There was a time when AI tools for research were a rarity. But that’s no longer the case. Niche-specific AI tools are becoming the new norm, and AI tools for research are an integral part of this trend. Designed specifically for researchers, students, and academics, AI research tools can now help you with literature review, data analysis, academic writing, automating tedious tasks and checks and more. Several journals and institutions now also allow the use of AI tools, with proper acknowledgement.
But here’s the thing, you can’t just pick the best AI tool for research and expect it to handle all phases of your research workflow. It’s never a one-size-fits-all deal. You need to be smart about it, analyzing what’s out there and choosing tools that are relevant to your research needs, whether they’re free or paid.
So, how do you navigate this AI jungle and choose the best AI tools for research? We’ve got you covered. Here are our top 7 picks that will transform your research journey.
Disclaimer: This article is based on independent research and is intended to provide an unbiased comparison of various AI writing tools, including our own. While we strive to present accurate and up-to-date information, features, and pricing, we recommend checking directly with the respective companies for the latest details, as offerings may change over time. Additionally, any opinions expressed here reflect the author’s perspective and may not represent the official stance of the companies/tools discussed.
Paperpal is an all-in-one AI research and writing assistant that helps you edit, write, search, cite and submit with confidence – all at one place. Paperpal is trained on millions of scholarly articles, 22+ years of STM expertise and 2.5 million hours of editorial expertise. This enables it to understand and preserve the academic context, ensuring that your text aligns with academic writing conventions. Unlike other AI research tools that require prompts to generate the desired output, Paperpal delivers precise results without the need for detailed prompting.
Features
Paperpal – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Custom-built for academic writing, Paperpal is a trusted AI tool among researchers, publishers, and editors. Paperpal’s tech is deployed across 440+ journals. | Paperpal’s Templates are limited to existing pre-built formats of writing like, Research Paper, Essay, Case Structure etc. |
| Paperpal can significantly reduce the time spent on mundane research and editing tasks, allowing researchers to focus on higher-level research activities. | Paperpal supports English translations for select global languages. |
| Paperpal offers context-sensitive translations for 30+ languages, allowing researchers to work with sources in multiple languages and improve the clarity of their writing. | Paperpal currently doesn’t integration with any other tool apart from MS word |
| Paperpal’s in-depth subject-specific language suggestions and checks help researchers produce higher-quality academic writing. | The free plagiarism report only allows checking for 7000 words(~25 oages) |
Paperpal – Pricing Plans
Paperpal provides Free and Paid plans with access to the following features tailored to enhance academic writing. You get access to the following features:
Paperpal’s Prime plan unlocks unlimited access to all the free features, plus consistency checks and 10,000 words/month of plagiarism checks at just US$25/month, US$55/quarter or US$139 per year.
R Discovery is a literature search and research reading platform that simplifies your journey to find and read the most relevant research papers. It provides personalized reading recommendations based on users’ interests from 250M+ scholarly articles, 32K+ journals, 40M+ open access articles, and 150M+ peer-reviewed articles, as well as preprints, patents, conferences and seminars. This AI research tool accelerates your literature search and optimizes research reading with features like audio papers, translation, curated feeds, and more, making it one of the top-rated AI tools for literature review.
Features
R Discovery – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Provides access to a vast database of research articles sourced from major academic databases and leading publishers, making it a one-stop platform for literature search. | Limited search filter options, such as the ability to filter by publication year or document type, which can make it difficult to narrow down search results. |
| Offers personalized reading recommendations based on user interests and their reading habits, helping researchers discover relevant content efficiently. | Some articles may not be freely accessible, requiring a subscription or institutional access. |
| Includes features like article abstracts, highlights, and audio and full-text options to enhance the research reading experience. |
R Discovery – Pricing Plans
R Discovery offers the following pricing plans:
Free Version: Users can access the platform for free, which includes basic features such as personalized reading feeds, daily research recommendations, and access to a vast database of research articles.
R Discovery Prime: This subscription-based plan offers unlimited access to premium features, including:
The R Discovery Prime subscription is available for $3 per month or $25 per year.
Mind the Graph is an online scientific illustration tool tailored for researchers, educators, and students to create visually stunning scientific graphics. With 75,000+ accurate scientific figures, this AI tool for research is ideal to visualize research for conferences, speeches, papers, classes, and much more. Mind the Graph stands out by providing detailed and precise illustrations, ensuring your scientific visuals are both impactful and accurate.
Features
Mind the Graph – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| High usability with an intuitive interface and easy-to-use tooltips. | Lacks data visualization features; charts and graphs must be created manually. |
| World’s largest library of scientifically accurate illustrations. | Cannot connect with Excel or Google spreadsheets for automatic data visualization. |
| Access to exclusive content at low prices (starting at $5/month). | Limited options for creating custom color schemes and uploading fonts for designs. |
| On-demand illustrations available for specific design needs. | |
| Variety of templates to simplify starting complex designs. | |
| The premium version offers exclusive access to the design team and premium support. | |
| Affordable pricing for individuals and organizations looking to collaborate. |
Mind the Graph – Pricing Plans
Mind the Graph offers three pricing plans:
Additionally, Mind the Graph offers a special service plan designed for academic and industry teams with advanced and personalized resource needs.
Scholarcy is an AI tool for scientific research that simplifies the reading and engagement process with research articles, reports, and documents. It tackles the challenge of keeping up with the vast amount of new research by summarizing lengthy articles into concise sections, making it easier to grasp essential information.
Scholarcy highlights key elements such as study participants, data analyses, main findings, and limitations, and creates summary flashcards that link to open-access sources. It also offers a browser extension and a subscription-based personalized research library, making it a valuable resource for researchers, students, journalists, and policy analysts.
Features
Scholarcy – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Great for quickly digesting large amounts of information. | Free plan limits users to three summary flashcards per day. |
| Presents key insights of lengthy research papers in multiple summary flashcards. | Occasionally has a glitchy interface that may impact user experience. |
| Highlights key points and provides links to open-access sources. | Advanced features require a subscription, which can be a barrier for some users. |
| Offers a centralized library to save and refer to summary flashcards later. | |
| Free Chrome and Edge extensions enhance accessibility and usability. | |
| Allows sharing of summary flashcards, facilitating collaboration. |
Scholarcy – Pricing Plans
Scholarcy offers Free and Scholarcy Plus priced at $45/year. The Scholarcy Plus plan offers enhanced features including the ability to generate detailed summaries, save flashcards, take notes, highlight and edit text, and organize flashcards into collections. Users can export up to 100 flashcards at once, create literature matrices, and generate one-click bibliographies.
Features
Perplexity AI – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons | |||
| Saves time by quickly synthesizing information from various sources | Limited to the information available on the web, may miss academic journal articles | |||
| Provides in-depth, referenced answers to research questions | Free version has usage limits and restricted features | |||
| Helps identify credible sources and evaluate information | Responses can sometimes be biased or incomplete depending on the available data | |||
| Useful for quickly getting overviews of topics or finding new research directions | Not a replacement for in-depth literature reviews and critical analysis | |||
| Conversational interface makes research more interactive and efficient | ||||
Perplexity AI – Pricing Plans
Scite AI is an AI research tool that analyzes over 1.2 billion citation statements from 187 million articles, books, preprints, and datasets offering insights into how publications are cited, indicating whether the citations are supportive or contrasting. Scite AI streamlines research with features like custom dashboards, reference checks, and pre-built journal metrics. The Assistant by Scite enhances research by leveraging large language models to generate AI-powered content for tasks such as literature exploration and decision-making, contributing to more reliable scientific research.
Features
Scite AI – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Streamlines the research process by providing a detailed understanding of research impact and enhancing literature reviews. | Access to all features comes at a cost, with plans starting at $20/month. |
| Offers a more nuanced understanding of each citation’s role within the research ecosystem, enabling comprehensive and critically engaging literature reviews. | Some resources may be out of reach due to limited access agreements. |
| Provides detailed analytics to uncover patterns and trends within research fields, guiding researchers in identifying emerging areas of interest. | Availability of full-text articles is limited due to publisher agreements. |
| User-friendly interface enables access even for those less tech-savvy. |
Scite AI – Pricing Plans
Scite AI offers a 7-day free trial and upgrades to individual monthly or yearly plans. It costs $20/month or $105/year and offers access to all Scite AI features, including Smart Citations, Scite Report, and Scite Reference Check.
Applications of ChatGPT in Research
ChatGPT – Pros and Cons
| Pros of ChatGPT | Cons of ChatGPT |
| Helps brainstorm topics, generate outlines, and phrase arguments. | Requires well-crafted prompts; poorly phrased prompts can lead to unreliable information. |
| Enhances writing style, fluency, and efficiency for novice researchers and PhD students. | Often fails to provide academic context-specific support. |
| Assists non-native researchers in expressing ideas clearly in English. | May use simpler terms, missing the formal tone required for academic writing. |
| ChatGPT acts as a versatile chatbot assistant that you customize and leverage as per your research requirements. | May suggest articles from predatory journals without verifying credibility. |
| Can generate inaccurate or made-up information, leading to serious academic repercussions. | |
| Uses data to train models, breaching privacy and security of sensitive information, unless users opt out. | |
| Can unintentionally rephrase and reuse ideas without proper citation, raising the risk of plagiarism. |
ChatGPT – Pricing Plans
ChatGPT offers various subscription plans to cater to different needs:
Today, AI tools for research have truly transformed the landscape of academic work. They’re not just fancy tools; they’re your new assistants in the lab or library, helping to streamline your research workflow, craft high-quality academic content, and speed up the journey to submission—all without the stress of missing deadlines. Imagine having a tireless research assistant who never sleeps, constantly helping you stay on top of your game.
But let’s not forget, while you use AI research tools to make your work effortless, it’s essential to keep your academic integrity intact. When you rely on AI tools, make sure to acknowledge their use in your work, and adhere to the guidelines set by your institution or chosen journal to maintain transparency and ethical use. And here’s a big one: don’t use AI research tools to plagiarize. Using AI to steal someone else’s work undermines your credibility and integrity as a researcher.
So, use AI tools responsibly and take your research to the next level, all while you stay true to the core values of academic integrity.
Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing toolkit that helps students and researchers achieve 2x the writing in half the time. It leverages 21+ years of STM experience and insights from millions of research articles to provide in-depth academic writing, language editing, and submission readiness support to help you write better, faster.
Get accurate academic translations, rewriting support, grammar checks, vocabulary suggestions, and generative AI assistance that delivers human precision at machine speed. Try for free or upgrade to Paperpal Prime starting at US$19 a month to access premium features, including consistency, plagiarism, and 30+ submission readiness checks to help you succeed.
Experience the future of academic writing – Sign up to Paperpal and start writing for free!
Referencing is the practice of providing citations and sources of information in detail to help…
Reading and comprehending academic texts is at the core of what researchers and students need…
As 2024 approaches its finale, at Paperpal we’re overwhelmed with the love and trust you’ve…
The background of a study is a critical component of any research paper. It acts…
Research and writing are core components in academia, and for good reason. Every piece of…
A literature review involves extensive reading, organizing, summarizing, and synthesizing various texts. While this process…