9 Best Alternatives To Google Scholar For Academic Research

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Are you tired of the same old research tools? Are you ready to explore Alternatives To Google Scholar? If you're looking to enhance your writing and be able to write efficient papers, summaries, and articles, all with the help of AI, then this guide is for you.

Looking for a reliable AI Research Assistant to help streamline your writing process? Look no further. Unriddle's AI Research Assistant is the perfect tool to achieve your goals and enhance your writing by allowing you to write efficient papers, summaries, and articles with AI.

What Is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is a powerful tool for researchers. It comprehensively searches various disciplines and sources, including articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions. This platform provides access to scholarly literature from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites. With Google Scholar, you can effortlessly find relevant work from the expansive world of scholarly research.

Is Google Scholar Free?

Google Scholar is a free service that allows users to search for scholarly articles across many disciplines. Although the resources you find in Google Scholar may be paywalled, the search itself is free. Articles that are available free of charge (open-access articles) can often be immediately accessed.

Read faster & write better with Unriddle!

Unriddle.AI Allows you to read faster and write better. Quickly find info in documents, simplify complex topics, take notes, and write with the power of AI. Unriddle is trusted by thousands of researchers and students, from the classroom to the boardroom. Unriddle generates an AI assistant on top of any document so you can quickly find, summarize, and understand info.

No more endless skimming. Unriddle.AI understands the meaning behind your writing and automatically links you to relevant things you’ve read and written about. Highlight text, and Unriddle will show you the most appropriate sources from your library using AI.

Never lose a citation again. Generate text with AI autocomplete to improve and expand your writing, with suggestions based on the context of your work. Step into a collaborative workspace where everyone can contribute and chat with the same documents in real time and much more!

Read faster & write better — try Unriddle for free today.

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How To Use Google Scholar Efficiently For Academic Research

1. Sorting by Year

Google Scholar does not automatically sort search results by the publication date of the articles. You can take the following steps to find the latest papers in your area of interest. First, type your keywords into the search bar and hit enter. Next, on the search results page, find the "Since Year" option on the left side of the page.

Clicking on this option will filter your search results to show articles from recent years, sorted by relevance. This will help you access the most recent and relevant papers within your scope of interest. Alternatively, you can select the "Sort by date" option to view new articles chronologically. Lastly, click the envelope icon for periodic updates of new articles delivered to your email.

2. Accessing Full Text

Although Google Scholar provides abstracts for most articles, accessing the full text might require a subscription. Here's how you can access the full article. When you search for a topic, you will see options labeled "FindIt@Harvard" or [PDF] to the right of the search result. By clicking these links, you may get access to the complete article.

Alternatively, clicking on the "All versions" option below the search result allows you to explore alternative sources where the full text may be available. Furthermore, clicking "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result will lead you to similar articles or those referenced in the article. This can help you access related works or find the full text of the article.

3. Enhanced Research Strategies

Employ the following strategies to find the most suitable answers to your research questions. If you are new to a subject area, you can pick up essential terminology by consulting secondary sources like Wikipedia. A Wikipedia article on a topic might introduce you to key terms to refine your search on Google Scholar.

If the search results seem too specific, delve into the "References" sections of the articles to find more generalized works that might offer broader insights. Conversely, if the search results appear too general, click on "Cited by" to locate newer papers that have referenced them.

These newer papers will likely be more specific and tailored to your research needs. In essence, there is rarely a single answer to any research question. By exploring related articles, cited works, or author's contributions, you can find a variety of perspectives to enhance your research.

Complete Step by Step Guide On How To Use Unriddle's AI Research Tool

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use Unriddle. I’ve also copied it below :)

From here, it's pretty simple.

Unriddle helps you read, write and learn faster.

Interact with documents via AI so you can quickly find and understand info.

Then start writing in a new Note and Unriddle will show you relevant content from your library as you type.

Get started by uploading a document.

Or read on for the full rundown.

Interact with documents

When you upload a document, Unriddle generates an AI assistant on top of this data.

Click 'New' in the right sidebar and then select 'Upload' to get started.

Use this assistant to answer specific questions about the text, summarize content and simplify jargon.

The trick is to be super clear about what you want.

If you're summarizing a research paper, for example, instead of saying “Summarize” or “Summarize this research paper”, say something like “Explain this research paper to me in simple terms. What method did the researchers use? What did they find? Why does it matter?”.

The second prompt will produce a much better overview of the paper because we're giving the AI more hints about what we want.

Automatic relations

Unriddle grasps the context behind each Note and Document in your library and automatically links them based on meaning.

Let's say you have a collection of nuclear physics papers in your library.

When you start writing a note about The Manhattan Project, simply mentioning "The Manhattan Project" will prompt Unriddle to find the connection between this note and the nuclear physics papers.

Even if you didn't explicitly mention the research papers, Unriddle's knowledge of Oppenheimer, his work, and the significant relevance of these papers means it understands the connection and automatically links them together.

In short, Unriddle shows you relevant content from your library at the exact moment you need it, even if you haven't explicitly mentioned it.

Citing your sources

Writing is hard when you have a ton of sources to track.

So we made it easy.

Highlight some text, click ‘Cite’ and you’ll see items from your library that contain information related to the selection of text you just highlighted as determined by our AI.

When you select an item Unriddle inserts a link into highlighted text that, when clicked, takes you to the referenced item.

Writing with AI

Click ‘New’ in the sidebar and hit ‘Note’ to open up a new note.

Here you’ll find all the text formatting options you’re used to and more.

Type ‘++’ to generate text based on the context of what’s already written.

Highlight text and click ‘Ask AI’ to open up the AI menu where you’ll find options to improve, expand, summarize and explain.

You can type custom prompts too!

Finally, you can open any note in a pane on the right side of the screen while interacting with documents. Just click the orange pencil icon at the top of the chat window.

Chat Settings

Adjust the model, temperature and response length in the Setting sidebar.

Click the cog icon in the top right corner of the screen and look for "Chat Settings".

These apply across all documents but you can easily flip between them regardless of settings at the time of upload.

Model: the machine learning model used to generate responses.

Temperature: the amount of creative license you give to the AI.

Max length: the maximum number of words generated in a response.

Got feedback or questions? Send us an email and we'll get back to you within a day.

— Naveed

9 Best Alternatives To Google Scholar For Academic Research

1. Unriddle.AI

Are you fascinated by the idea of reading faster and writing better? One of the Google Scholar alternatives, Unriddle.AI, is what you need! This tool leverages AI to help you find information in documents more quickly, simplify complex topics, take notes, and enhance your writing skills.

Pros

Provides an AI assistant for quickly finding, summarizing, and understanding document information.

Automatically links you to relevant past readings and writings, and never lose a citation again.

Generate text with AIautocomplete to enhance your writing.

Collaborative workspace for real-time document editing.

Cons

Pricing might be a hurdle for some users.

Pricing

Free trial available

2. Consensus

Want to access evidence-based answers faster and easier? Consensus, another Google Scholar alternative, offers responses based on the consensus of the academic community. Ask yes or no questions and get answers supported by peer-reviewed published sources.

Pros

Uses natural language processing to extract key findings from research papers.

100% ad-free, ensuring unbiased results.

Saves time and effort with faster access to evidence-based answers.

Cons

May not cover all topics or questions due to the availability of research papers.

Pricing

Free plan available, Premium plan at $8.99/month, Teams at $9.99/month

3. Jasper

Are you looking for an AI tool to assist you with various aspects of writing? Jasper could be the answer! This tool can identify the core argument in your writing, provide an outline, generate a title, and even offer to write introductions and conclusions.

Pros

Essential editing functions like Grammar, Rephrase, and Explainitto5thgrade.

Offers templates to simplify research work.

Great for writing cover letters or emails with personality.

Cons

Requires user guidance through the process.

Some learning curve involved.

Pricing

Creator at $39/month, Pro at $59/month

4. Avidnote

Are you interested in a tool that saves time with templates and a user-friendly interface? Avidnote, a Swedish business, provides AI tools software, including a free version.

Pros

Timesaving templates.

User-friendly interface.

Free plan available.

Cons

It is not ideal for particular research needs.

Pricing

Free plan, Professional plan at $19, Premium Plan at $59

5. Zotero

Want a tool that automates research detection on the internet? Zotero is the only software that does that and allows easy research organization. Zotero covers all bases with collaborative group libraries and support for various citation management platforms.

Pros

Free software with collaborative features.

Easy to learn.

Various plugins for document creation tools.

Cons

Requires desktop application for full features.

Limited free cloud storage.

Pricing

Free, with paid cloud storage upgrades

6. Scite.AI

Do you want to assess the credibility of articles quickly? Scite.AI is your go-to tool! It offers AI assistance for evidence-based answers and has a handy Chrome extension.

Pros

AI assistant for evidence-based answers.

Handy Chrome extension.

Assessment of article credibility.

Cons

Subscription costs.

Limited full-text access.

Pricing

7day free trial, Monthly Plan at $20, Yearly Plan at $12/month

7. Research Rabbit

Looking for a tool to fast-track your research? Research Rabbit is the one! With AI assistance for time savings and improving research quality, Research Rabbit is a gamechanger.

Pros

Uses artificial intelligence to enhance research quality.

Visualizes scholarly networks using interactive graphs.

Offers personalized digests of the latest papers.

Cons

May not cover all relevant sources for specific research topics.

Limited user reviews to evaluate reliability.

Pricing

Free

8. ChatPDF

Do you need a tool to read and analyze research papers faster? ChatPDF is what you need! With an intuitive chat interface and multilingual support, ChatPDF simplifies the process.

Pros

Intuitive chat interface for easy navigation.

Multilingual support.

Generous free plan for regular users.

Cons

Absence of Chrome extension.

No private document functionality.

Pricing

Free plan, Plus plan at $5/month

9. Semantic Scholar

Looking for free AI-driven search and discovery tools? Semantic Scholar offers that, helping you quickly understand and discover research papers.

Pros

Free access to scholarly publications.

Advanced filtering options.

Recommendations based on search history.

Cons

Less popular compared to significant alternatives.

Pricing

Free

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5 Tips For Searching Google Scholar

1. Google Scholar searches are not case-sensitive

You don’t need to worry about case sensitivity using Google Scholar. In other words, a search for "Machine Learning" will produce the same results as a search for "machine learning.”

2. Use keywords instead of full sentences

Let's say your research topic is about self-driving cars. For a regular Google search, we might enter something like "What is the current state of the technology used for self-driving cars?". You will see less-than-ideal results for this query in Google Scholar.

The trick is to build a list of keywords and perform searches for them, such as self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles, or driverless cars. Google Scholar will assist you with that: if you start typing in the search field, you will see related queries suggested by Scholar!

3. Use quotes to search for an exact match

If you put your search phrase into quotes, you can search for exact matches of that phrase in the title and the document's body text. Without quotes, Google Scholar will treat each word separately. This means the words will not necessarily appear together if you search national parks. Grouped words and exact phrases should be enclosed in quotation marks.

4. Add the year to the search phrase to get articles published in a particular year

For example, a search using “self-driving cars 2015” will return articles or books published in 2015.

5. Use the Boolean operator to control your searches better

Searches are not case-sensitive. However, you can use several Boolean operators to control the search, and these must be capitalized. AND requires both words or phrases on either side to be somewhere in the record. NOT can be placed in front of a word or phrase to exclude results that include them. OR will give equal weight to results that match just one of the words or phrases on either side.

Read faster & write better with Unriddle!

Unriddle understands the meaning behind your writing and automatically links you to relevant things you’ve read and written about. Highlight text and Unriddle will show you the most appropriate sources from your library using AI. Never lose a citation again.

Generate text with AIautocomplete to improve and expand your writing, with suggestions based on the context of your work. Step into a collaborative workspace where everyone can contribute, chat with the same documents in real-time, and much more!

Read faster & write better — try Unriddle for free today.

Limitations Of Google Scholar

Google Scholar has a vast search index, estimated to have around 160 million resources, and it is growing annually. However, it does not encompass all resources found in a local library catalog. For instance, it does not include podcasts, videos, articles, statistics, or special collections.

Professionals do not organize Information in Google Scholar; metadata quality varies depending on the data source. This is in stark contrast to scholarly databases like Scopus or Web of Science, where information is collected and indexed in a systematic and structured manner.

Read Faster & Write Better With Unriddle for Free Today

Unriddle.AI is a powerful all-in-one research tool with many features to enhance reading and writing experiences. With Unriddle, you can easily find information in documents, simplify complex topics, take notes, and improve your writing using the power of AI. The platform is trusted by thousands of researchers and students across various disciplines, from the classroom to the boardroom.

Unriddle.AI Allows you to generate an AI assistant on top of any document, quickly finding, summarizing, and understanding information without endless skimming. By understanding the meaning behind your writing, Unriddle automatically links you to relevant things you've read and written about, providing a seamless and comprehensive research experience.

Text Highlighting and Source Management

One of the standout features of Unriddle is its ability to highlight text and show you the most relevant sources from your library using AI. This ensures that you never lose a citation again, making it an invaluable tool for researchers and students who need to keep track of their sources and references. Additionally, you can generate text with AIautocomplete to improve and expand your writing, with suggestions based on the context of your work.

Collaborative Workspace

Unriddle.AI also offers a collaborative workspace where multiple users can contribute and chat with the same documents in real time, fostering teamwork and facilitating seamless collaboration. This feature primarily benefits group projects or research teams working on documents together.

Enhanced Reading and Writing With Unriddle

Unriddle’s comprehensive research tool enhances your reading and writing experiences. It provides valuable AI-powered features to help you navigate the complexities of scholarly research. Whether you're a student, a researcher, or a professional, Unriddle can help you read faster, write better, and elevate the quality of your work. Give Unriddle a try today and experience the difference for yourself!