for SMEs. His weekends? Lost in books on tech trends and rejuvenating on scenic trails.

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Style and Grammar Guidelines

APA Style provides a foundation for effective scholarly communication because it helps writers present their ideas in a clear, concise, and inclusive manner. When style works best, ideas flow logically, sources are credited appropriately, and papers are organized predictably. People are described using language that affirms their worth and dignity. Authors plan for ethical compliance and report critical details of their research protocol to allow readers to evaluate findings and other researchers to potentially replicate the studies. Tables and figures present information in an engaging, readable manner.

The style and grammar guidelines pages present information about APA Style as described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition and the Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition . Any updates to APA Style are noted on the applicable topic pages. If you are still using the sixth edition, helpful resources are available in the sixth edition archive .

Looking for more style?

• Accessibility of APA Style
• Line Spacing
• Order of Pages
• Page Header
• Paragraph Alignment and Indentation
• Sample Papers
• Title Page Setup
• Appropriate Level of Citation
• Basic Principles of Citation
• Classroom or Intranet Sources
• Paraphrasing
• Personal Communications
• Quotations From Research Participants
• Secondary Sources
• Abbreviations
• Capitalization
• Italics and Quotation Marks
• Punctuation
• Spelling and Hyphenation
• General Principles for Reducing Bias
• Historical Context
• Intersectionality
• Participation in Research
• Racial and Ethnic Identity
• Sexual Orientation
• Socioeconomic Status
• Accessible Use of Color in Figures
• Figure Setup
• Sample Figures
• Sample Tables
• Table Setup
• Archival Documents and Collections
• Basic Principles of Reference List Entries
• Database Information in References
• DOIs and URLs
• Elements of Reference List Entries
• Missing Reference Information
• Reference Examples
• References in a Meta-Analysis
• Reference Lists Versus Bibliographies
• Works Included in a Reference List
• Active and Passive Voice
• Anthropomorphism
• First-Person Pronouns
• Logical Comparisons
• Plural Nouns
• Possessive Adjectives
• Possessive Nouns
• Singular “They”
• Adapting a Dissertation or Thesis Into a Journal Article
• Correction Notices
• Cover Letters
• Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS)
• Open Science
• Response to Reviewers