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Find research papers on your topic

Get the papers with a free PDF, and the DOI of every paper you have to get through your library.

Free. No sign-up. A few words or a full research question both work.

How it works

  1. Type your topic, in a few words or as a full research question.
  2. We search OpenAlex, an open index of scholarly work, for journal articles on your topic, and leave out papers marked as retracted and papers that look off topic.
  3. Every open-access PDF link is tested before it is listed. A paper we cannot fetch is listed with its DOI instead.
  4. Open any PDF yourself, or add the free ones to a Litrevu library and ask them your question. Each answer cites the exact passage behind each claim.

How to get a paper that is not free

  1. Open the DOI. The publisher's page shows the abstract, and sometimes a free copy.
  2. Paste the DOI or the title into your university library's search. If your library subscribes to the journal, you can read the paper once you sign in.
  3. If it does not, ask your library about an interlibrary loan.
  4. Look for the author's own copy on their university's repository, or email the author and ask.

Once you have the PDF you can read it wherever you like, or upload it to Litrevu with the rest of your papers.

Questions

Is it free, and do you keep my topic?

It is free, with no account, and with an hourly limit per visitor. Your topic is searched in OpenAlex and never written to our logs. The answer is held in memory for up to 6 hours, so the same topic is not searched twice. Nothing is saved to an account unless you add papers.

Does it find every paper on my topic?

No. It lists journal articles that OpenAlex holds, and at most 15 in each list. For a thesis or a systematic review, also search your library's databases. The Search String Builder writes the search for you.

Why is a paper I know is free under papers to get?

Some publishers block automatic downloads, and some papers are free to read on the publisher's page without an open licence, so we do not fetch them. The DOI still takes you to the paper.

Does Litrevu download paywalled papers?

No. Litrevu only fetches open-access papers. For anything else you get the DOI, and you use your own library access to read it.

What is a DOI?

A DOI is a permanent ID for a published paper, such as 10.1000/182. Put https://doi.org/ in front of it to reach the paper, or paste it into your library's search.

What Litrevu is

The AI assistant for writing backed by sources. Once you have your papers, it answers your questions with a citation to the exact passage behind each claim, compares sources side by side, and checks your own draft against them.

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  • Literature Review Matrix

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