There are an increasing number of tools made for information retrieval and researcher workflows. How well a tool performs can vary drastically based on things like a user's input, the size and scope of its training data, and training quality (and more!). There are thousands of new apps serving niche markets and users, so experiment safely and wisely.
| Tool | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Elicit.org | Elicit can help with finding papers to cite and defining research directions. If you ask a question, Elicit will show relevant papers and summaries of key information about those papers in an easy-to-use table. It will also help you brainstorm research questions. | Sign-up required. Free. "How to Use Elicit Responsibly" |
| Perplexity AI | Perplexity is an AI-chat-based conversational search engine that delivers answers to questions using language models. If you ask a question, it will provide a summarized answer and can show all the sources used in-context. | Free and Pro versions. App available. |
| Semantic Scholar | Semantic Scholar is an AI-powered search and discovery tool that helps researchers discover and understand scientific literature. It will extract meaning and identify connections across papers to make it easier to find the right information. | Free. Zotero integration. Tutorials available. |
| Consensus | Consensus is a search engine that uses AI to quickly find answers to questions from scientific research. It works by using AI to read through peer-reviewed research and extract the key findings from each paper. | Sign-up required. Free and paid versions available. |
| Research Rabbit | ResearchRabbit a literature mapping platform that takes one or more relevant seed papers and uses AI to suggest and visualize relevant literature and researchers. It can also help you stay up-to-date with new research alerts. | Sign-up required. Free. Zotero integration. |
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