A free, AI-powered tool designed to help researchers navigate scientific literature
Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered tool designed to help researchers navigate scientific literature. It works as a searchable database of scientific papers from all fields of study, making it easier to find relevant information quickly and efficiently. With over 212 million papers from various fields of science, it is a rich source of knowledge; so, whether you’re a researcher, a student, or just someone interested in learning more about a particular scientific topic – you’ll find Semantic Scholar helpful.
The technology behind the tool utilizes AI to help sort, filter, and present relevant information in a way that’s more digestible and accessible. The AI also aids in processing the vast amount of data in the scientific literature to deliver the most relevant results.
One of the cool features of Semantic Scholar is the Semantic Reader, which is an augmented reading tool that aims to augment the way people read and interact with scientific papers. It makes scientific reading more accessible and richly contextual — offering an enhanced reading experience that can be particularly beneficial for complex or dense scientific literature.
Also provided is the API that allows developers to integrate Semantic Scholar’s paper search capabilities into their applications.
Semantic Scholar is based at the Allen Institute for AI, indicating its roots in a leading AI research organization.
What are the key features?
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- Search research papers: Semantic Scholar allows you to search through over 200 million papers across various fields of science. You can filter results by journals, conferences, authors, publication types, and date range to find the needed research.
- TLDR summaries: To help you scan papers faster, there are "Too Long; Didn't Read" (TLDR) summaries on search results pages, providing a paper's main objective and results.
- Influential citations: Thanks to this feature, you can focus on the most impactful citations, as determined by a machine-learning model that considers factors such as the number of citations to a publication and the surrounding context for each.
- Manage your papers: Semantic Scholar lets you store and organize all the papers that interest you in your online library. You can organize papers into folders and bulk export citations.
- Semantic Reader: This is an augmented reading application which makes the reading experience more accessible and richly contextual by providing citation information directly within the context of a paper.
Who is it for?
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Semantic Scholar is made for researchers, academics, and students engaging in scientific research across various fields. It also offers something for developers, with its API allowing everyone to integrate Semantic Scholar's capabilities into new apps and services. Finally, there is the general population with interest in scientific literature, including journalists, policymakers, and lifelong learners, who need a reliable tool to navigate the vast world of academic papers.
Examples of what you can use it for
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- Research for academic writing and/or projects
- Stay up-to-date with the latest research
- Paper management and collaboration with other researchers
- Track citations and get alerts when there are new citations for a specific paper or author
Pros & Cons
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- Lets you easily find research papers
- Keep up with the latest research on just about any subject under the sun
- Semantic Reader is convenient for non-academic folks
Last update:
March 12, 2025