ResearchRabbit

Key facts: ResearchRabbit is a free research discovery app for academics: add papers you already like and it builds a visual network of related work, recommends papers you may have missed, and lets you follow authors and topics with alerts as new work appears. It is built on public citation data and works as a visual alternative to endless reference lists.

Plans: ResearchRabbit is free to use, with no paid tier advertised — a rare genuinely free tool in the research space. You sign up with an academic or work email to access collections and recommendations.

Best for: researchers, PhD students and academics doing literature reviews. Watch out: recommendation graphs follow citation links, so they can reinforce popular papers and miss important work outside the citation network — combine them with keyword search.

Pros

• Free to use, with no paid tier advertised, which is rare in the research space.
• Builds a visual network of related work from papers you already like.
• Recommends papers you may have missed and lets you follow authors and topics with alerts.
• Works as a visual alternative to endless reference lists, built on public citation data.

Watch out for

• Recommendation graphs follow citation links, so they can reinforce popular papers and miss important work outside the citation network, so combine them with keyword search.
• You sign up with an academic or work email to access collections and recommendations.
• It is a discovery tool, not a paper reader or summariser.

Best for

Researchers, PhD students and academics doing literature reviews. Who should skip it: casual readers who just want a summary of a single paper.

Pricing

ResearchRabbit is free to use, with no paid tier advertised, a rare genuinely free tool in the research space. Check the official site if that ever changes.

FAQs

What is ResearchRabbit? A free visual research tool that maps papers and finds what you should read next.

How does it find papers? Add papers you already like and it builds a visual network of related work, with recommendations and author and topic alerts.

Does it cost anything? No, it is free to use, with no paid tier advertised.

What is its blind spot? Citation graphs can reinforce popular papers and miss work outside the network, so combine them with keyword search.