a research engine

28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier

If you’re a researcher or scholar, you know that conducting effective online research is a critical part of your job. And if you’re like most people, you’re always on the lookout for new and better ways to do it. 

This article aims to give you an edge over researchers that rely mainly on Google for their entire research process.

Table of Contents

#1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an academic search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.

#2. ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) 

ERIC (short for educational resources information center) is a great academic search engine that focuses on education-related literature. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and produced by the Institute of Education Sciences. 

ERIC indexes over a million articles, reports, conference papers, and other resources on all aspects of education from early childhood to higher education. So, search results are more relevant to Education on ERIC. 

ERIC is a free online database of education-related literature. 

#3. Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha can also be used to find academic articles. Just type in your keywords and Wolfram Alpha will generate a list of academic articles that match your query.

#4. iSEEK Education 

iSEEK is a search engine targeting students, teachers, administrators, and caregiver. It’s designed to be safe with editor-reviewed content.

iSEEK Education is free to use.

#5. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

CORE is an academic search engine that focuses on open access research papers. A link to the full text PDF or complete text web page is supplied for each search result. It’s academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers.

You might also like:

#7. Science.gov

#8. semantic scholar, #9. refseek.

This is one of the free search engines that feels like Yahoo with a massive directory. It could be good when you are just looking for research ideas from unexpected angles. It could lead you to some other database that you might not know such as the CIA The World Factbook, which is a great reference tool.

#10. ResearchGate 

A mixture of social networking site + forum + content databases where researchers can build their profile, share research papers, and interact with one another.

#11. DataONE Search (formerly CiteULike) 

#12. dataelixir , #13. lazyscholar – browser extension, #14. citeseerx – digital library from penstate, #15. the lens – patents search , #16. fatcat – wiki for bibliographic catalog , #17. lexis web – legal database, #18. infotopia – part of the vlrc family, #19. virtual learning resources center, #21. worldwidescience.

Over 70 countries’ databases are used on the website. When a user enters a query, it contacts databases from all across the world and shows results in both English and translated journals and academic resources.

#22. Google Books

A user can browse thousands of books on Google Books, from popular titles to old titles, to find pages that include their search terms. You can look through pages, read online reviews, and find out where to buy a hard copy once you find the book you are interested in.

#23. DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

#24. baidu scholar, #25. pubmed central, #26. medline®.

MEDLINE® is a paid subscription database for life sciences and biomedicine that includes more than 28 million citations to journal articles. For finding reliable, carefully chosen health information, Medline Plus provides a powerful search tool and even a dictionary.

Defunct Academic Search Engines 

#27. microsoft academic  .

Microsoft Academic

#28. Scizzle

Final thoughts.

There are many academic search engines that can help researchers and scholars find the information they need. This list provides a variety of options, starting with more familiar engines and moving on to less well-known ones. 

10 thoughts on “28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier”

Thank you so much Joannah..I have found this information useful to me as librarian in an academic library

You are welcome! We are happy to hear that!

Thank You Team, for providing a comprehensive list of academic search engines that can help make research easier for students and scholars. The variety of search engines included offers a range of options for finding scholarly articles, journals, and other academic resources. The article also provides a brief summary of each search engine’s features, which helps in determining which one is the best fit for a specific research topic. Overall, this article is a valuable resource for anyone looking for a quick and easy way to access a wealth of academic information.

We appreciate your support and thank you for your kind words. We will continue to provide valuable resources for students and researchers in the future. Please let us know if you have any further questions or suggestions.

No more questions Thank You

I cannot thank you enough!!! thanks alot 🙂

Typography animation is a technique that combines text and motion to create visually engaging and dynamic animations. It involves animating individual letters, words, or phrases in various ways to convey a message, evoke emotions, or enhance the visual impact of a design or video. – Typography Animation Techniques Tools and Online Software {43}

Expontum – Helps researchers quickly find knowledge gaps and identify what research projects have been completed before. Expontum is free, open access, and available to all globally with no paid versions of the site. Automated processes scan research article information 24/7 so this website is constantly updating. By looking at over 35 million research publications (240 million by the end of 2023), the site has 146 million tagged research subjects and 122 million tagged research attributes. Learn more about methodology and sources on the Expontum About Page ( https://www.expontum.com/about.php )

Hey Ryan, I clicked and checked your site and thought it was very relevant to our reader. Thank you for sharing. And, we will be reviewing your site soon.

Sounds good! Thanks, Joannah!

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Best Academic Search Engines [2024]

Table of Contents

Gone are the days when researchers used to spend hours in the library skimming through endless reference books and resources. Now, thanks to academic search engines — with just a few clicks, researchers can access an extensive amount of information at their fingertips.

However, not all search engines are designed to make the research discovery process easier. It varies from one search engine to another, few might not have updated their database to the latest articles, while others might still provide older articles as a result of your search keyword or topic, and so on. This way, half of the researcher’s time is consumed shortlisting the best academic search engines.

Therefore, to help you choose the best search engine for academic research, we’ve crafted this blog. In this article, we will explore the best academic search engines available and why they are essential for scholars, researchers, and students alike.

Introduction to Academic Search Engines

Academic search engines are online repositories or databases that host millions of research articles and allow users to find relevant scholarly articles, research publications, conference proceedings, and other academic resources. Unlike web search engines like Google or Bing, these platforms are specifically designed to provide accurate, reliable, and relevant academic content.

These search engines often have advanced features that help users filter their search results based on specific criteria. For example, SciSpace helps you filter the results based on author, publication date, PDF, open-access, and more. In addition, it also provides citation information, abstracts, and full-text access to research papers and other scholarly literature, making them invaluable tools for scholars and researchers.

Academic search engines play a crucial role in the research process by providing scholars with easy access to relevant and reliable information. They save researchers valuable time by eliminating the need to sift through irrelevant search results and provide them with free access to a focused pool of academic resources.

With their advanced features and comprehensive coverage, these academic databases empower researchers to stay at the forefront of their fields and contribute to the advancement of knowledge.

Benefits of using reliable academic search engines for research

When it comes to academic research, using reliable search engines is of utmost importance. The credibility and quality of the sources you rely on can significantly impact the results of your research findings and conclusions.

Here are the potential advantages of using a popular search engine!

1. Reliable scholarly source: By using an academic search engine, researchers can ensure that the information they find is from reputable sources. These academic databases typically index content from scholarly journals, universities, research institutions, and other reliable and cited sources. As a result, the risk of using incorrect or biased information, which is prevalent on the open web, is significantly reduced.

2. Increased exposure to enormous articles: With a reliable academic search engine, you can access a vast array of scholarly articles and research publications. These search engines have extensive academic databases that include articles from various disciplines, including science and social sciences, allowing researchers to explore a wide range of topics and find relevant studies to support their research.

3. Advanced search filters: Reliable academic search engines often provide advanced search features that enable researchers to refine their search queries and narrow down the results to find the most relevant and latest information. These features may include filters for publication date, author, journal, and citation count, among others. By utilizing these advanced search terms and options, researchers can save time and effort by quickly finding the most pertinent resources.

4. Access full-text journal articles: Another advantage of using search engine for academic research is the ability to access full-text scientific articles. Many academic search engines provide direct links to the full text of articles, either freely available or through institutional subscriptions. This ensures that researchers can read and analyze the complete article, rather than relying on abstracts or TL;DR summaries.

5. Additional tools support: The most reliable search engines for research like SciSpace offer additional tools and features to enhance the research workflow. These may include citation generators, reference management systems, and options to save and organize search results. These tools can greatly facilitate the organization and the citation analysis of sources, making the research process more efficient and systematic.

Best search engines for research

Now that we’ve understood the importance of using reliable search engines for academic research, let's explore some of the best academic literature search engines available:

1. SciSpace

SciSpace is considered the best academic search engine that hosts and provides free access to a comprehensive index of 300 million+ scholarly articles from various fields. It utilizes advanced algorithms to provide users with highly relevant search results. Its intuitive and user-friendly interface makes it ideal for both novice and experienced researchers to navigate millions of research papers with no mess around.

One of the standout features of SciSpace is its “ Trace feature ” which allows users to find relevant research papers based on the preferred criteria including citation counts, related publications, references, authors, and more. It helps you land on the right research paper based on your preferences or research needs.

SciSpace is the only search engine that not only helps you discover relevant scholarly scientific literature but also allows you to read a research paper using its AI research assistant, conduct a literature review, and generate accurate citations for your research publications. It is an all-in-one platform that accelerates your research workflow with its AI-powered tools. You can explore all of them here

2. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is undoubtedly one of the popular search engines. With its vast database of scholarly literature, Google Scholar allows users to search for articles, theses, books, and conference papers across multiple academic disciplines. Google Scholar helps users save their search queries and set up email alerts for new publications in their field of interest. This ensures that researchers stay up-to-date with the latest developments in their respective fields.

PubMed is a go-to academic search engine for those in the field of medicine and life sciences. Developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), PubMed provides access to a vast collection of medicine, biomedical, health sciences, or literature, including journals, clinical trials, and scientific articles. Its meticulously curated articles makes it a trusted resource for medical professionals, scientists, researchers, and students alike.

Scopus is a comprehensive database of science that covers a wide range of scholarly literature across multiple disciplines. It offers a vast collection of peer reviewed articles, including publications, conference papers, and patents. With its extensive coverage and powerful search capabilities, Scopus is a valuable tool for researchers looking to explore the latest developments in their respective fields.

JSTOR is a repository that provides access to a vast collection of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Its interdisciplinary approach makes it a valuable resource for researchers across various fields of study.

6. IEEE Xplore

IEEE Xplore is a premier academic search engine for those in the fields of engineering, computer science, and technology. It provides access to a vast collection of technical articles, conference papers, and standards published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

IEEE Xplore is a treasure trove of knowledge for researchers and engineers looking to stay at the forefront of technological advancements.

Criteria for choosing the best academic search engine

With so many free academic search engines to choose from, it can be challenging to determine which one is the best fit for your research needs. Here are some criteria to consider when selecting an academic search engine:

• Relevance: The search engine should provide highly relevant search results that are specific to your area of study.
• Database size: A larger database gives you access to a broader range of scientific literature.
• Advanced search capabilities: Look for search engines that offer advanced search filters, allowing you to refine your search based on specific criteria.
• User-friendly interface: A user-friendly interface makes it easier for researchers to navigate and retrieve the information they need efficiently.
• Accessibility: Consider the availability of full-text or PDF access to articles and the ease of obtaining the necessary permissions to cite or use the content.

In conclusion, academic search engines play a vital role in scholarly communication, facilitating efficient and reliable academic research. They provide scholars, researchers, and students with access to a vast array of scholarly articles, research papers, and other academic resources. By using the best academic search engines, researchers can ensure that their research is backed by evidence (accurate and trustworthy information).

While each search engine has its own unique features and strengths, the key is to choose the one that best aligns with your research needs and preferences. Remember to utilize advanced search filters, explore related articles and citations, and keep your research well-organized for maximum efficiency. As technology continues to advance, we can expect academic search engines to evolve and provide even more innovative solutions to the challenges faced in academic research.

So, embrace these powerful tools, explore the above-featured academic search engines, and let us know which tool you are clinging to!

Frequently Asked Questions

Google Scholar, SciSpace, PubMed, and JSTOR are widely used tools for academic research.

Academic search engineinvolves an in-depth examination of scholarly sources with a rigorous approach, while a Google search engine explores a wider range of web content, including non-academic sources, with varying levels of reliability.

They provide a comprehensive overview of existing research on diverse topics aiding researchers in conducting an efficient literature review without investing more time.

A few more good reads for you!

Elevate Your Writing Game With AI Grammar Checker Tools

How To Humanize AI Text In Scientific Articles

A Guide to Using AI Tools to Summarize Literature Reviews

AI for Essay Writing — Exploring Top 10 Essay Writers

Role of AI in Systematic Literature Review

You might also like

Boosting Citations: A Comparative Analysis of Graphical Abstract vs. Video Abstract

The Impact of Visual Abstracts on Boosting Citations

Introducing SciSpace’s Citation Booster To Increase Research Visibility

A free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature

• Noam Chomsky
• Electronegativity
• Law of Demand

New & Improved API for Developers

Introducing semantic reader in beta.

Stay Connected With Semantic Scholar Sign Up What Is Semantic Scholar? Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI.

Reference management. Clean and simple.

Academic Databases

ERIC research database: complete tutorial

The ERIC database is the premier education literature database for scholarly research. This guide covers search types and strategies, filters, and full text options.

How to efficiently search online databases for academic research

Academic research isn't difficult if you know where and how to search for scholarly articles and research papers. Here's how to do it.

How to use Google Scholar: the ultimate guide

Google Scholar is the number one academic search engine. Our detailed guide covers best practices for basic and advanced search strategies in Google Scholar.

How to use PubMed: the ultimate guide

PubMed is the most popular search engine for biomedical sciences. Learn how to use PubMed, basic and advanced search strategies, and about its limitations and alternatives in this ultimate guide.

Is Google Scholar a database or search engine? [Update 2024]

Google Scholar is the number one free resource to discover scientific literature, but is it an academic database or a search engine?

The best academic research databases [Update 2024]

Your research is stuck and you need to find new sources? Take a look at our compilation of academic research databases: Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, ERIC, JSTOR, DOAJ, Science Direct, and IEEE Xplore.

The best academic search engines [Update 2024]

Your research is stuck, and you need to find new sources. Take a look at our compilation of free academic search engines: ✓ Google Scholar ✓ BASE ✓ CORE ✓ Science.gov

The best research databases for computer science [Update 2024]

The top 4 research databases specifically dedicated to computer science: ✓ ACM Digital Library ✓ IEEE Xplore ✓ dbpl ✓ Springer LNCS

The best research databases for healthcare and medicine [Update 2024]

We have compiled the top list of research databases for healthcare, medicine, and biomedical research: PubMed, EMBASE, PMC, and Cochrane Library.

Bibliometrics

Learn how to calculate your h-index on Google Scholar

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Google Scholar online for free, and which tools to use for a detailed analysis.

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Scopus [3 steps]

Learn how to assess your h-index on Scopus in 3 easy steps.

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Web of Science

Learn how to calculate your h-index using Web of Science in 3 easy steps.

The ultimate how-to-guide on the h-index

Learn what an h-index is, how to calculate it, and why it is important to know about it for your career as a scientist.

What is a good h-index? [with examples]

Curious to know what a good h-index is? Read this guide to learn when an h-index is considered good.

What is a good impact factor?

Do you want to find out what a good impact factor is? Read this guide to learn what an impact factor is, how it is calculated, and what impact factor is considered good.

Credible Sources

Can a blog be a credible source? [Update 2024]

You want to add a blog post to your research paper? In general, blogs are not considered to be credible sources: ➜ check out these reasons to learn more about it.

How can I find credible sources? [7 tips]

Sometimes it is hard to determine whether a source is credible or not. Read our guide to help you find credible sources.

Is Wikipedia a credible source?

We all ❤ Wikipedia, but can you cite it in your research paper? No. Wikipedia is not a credible source, and here is why you should only use it for preliminary research.

What are credible sources?

Credible sources are sources that are trustworthy and can be used as references in your academic papers. This guide will help you identify and evaluate sources for their credibility.

What are predatory journals?

This day and age, you have to be careful where you submit your work for publication. This article helps you spot a predatory journal and has tips and tricks on what to do if you accidentally submitted to one.

Primary and Secondary Sources

Interviews: are they a primary source?

Interviews can add tremendously to your research project. Read on to quickly learn when an interview is considered a primary source.

Is a documentary a secondary source? [with examples]

You are not sure if a documentary is a secondary source? We show you when and why is a documentary either a secondary or a tertiary source.

Is a letter a primary source?

Letters are frequently used in historical research. Read on to see when a letter qualifies as a primary source.

Is a map a primary source? [with examples]

Are you not sure if a map is a primary source? This guide will show you when and why a map is a primary or a secondary source.

Is a painting a primary source? [with examples]

Are you unsure if a painting is a primary source? This guide will show you when and why a painting is either a primary or a secondary source.

Is a textbook a secondary source?

Are you unsure if a textbook is a secondary source? Learn in this guide when and why a textbook is either a primary, secondary, or tertiary source.

Is an autobiography a primary source?

Are you not sure if an autobiography is a primary source? We show you when and why an autobiography is either a primary or secondary source.

Is an encyclopedia a primary source?

Are you unsure if an encyclopedia is a primary source? Find your answer and learn the right way to reference an encyclopedia in this guide.

Is census data a primary source?

You are not sure if census data is a primary source? We will show you when and why census data is a primary source and where to get it.

Is the US Constitution a primary source?

Are you wondering if the US Constitution is a primary source? Find the answer to your question in this guide.

Newspaper articles: primary or secondary sources?

Learn what questions to ask to see if a newspaper article really qualifies as a primary source.

Primary vs. secondary sources: how to distinguish them

Primary and secondary sources are the foundations of every research project. Learn about their differences and when to use them.

What is a primary source?

Primary sources are the most important sources when undertaking a research project. We answer the 5 most asked questions about primary sources.

What is a secondary source?

Secondary sources are your starting point when undertaking a research project. We answer the 5 most asked questions about secondary sources.

Research Methodology

How to do a content analysis [7 steps]

Content analysis is a research method you might come across when analyzing data. Learn what a content analysis is and how to do one in this step-by-step guide.

How to do a thematic analysis [6 steps]

A thematic analysis is a research method you might come across when analyzing qualitative data. Learn what a thematic analysis is and how to write one in this step-by-step guide.

How to write a rhetorical analysis [4 steps]

A rhetorical analysis explores the goals and motivations of an author, the techniques they’ve used to reach their audience, and how successful these techniques were. Learn how to write an excellent rhetorical analysis in this guide.

Qualitative vs. quantitative research - what’s the difference?

Qualitative and quantitative research are effective but very different approaches to study a subject. Learn the difference between them, what they are used for, and how to analyze qualitative and quantitative research in this guide.

What is research methodology? [Update 2024]

Having the right research methodology can be a make-or-break factor for your academic work. What is research methodology, and how can you get ahead?

Scholarly Sources

How to find a DOI [Update 2024]

Are you not sure where to find a DOI? Read this guide to learn exactly where to spot DOIs, and how to include them in your citations!

How to identify if a source is scholarly

Not sure if it is a scholarly source? Looking at these 6 identifiers can help differentiate scholarly from non-scholarly articles.

How to know if an article is peer reviewed [6 key features]

You don't know exactly what 'peer reviewed' articles are? Read this guide to learn all about peer reviewed articles, their features, and how to find them!

Is a book a scholarly source? [with checklist]

Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish scholarly from non-scholarly books. This guide will help you with that. Learn how to identify scholarly books by following our simple guidelines.

What are peer reviewed journals? [Update 2024]

You don't know exactly what 'peer review' means? Read this guide to clear your doubts, and learn more about peer reviewed articles, its process and types!

What is a DOI [with examples]

What is a DOI? Learn what a digital object identifier is and how to include a DOI in APA and other styles.

What is a scholarly source?

Are you wondering what a scholarly source is and what makes it a scholarly source? Learn all about it in this guide, including what elements a scholarly source generally contains.

What is grey literature? [with examples]

Wondering what is grey literature and how to find it? Find all things grey literature in this quick and easy guide filled with sources for grey literature.

• Submit your COVID-19 Pandemic Research
• Research Leap Manual on Academic Writing
• Conduct Your Survey Easily
• Research Tools for Primary and Secondary Research
• Useful and Reliable Article Sources for Researchers
• Tips on writing a Research Paper
• Stuck on Your Thesis Statement?
• Out of the Box
• How to Organize the Format of Your Writing
• Argumentative Versus Persuasive. Comparing the 2 Types of Academic Writing Styles
• Very Quick Academic Writing Tips and Advices
• Top 4 Quick Useful Tips for Your Introduction
• Have You Chosen the Right Topic for Your Research Paper?
• Follow These Easy 8 Steps to Write an Effective Paper
• 7 Errors in your thesis statement
• How do I even Write an Academic Paper?
• Useful Tips for Successful Academic Writing

The Influence of Risk Management Culture and Process on Competitive Advantage: Mediation Role of Employee Engagement in Construction Companies in Senegal

It strategic alignment maturity and business performance for the banking industry in kenya, the role of entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial bricolage on frugal innovation and smes sustainable performance in emerging markets.

• COVID-19 Virtual Teaching and Learning Impact on TVET Students’ Academic Success
• Facilitating Institutional Transformation in Namibian Public Higher Education Institutions through Transformational Leadership
• Transformative Forces: Social Entrepreneurship as Key Competency
• Virtual Learning Experiences Among Postgraduate Students in Namibia
• Collaborative Governance in Government Administration in the Field of State Security Along the Republic of Indonesia (RI)-Malaysia Border Area
• Slide Share

Best search engines for researchers

If you’re researching for your current paper, the first thing that comes to mind is to check Google for the latest advancement in a related field. While Google may be quite handy for listing relevant theories and examples of successful practice, it is not so much scientist-friendly as it is layperson-friendly. There are many other options and available search engines for researchers. As an experienced scholar, you are probably aware that science is fast progressing activity, and that hundreds and even thousands of articles are published daily, especially when your topic concerns a hot issue. When a subject is generating multiple responses from across the disciplines, you must consider all relevant research search engines and make sure to include in your reference list the latest advances.

Also check out our guide on Research Tools for Primary and Secondary Research

Therefore, you want to use your time sparingly and to be able to filter through by year of publishing or find arguments of top-notch academics by name. When collecting data online, use the best research engines that will help you assemble relevant information. Here are some suggestions on best scholar engines that will help you collect key data without having to dig up through a mass of irrelevant, unindexed and low-quality sites.

Here you can find a list of the best academic search engines to help you get your research started .

Google Scholar

As indicated by the name, Google Scholar is one of the best search engines for researchers provided by Google. It is much like your regular search engine, but it lists relevant scholarly articles and helps to acquire support for your research. Google Scholar indexes papers from a variety of sources, such as academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and scientific platforms and social sites. You can simply type keywords related to your topic, filter by year of publication or by author, and it will come up with many sources for books, e-books, papers, articles, case studies, working papers, dissertations, etc.

Academic Info

On the top of our list of research search engines, Academic info is an in-depth directory containing useful links and resources from a specified field.  It was developed as an alternative to Google in 1998, posing as a source of authoritative educational content. The website provides an extensive list of influential research sites. The website also offers aspiring students who want to enhance professional credentials and eager-to-improve scientists with a myriad of degrees, online courses and remote learning programs from accredited higher education facilities.

iSeek Education

iSeek is a note-worthy and one of prominent search engines for researchers available online. It was tailored explicitly for students, teachers, scientists, academics, analysts and experts. Using iSeek instead of your regular Google unrelated search allows you to invest time in writing instead of spending hours scrolling to irrelevant resources.

WorldCat is the world’s largest network of library content and services. You can search for popular books, music, audiobooks and videos – all of the physical items you’re used to getting from the library. Moreover, you can access digital content downloadable as audiobooks, article citations with links to their full text, esteemed research materials, documents and photos of local and historic significance and digital versions of rare items that aren’t available to the public.

You can also read our tips for getting published in a research journal                                                                                                                    

If you’re targeting high-quality journals for publication, then the resources you use most definitely must be from high-profile and influential sources. This list of search engines for researchers should help to get you started and save time you can rather invest in perfecting your submission.

Suggested Articles

How to Find Useful and Reliable Article Sources for Researchers    

The Role of Primary and Secondary Research Tools in Your Survey Try a New Method…

How to conduct your survey easily   For all types of researchers

How to write a Research Paper fbq('track', 'ViewContent', { content_ids: 'PPT writing view', });

Related Posts

Comments are closed.

Explore millions of high-quality primary sources and images from around the world, including artworks, maps, photographs, and more.

Explore migration issues through a variety of media types

• Part of The Streets are Talking: Public Forms of Creative Expression from Around the World
• Part of The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2020)
• Part of Cato Institute (Aug. 3, 2021)
• Part of University of California Press
• Part of Open: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
• Part of Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter 2012)
• Part of R Street Institute (Nov. 1, 2020)
• Part of Leuven University Press
• Part of UN Secretary-General Papers: Ban Ki-moon (2007-2016)
• Part of Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 12, No. 4 (August 2018)
• Part of Leveraging Lives: Serbia and Illegal Tunisian Migration to Europe, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Mar. 1, 2023)
• Part of UCL Press

Harness the power of visual materials—explore more than 3 million images now on JSTOR.

Enhance your scholarly research with underground newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Explore collections in the arts, sciences, and literature from the world’s leading museums, archives, and scholars.

• Get in touch

Become a supporting member

• Open Knowledge Maps
• Your guide to scientific knowledge
•  Become a supporting member

Map a research topic with AI beta

Get an overview - Find documents - Identify concepts

Our mission

Revolutionising discovery

Open Knowledge Maps is the world's largest AI-based search engine for scientific knowledge. We dramatically increase the visibility of research findings for science and society alike.

Learn more about us

Open and nonprofit

We are a charitable non-profit organization based on the principles of open science. Our aim is to create an inclusive, sustainable and equitable infrastructure that can be used by anyone.

Check out our team

A sustainable platform

We propose to fund Open Knowledge Maps in a collective effort. Organizations are invited to become supporting members and co-create the platform with us.

What users and supporters say

We joined Open Knowledge Maps as a Supporting Member because it is an innovative tool for literature search and we are eager to support the further development of Open Knowledge Maps.

Dr. David Johann, Head of Group Knowledge Management, ETH Library, ETH Zurich

I love how OKMaps breaks down the papers into clusters allowing me to identify themes in the literature and focus on papers that are most pertinent for my work.

Girija Goyal, ReFigure Co-Founder, Staff Scientist at Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, USA

Open Knowledge Maps is a considerable reinforcement in the areas of open science & open access, which are central to our research services.

Dr. Andrea Hacker, Open Access and Bern Open Publishing (BOP), University Library Bern

Now that science gets more and more open, we need ways to visualize it in a relevant way. That's why I support OKMaps.

Jean-Claude Burgelman, Professor of Open Science at VUB, Editor in Chief at Frontiers Policy Labs

Open Knowledge Maps is one of these initiatives we consider to be a visionary innovator in the field of discovery in open spaces.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Tochtermann, Director, ZBW

Education and Knowledge empower people, and everybody should have access to them, it is great to have tools like Open Knowledge Maps empowering people around the world.

Mari Plaza, Data Scientist

Custom integrations

Would you like to complement your services with our AI-based discovery tools? Using our Custom Services, organisations are able to embed Open Knowledge Maps components in their own discovery systems.

Explore live case studies

Supporting members

Project funding

The Top 100 Search Engines For Academic Research

From science databases to document collections and more, here are 100 of the best search engines for academic research.

What Are The Top 100 Search Engines For Academic Research?

by TeachThught Staff

Need to get started with a more broad search? These academic search engines are great resources.

See also 7 Pros And Cons Of Using Siri For Learning

ResearchGate

Access over 135 million publication pages and stay up to date with what’s happening in most professional fields.

With more than 1 billion documents, web pages, books, journals, newspapers, and more, RefSeek offers authoritative resources in just about any subject, without all of the mess of sponsored links and commercial results.

Digital Library of the Commons Repository

Check out the DLC to find international literature including free and open access full-text articles, papers, and dissertations.

Microsoft Academic Search

Microsoft’s academic search engine offers access to more than 38 million different publications, with features including maps, graphing, trends, and paths that show how authors are connected.

Google Trends

Google’s super cool search tool will allow you to find searches that correlate with real-world data.

WolframAlpha

Using expert-level knowledge, this search engine doesn’t just find links; it answers questions, does analysis, and generates reports.

BASE is one of the world’s most voluminous search engines, especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 200 million documents from more than 8,000 content providers. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free (Open Access). BASE is operated by Bielefeld University Library.

Databases and Archives

Resources like the Library of Congress have considerable archives and documents available, and many of them have taken their collections online. Use these search tools to get access to these incredible resources.

Library of Congress

In this incredible library, you’ll get access to searchable source documents, historical photos, and amazing digital collections.

Archives Hub

Find the best of what Britain has to offer in the Archives Hub. You’ll be able to search archives from almost 200 institutions from England, Scotland, and Wales.

National Archives

Check out this resource for access to the National Archives. Find online, public access to find historic documents, research, government information, and more in a single search.

arXiv ePrint Archive

Cornell University’s arXiv.org offers open access to a wealth of e-prints in math, science, and related subjects. Search this resource to find what you need among 1,772,647 documents and counting.

National Agricultural Library

A service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, you can find global information for agriculture in the National Agricultural Library.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System

Get access to the considerable resources of the Smithsonian Institution through the Research Information System, a great way to search more than 7.4 million records from the Smithsonian’s museums, archives, and libraries.

The British Library Catalogues & Collection

Explore the British Library catalogs, printed materials, digital collections, and even collection blogs for a wealth of resources.

CIA World Factbook

As the center of intelligence, the CIA has certainly done its job with The World Factbook, offering information on major reference information around the world. History, people, government, economy, and more are all covered in this online publication.

State Legislative Websites Directory

Use this database to find information from the legislatures of all 50 U.S. states, DC, and the Territories. You can look up bills, statutes, legislators, and more with this excellent tool.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

Search through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications to find descriptive records for historical and current publications, with direct links where available.

iSEEK Education

iSeek is an excellent targeted search engine, designed especially for students, teachers, administrators, and caregivers. Find authoritative, intelligent, and time-saving resources in a safe, editor-reviewed environment with iSEEK.

Books & Journals

Instead of heading to the library to bury your face in the stacks, use these search engines to find out which libraries have the books you need, and maybe even find them available online.

Google Scholar

Check out Google Scholar to find only scholarly resources on Google. The search specializes in articles, patents, and legal documents, and even has a resource for gathering your citations.

Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Academic is a semantic academic search engine powered by Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) data and Microsoft Academic Knowledge Exploration Service (MAKES) hosted API’s.

Find items from 10,000 libraries worldwide, with books, DVDs, CDs, and articles up for grabs. You can even find your closest library with WorldCat’s tools.

Google Books

Supercharge your research by searching this index of the world’s books. You’ll find millions for free and others you can preview to find out if they’re what you’re looking for.

Science Direct

For scientific information only, Scirus is a comprehensive research tool with more than 460 million scientific items including journal content, courseware, patents, educational websites, and more.

Open Library

Find the world’s classic literature, open e-books, and other excellent open and free resources in the Open Library. You can even contribute to the library with information, corrections to the catalog, and curated lists.

Bioline International

Search Bioline International to get connected with a variety of scientific journals. The search is managed by scientists and librarians as a collaborative initiative between Bioline Toronto and the Reference Center on Environmental Information.

Directory of Open Access Journals

When you need top-quality journal writings for free, the Directory of Open Access Journals is a great place to check out. You’ll get access to a searchable journal of full-text quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.

In this curated academic search engine, you’ll get results from over 4,000 free scholarly e-journals in the arts and humanities.

With a focus on science, these academic search engines return all-science, all the time.

Science.gov

In this government science portal, you can search more than 60 databases and 2,200 selected websites across more than 200 million pages and 12 federal agencies. This is an incredible resource for millions of pages of U.S. government science information.

CERN Document Server

This organization for nuclear research serves up a great search and directory for experiments, archives, articles, books, presentations, and so much more within their documents.

WorldWideScience

Use WorldWideScience.org as a global science gateway, offering excellent search results in the sciences, and even the option to select specific databases and find resources in your own language.

Math & Technology

Keep your results limited to only the best math and technology resources by using these search engines.

ZMATH Online Database

Zentralblatt MATH’s online database has millions of entries from thousands of serials and journals dating back as far as 1826. Nearly 35,000 items were added in 2012 alone.

This database was made for scientists and engineers by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. You’ll find nearly 13 million abstracts and research literature, primarily in the fields of physics and engineering.

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies

Find more than 3 million references to journal articles, conference papers, and technical reports in computer science with this bibliography collection.

Social Science

Researchers working in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and related subjects will find great results using these search engines.

Behavioral Brain Science Archive

Check out this searchable archive to find extensive psychology and brain science articles.

Social Science Research Network

In this research network, you can find a wide variety of social science research from a number of specialized networks including cognitive science, leadership, management, and social insurance.

Social Sciences Citation Index

The Thomson Reuters Social Sciences Citation Index is a paid tool, but well worth its cost for the wealth of relevant articles, search tools, and thorough resources available.

Search the languages of the world with Ethnologue, offering an encyclopedic reference of all the world’s known living languages. You’ll also be able to find more than 28,000 citations in the Ethnologue’s language research bibliography.

Find awesome resources for history through these search engines that index original documents, sources, and archives.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Use the LUNA Browser to check out David Rumsey’s Map Collection with more than 30,000 images, searchable by keyword.

Find excellent sources for women’s history with the Genesis dataset and extensive list of web resources.

Get access to historical military records through Fold3, the web’s premier collection of original military records and memorials.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Use the Internet Modern History Sourcebook to find thousands of sources in modern history. Browse and search to find full texts, multimedia, and more.

Library of Anglo-American Culture and History

Use the history guide from the Library of Anglo-American Culture and History for a subject catalog of recommended websites for historians, with about 11,000 to choose from.

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook

The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook is a great place to study human origins, with full text and search on topics including Mesopotamia, Rome, the Hellenistic world, Late Antiquity, and Christian origins.

History Engine

In this tool for collaborative education and research, students can learn history by researching, writing, and publishing, creating a collection of historical articles in U.S. history that can be searched for here by scholars, teachers, and the general public.

Business and Economics

Using these search engines, you’ll get access to business publications, journal articles, and more.

Virtual Library Labour History

Maintained by the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, this library offers historians excellent content for learning about economics, business, and more.

Visit EconLit to access more than 120 years of economics literature from around the world in an easily searchable format. Find journal articles, books, book reviews, articles, working papers, and dissertations, as well as historic journal articles from 1886 to 1968.

National Bureau of Economic Research

On this site, you can learn about and find access to great resources in economic research.

Research Papers in Economics

Find research in economics and related sciences through the RePEc, a volunteer-maintained bibliographic database of working papers, articles, books, and even software components with more than 1.2 million research pieces.

Corporate Information

Perfect for researching companies, Corporate Information offers an easy way to find corporate financial records.

Economists will enjoy this excellent site for finding economics resources, including jobs, courses, and even conferences.

Google Finance

Easily look up stocks with this search engine to monitor the stock market and your portfolio.

EDGAR Search

The SEC requires certain disclosures that can be helpful to investors, and you can find them all here in this helpful, next-generation system for searching electronic investment documents.

Other Niches

Find even more specialized information in these niche search engines.

From the U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed is a great place to find full-text medical journal articles, with more than 19 million available.

Find reliable, authoritative information for legal search with the Lexis site.

Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database

Visit this database to find more than 6,300 records relating to human health in the circumpolar region.

Education Resources Information Center

In the ERIC Collection, you’ll find bibliographic records of education literature, as well as a growing collection of full-text resources.

MedlinePlus

A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Medline Plus offers a powerful search tool and even a dictionary for finding trusted, carefully chosen health information.

Semantic Scholar

A free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature.

Artcyclopedia

Search Artcyclopedia to find everything there is to know about fine art, with 160,000 links, 9,000 artists listed, and 2,900 art sites indexed.

Get connected with great reference material through these search tools.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus

Use this online dictionary and thesaurus to quickly find definitions and synonyms.

References.net

Through References.net, you can get connected with just about every reference tool available, from patents to almanacs.

Need the right thing to say? Check out Quotes.net to reference famous words from famous people.

The Literary Encyclopedia

A library and search database for literature and literary books and documents.

CORE’s mission is to aggregate all open access research outputs from repositories and journals worldwide and make them available to the public. In this way, CORE facilitates free unrestricted access to research for all.

More Academic Search Engines

Africa Journals Online

United States Department of Agriculture: National Agricultural Library

Anthropological Index Online

Analytical Sciences Digital Library

TeachThought is an organization dedicated to innovation in education through the growth of outstanding teachers.

• Skip to search
• Skip to main navigation
• Skip to footer navigation
• Login Logged in as Username Log Out
• Français
• Español
• Ελληνικά

Basic Search

• Board Members
• Management Team
• Become a Contributor
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Code of Ethical Practices

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

• Search Engines List
• Suggested Reading Library
• Web Directories
• Research Papers
• Industry News

• Become a Member
• Associate Membership
• Certified Membership
• Membership Application
• Corporate Application

• CIRS Certification Program
• CIRS Certification Objectives
• CIRS Certification Benefits
• CIRS Certification Exam
• Maintain Your Certification

• Upcoming Events
• Live Classes
• Classes Schedule
• Webinars Schedules

• Latest Articles
• Internet Research
• Search Techniques
• Research Methods
• Business Research
• Search Engines
• Research & Tools
• Investigative Research
• Internet Search
• Work from Home
• Internet Ethics
• Internet Privacy

100 Search Engines For Academic Research

Do you want to start with a broader search? These best academic search engines are excellent information sources and can be a valuable resource whether you're doing academic or scientific research.

Some academic search engines provide the most reliable resources, covering many subjects. They provide information on various topics and a one-stop-shop for all research-related requirements.

Furthermore, they provide a personalized and tailored search method for study materials.

List of Academic Research Search Engines

General search engines .

Do you want to begin with a more general search? These general academic search engines are unique.

RefSeek - Academic Search Engine : RefSeek is a free online search engine for students and scholars to find academic information. It scans over 5 billion documents per year, including IP backlinks in directories, PDF files, and presentations.

Virtual Learning Resources Center : The Virtual LRC indexes thousands of top academic information websites selected by instructors and library specialists worldwide to provide students and teachers with current, correct content for school and university educational projects! It offers information and links to websites about art, social sciences, social concerns, social problems, history, and other topics.

Digital Library of the Commons Repository : This is a portal to the international commons literature. This website contains a Working Paper Archive of author-submitted articles, a full-text Digital Library, and links to relevant reference sources on commons research.

The OAIster Database - Catalog of open access resources : OAIster is a catalog that contains millions of records representing open access educational resources. The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting collected data from open access collections worldwide to construct this catalog (OAI-PMH). OAIster now has over 50 million entries from over 2,000 authors representing digital resources.

Internet Public Library : The majority of people who work on the Internet Public Library are students. It is a non-profit website managed primarily by students. Visitors may request assistance, which will be provided by volunteer librarians and graduate students in library and information science. Writing essays, research papers, and term papers is, without a doubt, an essential aspect of academic work.

ResearchGate : It is a commercial social networking site in Europe where academics and researchers may share articles, ask and answer questions, and find peers. This is the best resource for researchers, with 135+ million publication pages, 20+ million researchers, and 1+ million inquiries.

Google Trends : Google Trends is a Google website that evaluates the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across multiple countries and languages. The website employs graphs to compare the search volume of various keywords over time.

BASE : BASE is one of the most comprehensive search engines globally, especially for academic websites. Over 240 million papers from over 8,000 content providers are stored in the BASE, with full texts available (Open Access). BASE is managed by the Bielefeld University Library.

Microsoft Academic : Microsoft Academic is the most effective search engine for academic research that geared researchers towards academics. They provide an alternative approach for constructing summary pages for each indexed document, allowing users to browse fast. It has about 47 million papers distributed by more than 20 million writers. Many publications and research papers are stored in the search engine, ranging from software engineering and design to sociology and science.

Meta Search Engines

Do you want the best of everything? Use these metasearch engines to get results from numerous sites at once.

Dogpile : Dogpile is a Popular metasearch engine that retrieves results from Google, Yahoo!, Yandex, Bing, and other famous search engines, including audio and video content providers like Yahoo!

Gigablast - An Alternative Web Search Engine : Gigablast is a free and open-source metasearch engine that is free and open source. Gigablast claimed to have ordered over 12 billion pages each month and got billions of queries. Other firms such as Ixquick, Clusty, Zuula, Snap, Blingo, and Internet Archive have used Gigablast to organize search results.

My Excite : Excite (also spelled energize) is a web-based interface that offers a variety of content, including news and weather, electronic email, texting, stock quotes, and an adjustable client landing page. IAC Applications (previously Mindspark) and Excite Networks are currently being worked on. For a long time in the United States, the primary Excite site was a single starting page called My Excite.

Sputtr - Many Search Options, One Place : Sputtr is the most well-known meta-search engine that includes an element that allows us to design our search page landing page. This meta-search engine will enable us to search faster. This returns excellent results from various search engines and websites, including Google Image Search, Google Web Search, YouTube, Dailymotion, Google News, Facebook, Twitter, IMDb, Slashdot, About.com, and the New York Times, among others.

WebCrawler Search : WebCrawler, a metasearch engine, is the most well-known and long-lasting web search tool on the market today. WebCrawler is the leading search engine that lets people search for full-text information. By applying a hunt calculation to data gathered by web crawlers, web search tools can give essential connections to people who search for things like this. This creates a set of website pages that appear when a user searches on Google or Bing, for example (or another internet searcher).

FuzzFind Web Trends : FuzzFind is a web-based metasearch engine mashup that combines user-friendly search engine results (Google, Bing, and Yahoo!) with social bookmarking sites (del.icio.us) and real-time online trends from Twitter, Google News, and Digg.

SurfWax - Practical Tools for Harnessing Today's Information : The meta-search engine provides site snaps,' which are real-time page summaries. Those who sign up for a free account can choose from a list of hundreds of search sources.

Whonu - Order delicious food from approved people nearby : Whonu is a flash-based internet search/discovery application that harnesses the power of many search engines. It creates a new marketplace where anyone can prepare healthy, delicious, environmentally friendly meals and easily find nearby customers.

MetaCrawler : It is a free search engine for finding information on the internet. This web educational resource is for Meta index searches through Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Ask, MIVA, etc. This engine can help you find data, photos, recordings, news, yellow pages listings, and white pages listings.

Databases and Archives Resources

Use these search tools to access the database and best archives resources.

Archives Hub : Search through archive collections held in the United Kingdom. These one-of-a-kind primary sources help us comprehend and interpret our history, culture, and identity.

National Archives : The National Archives houses historical U.S. government documents (federal, congressional, and presidential records) created or received by the President and his staff, Congress, employees of Federal government agencies, and the Federal courts in the course of their official duties. 

arXiv e-Print Archive : ArXiv is a public server repository that hosts electronic e-prints from physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering, systems science, and economics research.

National Agricultural Library : The National Agricultural Library contains one of the most comprehensive agricultural and related sciences collections globally. The NAL Digital Collections offers powerful search, browsing, and retrieval options for digital documents and collections, as well as reliable, long-term online access to selected publications.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System : The Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum and research complex. While the Smithsonian's museums are prominent and well-known, its many study centers devoted to art, astronomy, endangered species, environmental sciences, history, marine biology, item conservation, and tropical biology are less well-known.

The British Library Catalogues & Collections : The British Library's collection includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs, newspapers, and sound. Many of the digital collections provide material for free online.

CIA World Factbook : The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States publishes the World Factbook once a year (CIA). Profiles can be accessed by country and contain information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 global entities.

State Legislative Websites Directory : This database contains information from the home pages and websites of the 50 state legislatures, the District of Columbia, and the territories. You can choose to examine specific website content resources (such as bills, press rooms, and statutes) from one state at a time. 

Books & Journals Search Engines

Instead of going to the library and burying your face in the stacks, use these search engines to find out which libraries have the books you need and perhaps even discover them available online.

WorldCat.org - The World's Largest Library Catalog : WorldCat is a union catalog that archives the collections of 15,637 libraries in 107 countries members of the OCLC global cooperative. Subscribing members of libraries collectively maintain WorldCat's database, the world's largest bibliographic database.

Google Books : Google Books is a Google service that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database.

Elsevier : It is a global information analytics organization that works with institutions and people to promote science, advance healthcare, and improve performance.

VADLO : It is a search engine for laboratory methods, techniques, protocols, molecular databases and bioinformatic tools, commercial products, kits, and powerpoints.

Open Library : Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published." Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization.

Google Scholar : Google Scholar can be described among the best-ever specialized research search engines designed for scholarly works and academic resources. It is not just a way to access free research papers covering all subjects of academic study and disciplines but also provides full-text PDF files. Google Scholar provides an easy method to find academic archives extensively. Many teachings and other materials such as proposals, articles, books, sentiments, and other materials from the courts, professional social orders, online retailers, universities, and many other institutions you can find all in one location.

Bioline International : Bioline is one of the most trusted and authentic search engines, with peer-reviewed academic journals on public health, food and nutritional security, food and medicine, and biodiversity. It offers free access to peer-reviewed journals from third-world countries.

Directory of Open Access Journals : DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high-quality, open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

Jurn : Jurn is a free online research search engine that allows you to find and download free full-text scholarly articles. Millions of free academic articles, chapters, and theses on Arts, Humanities, Business, Law, Nature, Science, Medicine, and other areas are available.

Infotopia : Infotopia is a search engine for students, teachers, and homeschoolers who want to find information about the school. It was created by librarians and used a Google custom search to find websites that have already been checked out by librarians, teachers, and other educational professionals. 

LexisNexis : LexisNexis is a company that sells data mining platforms through web portals, computer-assisted legal research, and information about many people worldwide who buy things. LexisNexis started making legal and journalistic materials more available online so more people could read them. 

Science & Scholar Search Engines

SciSeek : SciSeek is the Internet's first and most comprehensive science search engine. SciSeek examines millions of science-related Web pages and offers only the most relevant results.

SciCentral : SciCentral editors have been aggregating breaking research news from the most reputable and reliable sources. Over 700 other websites refer to SciCentral as a reliable source of information.

Strategian : The goal of Strategian.com and the Science Primary Literature database is to assist you in becoming aware of, obtaining, and critically assessing the information that helps you understand science (the world’s physical, technological, and psychological forces) and how it impacts your life.

Science.gov : Science.gov serves as a gateway to the United States government's scientific and technical information and research using federated search technology.

CERN Document Server : CERN Document Server is a repository for CERN's scientific output (articles, preprints, reports, CERN Annual reports, Yellow Reports, CERN Bulletin, etc.). The CERN Library Catalogue contains books, proceedings, standards, and periodicals. Preprints, articles, books, journals, photographs, and much more are all included.

Analytical Sciences Digital Library : The Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL) is a collection of electronic resources for teachers, students, and practitioners interested in chemical measurements and instrumentation. The NSDL is an online library for education and research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Baidu Scholar : Baidu Research is the institution's research division of Baidu. Baidu Research has offices in both Silicon Valley and Beijing, focusing on fundamental research in artificial intelligence.

Semantic Scholar : Its goal is to provide more relevant and impactful search results by utilizing AI-powered algorithms that discover hidden connections and links between research topics. Semantic scholar building for scholars to keep you up to date with scientific literature is an increasingly pressing challenge for scholars.

CORE : The CORE is an academic search engine that focuses on open access research articles. A link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is supplied for each search result.

GetCITED : GetCITED is a website database that lists publication and citation information on academic articles that members enter. It aims to include not only journal articles but also book chapters and other peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications.

PLOS ONE : PLOS ONE is one of the best educational search engines for students, offering a free platform for scientific information. All publications published on PLOS ONE have gone through a strict peer-review process. This academic database has a meticulous procedure for publishing a journal. You can find plenty of articles and scholarly publications using this platform.

BioOne : BioOne is a nonprofit publisher that aims to make scientific research more accessible through a growing portfolio of products such as its full-text aggregation, BioOne Complete, and open-access journal, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.

Science and Technology of Advanced Materials : Science and Technology of Advanced Materials is the leading open access, an international journal covering a broad spectrum of materials science research, including functional materials, synthesis, processing, theoretical analyses, characterization, and properties of materials.

New Journal of Physics : The New Journal of Physics is an online-only, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research in all areas of physics and interdisciplinary topics with physics as a central theme.

Math & Technology Search Engines

MathGuide : MathGuide is an Internet-based subject gateway to scholarly relevant mathematics information located at the Lower Saxony State- and University Library in Göttingen (Germany). A set of Dublin Core metadata is used to describe and assess resources.

ZMATH Online Database : zbMATH Open (formerly known as Zentralblatt MATH) is the world's most comprehensive and longest-running abstracting and reviewing service in pure and applied mathematics. zbMATH Open provides easy access to bibliographic data, reviews, and abstracts from all areas of pure mathematics and applications, particularly natural sciences, computer science, economics, and engineering.

Inspec : Inspec is a significant indexing database of scientific and technical literature published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, formerly by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, one of the IET's forerunners. Inspec has extensive coverage in physics, computing, control, and engineering.

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies : This is a collection of bibliographies of scientific literature in computer science from various sources, covering most aspects of computer science. The bibliographies are updated weekly.

Symbolab : Symbolab is an advanced math education tool. It enables users to learn, practice, and explore math topics by utilizing mathematical symbols, scientific notations, and text. Symbolab gives automatic step-by-step solutions to algebraic, trigonometric, and calculus courses ranging from middle school to college.

Top Marks : Topmarks saves teachers and parents time searching for the best inspirational and educational web resources. They only feature the best educational websites, saving you time searching the web and giving you and your students secure access to high-quality, free teaching and learning resources.

Safe Search Engines For Kids

Here are the most refined safe search engines for kids to use when conducting their searches.

Kidtopia : Kidtopia is a Google bespoke student-safe search engine for preschool and elementary pupils that indexes only educator-approved websites.

Famhoo : Famhoo works with families, schools, businesses, churches, cities, and other groups to make the internet a better place. If you'd like to learn more about how Famhoo can help you or your business make the site safer. 

DOGOnews : DOGO News is a website that provides articles about current events. Each item comes with quizzes and questions assigned online or printed with the Pro subscription. These aid in evaluating reading comprehension, critical thinking, vocabulary and parts of speech, and general content.

DinoSearch : DinoSearch is recommended for children at school and at home since it uses SafeSearch and keyword filtering to block adult images, webpages, and videos.

Classhook : ClassHook is a collaborative area that curates two- to six-minute video excerpts from famous television shows and movies, as well as partially constructed mini-lessons to supplement education. Many videos are tagged by topic, and many cover many themes.

Lesson Planet : Lesson Planet provides teacher-reviewed resources for teachers and parents. Its products are intended to supplement traditional and non-traditional schooling from kindergarten to the 12th grade.

Social Science Search Engines

We've compiled a list of intriguing search engines perfect for people conducting social science research. These search engines will provide excellent results for researchers studying psychology, anthropology, and related topics.

Social Science Research Network : SSRN is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of research and comprises several specialized research networks.

Behavioral Brain Science Archive : BBS is an internationally renowned journal with an innovative format known as Open Peer Commentary. Researchers in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, or cognitive science is particularly significant and controversial work.

SocioSite : SocioSite is designed to access information and resources relevant to sociologists and other social scientists. It gives access to the worldwide scene of social sciences.

The SocioWeb : The SocioWeb is an independent guide to the sociological resources available on the Internet, and it can help unite the sociological community in powerful ways.

WikiArt : Wikiart.org is the best website for finding art online. You can find paintings and photos in a searchable image database that includes artist biographies and their work. Online, WikiArt is a visual art encyclopedia that anyone can change. 

Encyclopedia of Psychology : The Encyclopedia of Psychology will be the first place to go for authoritative information on every aspect of the field — as well as answers to thousands of questions about concepts, methods, theories, findings, significant figures, schools of thought, and emerging areas of interest.

Political Information : It is an indispensable resource for journalists, political professionals, students, and political junkies worldwide. The search engine contains an index of the contents of over 5000 websites chosen for the quality of their content. The most recent re-indexing run included over 278,000 separate web documents.

History Search Engines

This fantastic assortment of academic search engines has been created exclusively for history professors. Using these search engines, you will hunt for and find resources and things to use in your classroom with your students. These resources include genuine historical documents, maps, pictures, records, memorials, primary source materials, interactive timelines, and much more.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection :  The LUNA Viewer is the primary tool for viewing the map collection. Users can browse the entire online collection of over 111,000 images or search by keyword.

Fold3 : Fold3 offers premier collections of original military records. These records contain the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served in the military. Many of the records come from the National Archives of the United States, the National Archives of the United Kingdom, and other international archives.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook : The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is one of a series of history primary source books. To present a diversity of source material in modern European, American, and Latin American history, as well as a significant amount of material pertinent to world cultures and global studies.

Library of Anglo-American Culture and History : The Library of Anglo-American Culture & History (Library AAC) not only provides literature, information, and traditional scholarly resources to scholars, but it also provides publication and self-archiving services through its repository.

Digital History : The use of digital media to further historical analysis, presentation, and research is referred to as digital history. It is a subfield of the digital humanities and an extension of quantitative history, cliometrics, and computing.

Related Engine : The History Engine is a collection of thousands of historical "episodes" that paint a broad portrait of the past and are freely available to scholars, teachers, and the general public. These episodes are written by students from a variety of colleges and universities.

NoodleTools : NoodleTools is an online research management software that encourages critical thinking and real research. Stay organized while analyzing information, creating appropriate citations, archive source material, take notes, outline ideas, and prepare to write.

Discovering American Women’s History Online : This database gives access to digitized collections of original documents (pictures, letters, diaries, artifacts, and so on) that trace the history of women in the United States. The database includes the following features: Detailed descriptions and connections to over 700 digital collections.

The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide : This booklet provides suggestions for gathering folklore and oral history from family and community members.

Fact Monster : Fact Monster is a free reference service for kids, teachers, and parents. Get homework help and facts on thousands of topics, including sports, entertainment, geography, history, biography, education, and health.

The Research Guide : The Research Guide provides dozens of how-to and citation guidelines, thousands of sample essays, and other resources for producing a paper.

Art History Resources on the Web : AHTR is home to a constantly evolving and jointly published online archive of art history teaching content, including but not limited to lesson plans, video introductions to museums, book reviews, picture clusters, and classroom and museum activities.

Voice of the Shuttle : The Voice of the Shuttle (VoS) is an Internet subject gateway for humanities and historical and socio sites to help you become an internet researcher . The website's media studies page includes sections on media theory and history, journalism, TV, cinema and video, CD-ROMs, popular music, radio, comics, Internet broadcast media, and telecom issues. You have the option of submitting a resource.

Business and Economics Search Engines

Using these search engines, you may find business publications, journal articles, and other information.

EconLit : EconLit is an academic literature abstracting database service provided by the American Economic Association. It includes papers and other materials dating back to 1969. It uses JEL classification codes to categorize documents by subject.

Corporate Information : Corporate Information is perfect for researching companies; corporate Information offers an easy way to find corporate financial records.

Web of Science : The Web of Science provides a standard search language, navigation environment, and data structure that enables researchers to search broadly across heterogeneous resources and leverage the citation links inherent in the index to navigate to relevant research findings and quantify the effect.

EconBiz : EconBiz provides orientation and assistance in searching articles for students, researchers, and educators, working papers, e-books, and other resources. Lists of results can be sorted by relevance or date.

JournalTOCs : JournalTOCs is the largest free collection of scientific journal Tables of Contents (TOCs): 33,235 journals from 3530 publishers, including 16,547 chosen Open Access journals and 11,914 Hybrid journals. JournalTOCs is a resource for researchers, students, librarians, and anybody looking for the most recent scientific articles.

Virtual Library Labour History : The International Institute of Social History maintains the WWW Virtual Library's Labour History department, part of the WWW VL History Network. They aim to help labor historians in a broad sense. They bring together archives, libraries, document centers, museums, and research institutions specializing in heritage, history, and labor theory.

National Bureau of Economic Research : The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit research organization based in the United States "dedicated to conducting and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and academics.

Research Papers in Economics : RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in 102 countries to disseminate research in Economics and related sciences. The heart of the project is a decentralized bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, book chapters, and software components, all maintained by volunteers.

Inomics : Inomics assists students and researchers in Economics, Business, and Social Sciences in locating the best Academic and Research Jobs, Scholarships, Careers, and Study Guidance to help students reach their academic and professional researcher goals.

DailyStocks : It is a website that searches the stock market. Separately, Daily Stocks Pro is a sophisticated stock analysis application that filters the whole stock market to assist consumers in capturing key market moves.

EDGAR Search : EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is the Securities and Exchange Commission's online public database (SEC). EDGAR automates the collecting, validation, indexing, acceptance, and sending submissions by firms and individuals obliged by law to file forms with the SEC.

Science Direct : A full-text scientific database part of the science verse. This search engine is one of the best bibliographic and full-text electronic collections of science, technology, and medicine.

Other Niches Search Engines

These niche search engines might help you find even more technical information.

PubMed : PubMed is a digital archive that contains open access full-text scientific publications from biomedical and life sciences journals. It is a key research database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Lexis : Lexis Web, which populates this search engine with approved legal sites, is essential for law students and research projects that require legal citations. You can quickly narrow your search results by site type (blog, news, commercial, or government), jurisdiction, practice area, source, and file format.

Education Resources Information Center : ERIC is an online library of education research and information sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the United States Department of Education.

MedlinePlus : MedlinePlus is an online health information resource for patients, families, and friends. It is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a division of the National Institutes of Health, and it houses the world's most extensive medical library (NIH).

Artcyclopedia : Artcyclopedia is a well-developed art search engine. Provides a directory of Internet art resources, links to art museums, and a list of the month's top 30 sites are available. Every month, a new print and book are featured.

By using these search tools, you can connect with excellent reference information.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus : They have over 275,000 synonyms, antonyms, related words, and idiomatic phrases. A thesaurus is more than just a list of synonyms; it is your road map to more accurate and effective language use.

References.net : References.net is a multidisciplinary web directory of the most relevant reference-related resources that the editors have hand-picked. Browse the references collection by alphabetical order, category, or keyword.

Quotes.net : Quotes.net provides a massive library of literary quotations and movie quotes for an infinite number of famous authors and featured films, created collaboratively by contributing editors.

Literary Encyclopedia : The Literary Encyclopedia published biographies of major and minor writers, and also scholarly descriptions of all interesting texts written by these authors, including those that are often overlooked, and a variety of descriptive and critical essays on literary, cultural, and historical topics, which provide a better understanding of the social contexts in which this writing was produced.

Latest from Corey Parker

• How to Find an Old Friend: 15 Best Free People Search Websites
• A single YouTube channel is flooding Bing’s video search with fake news
• Five Tips On How To Effectively Use Google My Business

Live Classes Schedule

• JUN 14 CIRS Certification Internet Research Training Program Live Classes Online
• JUN 14 Web Search Methods & Techniques Live Training Live Classes Online

World's leading professional association of Internet Research Specialists - We deliver Knowledge, Education, Training, and Certification in the field of Professional Online Research. The AOFIRS is considered a major contributor in improving Web Search Skills and recognizes Online Research work as a full-time occupation for those that use the Internet as their primary source of information.

Get Exclusive Research Tips in Your Inbox

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Advertising Opportunities
• Knowledge Network

• Shop Early Amazon Prime Day Deals
• I Tried Both: Ring vs Nest Doorbell

The 8 Best Search Engines of 2024

While you could use Google to find other search engines, here are the ones we think are arguably better

Most people prefer to rely on just one or two search engines that deliver three key features:

• Relevant results (results you are interested in)
• Uncluttered, easy-to-read interface
• Helpful options to broaden or tighten a search

This article's options should help you find the best search engine for your needs.

These are mainly web page search engines, but others exist for specific searches. Other search engines exist just for people, images, and, of course, jobs.

Duck Duck Go Search

Does not track or store user information.

Fast searches.

Optional one-month search window.

Search results are not dated.

Limited image search results.

No personalized results.

At first, DuckDuckGo looks like Google. However, many subtleties make this search engine different.

DuckDuckGo offers some slick features, like zero-click information, wherein all your answers appear on the first results page. DuckDuckgo offers disambiguation prompts that help to clarify what question you are asking. Most significantly, DuckDuckGo does not track information about you or share your search habits with others.

Give DuckDuckGo.com a try. You might like this clean and simple search engine.

Google Search

Favors fresh content.

Ranks blogs and services.

Accessible on any device.

Collects information on users.

Hidden content might damage ranking.

Search delivers too many results.

Google is the reigning leader of spartan searching and is the most used search engine in the world. Google is fast, relevant, and has the most extensive single catalog of web pages available.

Try Google images, maps, and news features; they are outstanding services for locating photos, geographic directions, and headlines.

Yippy Search

Blocks undesirable websites.

Search result previews.

Cloud of related topics in results.

Cannot turn off the filtering process.

Ad-supported.

No intuitive search.

Yippy is a Deep Web engine that searches other search engines for you. Unlike the regular internet, which uses robot spider programs for indexing, Deep Web pages are usually harder to locate by conventional search.

That's where Yippy becomes very useful. If you are searching for obscure hobby interest blogs, hard-to-locate government information, offbeat news, academic research, and similar content, then Yippy is your tool. 

Dogpile Search

Links to "favorite fetches" on whimsical home screen.

Pulls from multiple databases for broad results.

Fast search results.

Result screen entries aren't dated.

No home screen personalization.

Lots of sponsored results.

Years ago, Dogpile preceded Google as a fast and efficient choice for web searching. Things changed in the late 1990s, Dogpile faded into obscurity, and Google became the leading platform.

Today, however, Dogpile is back with a growing index and a clean and quick presentation that is a testimony to its halcyon days. If you want to try a search tool with an engaging appearance and desirable crosslink results, definitely try Dogpile.

Bing Search

Favors older, established web pages.

Ranks home pages, not blogs.

Crawls hidden and non-hidden content equally.

Ranks forums low in search results.

Instant search is slower than Google.

Some ad-heavy search result screens.

Bing  is Microsoft's attempt at unseating Google, arguably the second-most-popular search engine today.

In the leftmost column, Bing tries to support your research by offering suggestions; it also provides search options across the top of the screen. Things like wiki suggestions, visual search, and related searches might benefit you. Bing is not dethroning Google soon, but it is worth trying. 

Google Scholar Search

Save articles to read later.

Citations in several styles.

Results include how many times an article has been cited and by whom.

Wide-ranging but not comprehensive.

No criteria for what makes a result "scholarly."

No way to limit results by discipline.

Google Scholar is a particular version of its platform. This search engine will help you win debates.

Google Scholar focuses on scientific and hard-research academic material that scientists and scholars have scrutinized. Example content includes graduate theses, legal and court opinions, scholarly publications, medical research reports, physics research papers, and explanations of economics and world politics.

If you're looking for critical information that can stand up in a heated debate with educated people, then Google Scholar is where you want to go to arm yourself with high-powered sources.

Webopedia Search

Focuses on technical terms and applications.

Friendly to non-tech users.

A different Term of the Day every day.

Searches only Webopedia's 10,000+ word and phrase database.

You have to open the article to find out more.

Webopedia is one of the most useful websites on the web. Webopedia is an encyclopedic resource dedicated to searching technology terminology and computer definitions, the domain name system , or what DDRAM means on your computer. Webopedia is a perfect resource for non-technical people to make more sense of the computers around them. 

Yahoo Search

Home screen includes news and trending topics.

One-stop shop for search, email, horoscope, and weather.

Options to search verticals rather than the web.

Ads aren't clearly labeled as ads.

Search results aren't dated.

Large ads on the home screen.

Yahoo has several things: a search engine, a news aggregator, a shopping center, an email service, a travel directory, a horoscope and games center, and more.

This web-portal breadth of choice makes this a beneficial site for internet beginners. Searching the web should also be about discovery and exploration, and Yahoo delivers.

The Internet Archive Search

Search text, news, archived websites, and much more.

Advanced search also available.

"Wayback Machine" lets you search old websites.

Vast amount of archived content can be overwhelming.

Advanced search requires a learning curve.

Not practical for daily use.

The Internet Archive is a favorite destination for longtime Web lovers. The Archive has been taking snapshots of the entire World Wide Web for years, helping users virtually travel back in time to see what a web page looked like in 1999 or what the news was like around Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

It's essential to think of the Internet Archive as much more than a web page archiver; it's a versatile search engine that also finds movies and other videos, music, and documents.

You won't visit the Archive daily like Google, Yahoo, or Bing, but when you need historical context, use this search site.

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

• Best Niche Search Engines
• 10 Best Web Search Tricks Everyone Should Know
• What Is Bing?
• How to Change the Default Search Engine in Chrome for iOS
• How to Use the Wayback Machine 
• 8 Best Free File Search Tools
• What Is a Search Engine?
• The 7 Best Mobile Search Engines
• What Is DuckDuckGo? Is It Safe?
• 11 of Our Favorite Free Movie Download Sites for 2024
• 16 Best Places to Download Free Audiobooks in 2024
• 8 Alternatives to iGoogle Homepage
• 17 Best Sites to Download Free Books in 2024
• The 8 Best Productivity Apps for iPhone and iPad
• The 20 Best Firefox Extensions of 2024
• Which Search Engine Should I Use?

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• 26 June 2024

How I’m using AI tools to help universities maximize research impacts

• Dashun Wang 0

Dashun Wang is a professor at the Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering, and the founding director of the Center for Science of Science and Innovation at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

You have full access to this article via your institution.

From the Internet to CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing, many seeds of progress were planted initially in the ivory tower of academia. Could research be doing even more for society? I argue that it could — if universities used artificial intelligence (AI) tools to maximize the impact of their scientists’ outputs.

Each year, millions of grant proposals, preprints and research papers are produced, along with patents, clinical trials and drug approvals. Massive data sets storing details of these outputs can be scoured by AI algorithms to better understand how science and technology progress and to identify gaps and bottlenecks that hinder breakthroughs. Over the past few years, my colleague and close collaborator Ben Jones, my team and I have been working with large US universities to maximize their research impacts. We’ve already learnt a lot.

Revealed: the ten research papers that policy documents cite most

For example, during our pilot project at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, we worked with one of its researchers in biology. She has published hundreds of papers and acquired tens of millions of dollars in research funding. By tracing her papers and grants and how her research has been used, we discovered an intriguing fact.

The researcher had never engaged with the university’s technology transfer office (TTO), yet her research had been used extensively by private companies worldwide — many of their patents cited her work. My collaborator Alicia Löffler, then head of the TTO, talked to the researcher. It turned out that she was unaware of those market impacts. Within one week of that conversation, the researcher filed her first invention disclosure with the university.

This episode raised several questions. How many scientists are in similar positions? Can researchers with untapped innovation potential be identified? And can the obstacles that hinder technological progress be addressed? To find out, Ben, Alicia and I, and our team, have expanded studies to other universities. Our preliminary work suggests that people in such positions are common.

Has your research influenced policy? Use this free tool to check

For one, the researcher is a woman. When we compared how often male and female faculty members patented their work, we found a disparity. Male faculty members typically patented their research two to ten times more often than did their female counterparts, although this rate varied by university and discipline. But when we measured the extent to which the two groups’ scientific publications were cited by patents, we found no statistically significant difference. In other words, female scientists’ work is just as close to the technological frontier.

Numerous factors can contribute to this gender gap , such as unequal access to education and mentorship, funding disparities, prevailing norms and stereotypes and structural barriers in patenting and commercialization processes. A better understanding of these challenges would help to broaden the pool of innovators.

Similarly, we see a large difference between tenure-track and tenured faculty members: tenured researchers patent their work at a higher rate. But one doesn’t magically become more innovative the moment tenure is granted. The causes of this gap are probably distinct from those of the gender one, and might include promotion incentives and what counts towards tenure. But both discrepancies point to untapped opportunities for innovation.

Want to speed up scientific progress? First understand how science policy works

Thus, data and AI tools can help institutions to identify people and ideas that are overlooked, both in a research institution and globally. But universities must take care. They have many roles and responsibilities — from educating future leaders to advancing fundamental knowledge — that must not be eclipsed by efforts to promote practical applications. Some people might argue that scientists don’t need to commercialize their ideas themselves, because industry can pick up the ball. Or there might be unintended consequences. Emphasizing what is useful could come at the expense of curiosity-driven research or result in flocking to what seem to be the hottest and most fruitful ideas today rather than to those that will help the world most in future.

But the role of science is changing. Many of today’s issues, from pandemics to climate change, are closely linked with scientific progress. The dichotomy of basic versus applied research is becoming inadequate. For example, advances along the science–society interface, such as discoveries that aid marketable applications ( M. Ahmadpoor and B. F. Jones Science 357 , 583–587; 2017 ) or social-science insights that guide policymaking ( Y. Yin et al. Nature Hum. Behav. 6 , 1344–1350; 2022 ), are highly impactful, as evidenced by high citation rates. By engaging more with use-inspired research, scientists can produce insights that both advance basic understanding and address societal needs.

Encouraging developments are under way. In 2022, the US National Science Foundation created the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships to support use-inspired research and translate discoveries into real-world applications. Its Assessing and Predicting Technology Outcomes programme will fund innovative projects — including our work, which we plan to expand to more than 20 universities — to understand how investments in science and technology can best accelerate progress. Other nations, university leaders and policymakers must seize this opportunity, too. I think of science as ‘the little engine that could’. If research and development could be made even 5% more efficient, the returns could be immense.

Nature 630 , 794 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02081-6

Reprints and permissions

Competing Interests

D.W. receives consulting fees from one of the universities he works with.

Related Articles

• Research management
• Computer science

What it means to be a successful male academic

Career Column 26 JUN 24

The strategy behind one of the most successful labs in the world

Comment 26 JUN 24

Is science’s dominant funding model broken?

Editorial 26 JUN 24

We can make the UK a science superpower — with a radical political manifesto

World View 18 JUN 24

Securing your science: the researcher’s guide to financial management

Career Feature 14 JUN 24

What the science of elections can reveal in this super-election year

Career Feature 10 JUN 24

‘Fighting fire with fire’ — using LLMs to combat LLM hallucinations

News & Views 19 JUN 24

Detecting hallucinations in large language models using semantic entropy

Article 19 JUN 24

Experiment-free exoskeleton assistance via learning in simulation

Article 12 JUN 24

PostDoc Researcher, Magnetic Recording Materials Group, National Institute for Materials Science

Starting date would be after January 2025, but it is negotiable.

Tsukuba, Japan (JP)

National Institute for Materials Science

Tenure-Track/Tenured Faculty Positions

Tenure-Track/Tenured Faculty Positions in the fields of energy and resources.

Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

School of Sustainable Energy and Resources at Nanjing University

Postdoctoral Associate- Statistical Genetics

Houston, Texas (US)

Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

Senior Research Associate (Single Cell/Transcriptomics Senior Bioinformatician)

Metabolic Research Laboratories at the Clinical School, University of Cambridge are recruiting 3 senior bioinformatician specialists to create a dynam

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (GB)

University of Cambridge

Cancer Biology Postdoctoral Fellow

Tampa, Florida

Moffitt Cancer Center

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

9 AI Search Engines to Know

Artificial intelligence is shaking up the online search experience.

Generative AI has transformed online search, introducing a new generation of search engines that answer questions with short overviews rather than the conventional list of blue links. Industry leaders like Google and Bing are swiftly integrating AI across their platforms, striving to keep pace with rising stars like Perplexity and You.com. But the full potential of the AI-powered search engine is still unfolding, offering both great promise and serious risks.

Top AI Search Engines

• Brave Search

What Is an AI Search Engine?

AI search engines use artificial intelligence — specifically, methods like natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning — to better interpret context and understand the user intent behind each search query, with the goal of delivering more relevant results. In practice, that looks like generating concise, plain-language summaries of information gathered from across the web, in addition to — or instead of — pointing users to different websites.

“It’s not giving you links on a page,” digital marketing consultant Jordan Stevens told Built In. “It’s giving you one single answer.”

AI search engines resemble AI chatbots : They’re conversational and can answer questions in a fluent, human-like way. But unlike most chatbots, AI search engines have real-time access to the internet, allowing them to provide more comprehensive and current information. This positions them as a challenger to not only the incumbents, but also popular chatbots like ChatGPT .

Google is the most popular search engine in the world, controlling about 90 percent of the search market. The company began overhauling its site in 2023, and has since implemented artificial intelligence into virtually every part of its search process, using its Gemini model. Google’s AI Overviews provide an AI-generated summary of several of the top search results on the page, giving users a general sense of the answer to their query, along with links to resources for additional information. And Google’s planning tool can create anything from a meal plan to a vacation itinerary based on a single query; it even uses Gemini to populate and organize users’ search results on the page.

Price: Free

Bing is the second-most-popular search engine behind Google, accounting for nearly 4 percent of total search volume globally. Developed by Microsoft, Bing is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model (LLM). In addition to its standard text-, voice- and image-based search capabilities, the platform comes with a conversational chat feature called Copilot, where users can ask questions and get detailed, human-like responses in return, plus line-by-line article citations. Copilot also comes with a vacation-planning feature, a cooking assistant, an AI image generator and a tool that answers fitness-related questions.

3. Perplexity

Launched in 2022, Perplexity provides AI-generated summaries of search results, with links to sources in a panel at the top and a list of follow-up questions at the bottom — similar to Google’s “people also ask” feature. It also allows users to narrow their search to a specific set of sources, like YouTube videos or Reddit posts. Perplexity’s free version runs on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 LLM and its own AI model . Users who upgrade to the Pro version can choose between several other models too, including GPT-4 and Anthropic’s  Claude 3 . 

Price: Free, with a more advanced Pro version available for $20/month.

4. Brave Search

Brave Search is marketed to privacy-conscious users, as it does not collect any personal information or search history . Like many other AI search engines, Brave Search provides quick, AI-generated insights in response to any natural language query, but it doesn’t rely on major search engines like Google or Bing to do so. Instead, the company says its answers are based on its own independent search index, claiming that this removes the “bias” and “censorship” that can come with “big tech’s SEO spam.” While Brave Search is free to use on any web browser, it also offers its own free companion browser that blocks trackers from collecting users’ data across the web.

You.com says it’s the first search engine to integrate a consumer-facing LLM with real-time access to the internet, and that it was also the first to introduce multimodal chat capabilities to its interface. The platform functions more as an AI assistant than a standard search engine, and it comes in several different “ modes ,” ranging from Smart (for quick tasks like web searches and content creation) to Create (for image generation). It also offers a Private mode, where it doesn’t store users’ search activity or IP address.

Price: Free, with more advanced versions starting at $15/month.

6. Andi 

Andi functions as both a search engine and chatbot. It can answer users’ questions, explain complex topics and navigate the web, combining information from the top results to provide AI-generated insights (which can be viewed by clicking ‘Generate Text’). Users can also customize how the platform displays links, choosing between list, grid or feed layouts; and they can adjust the style to resemble Hacker News, markdown text or even a classic Google page. While Andi does collect users’ data, it says it does not share it with anyone else. The company also doesn’t log searches, and it blocks tracking and ads .

Komo is an ad-free search engine powered by its own LLM called Sunshine. It can be set to four different modes: Ask, Search, Research and Explore. With Ask, users get AI-generated responses to any question they ask, along with relevant links; Search works like a regular search engine, providing a list of relevant links; Research (only available to paying customers) provides AI-generated topic analyses, along with citations; and Explore provides links exclusively to videos in response to user queries.

Price: A Basic plan costs $8/month, a Premium plan costs $15/month and a Business plan varies in price.

Handy for tasks that involve in-depth research, such as creating business pitches or brand strategies, Waldo uses search indexes pulled from sites like Google and Bing and repackages them into a customizable interface that can be finely tuned to what a user wants. With a couple of keystrokes, users can narrow their search results down to specific file types, highlight specific words or numbers, block specific sources and more. Users can also take notes on a built-in notepad, and then compile those notes into a single file or Google Doc that can be shared with others.

Price: A Freelancer plan costs $149/month, a Teams plan costs $179/month/person, a Teams Pro plan costs $199/month/person and an Enterprise plan varies in price.

Phind is an AI search engine designed for software developers . Connected to both the internet and a user’s codebase (if they choose), the platform can answer all kinds of tech-related questions, ranging from ‘What are Mixtral 8x7B ’s benchmarks?’ to ‘How do I make an HTTP request in JavaScript ?’ — and includes links to sources alongside its AI-generated responses. Plus, in its Code interface, users can input their own codebase and ask questions specific to their code, automatically write unit tests or even run Python snippets right in the browser.

Price: Users can sign up for Pro on either a monthly basis for $20/month or a yearly basis for $17/month. Phind also offers an Enterprise plan for $40/month/person.

More AI Disruption AI Influencers, Explained

How Do AI Search Engines Work?

AI search engines work by first crawling and indexing web pages across the internet, extracting useful data like text, images and links. They use machine learning algorithms and natural language processing to further analyze the content and structure of the web pages so that they can understand them more deeply. 

All of that information is then processed, organized and stored in a database, where it can be retrieved during the search process. AI search engines continuously update and refine their indexes as they learn from user interactions and new data.

When a user types in a query, AI search engines employ large language models to better understand user intent, analyzing the meaning of the individual words, as well as the patterns and relationships between them. Then they match the user’s query with the relevant search results in their indexes, even if the query is ambiguous or is phrased in a conversational way.

Over time, some AI search engines collect data on users’ search history, what links they clicked on and other metrics to build out profiles on specific users. This allows them to learn their preferences and deliver more personalized answers.

AI search engines also use LLMs to consolidate the information they find across the web into comprehensive AI-generated responses. Trained on large quantities of text data, large language models predict the next most logical word based on the context provided by previous words, allowing them to produce coherent, grammatically correct prose that closely resembles text written by humans.

More on AI and Search How AI SEO Tools Are Changing the Future of Search

How Are AI Search Engines Different From Regular Ones?

AI search engines share the same goal as traditional search engines: To provide users with answers that get them to click on a link, thus completing their “search journey,” as Stevens put it. “At the end of the day, that search engine wants to give you a quality answer.”

But they go about their job in different ways.

AI Search Provides Summaries, Regular Search Provides Links

Regular search engines display their results as a list of links, with short snippets of text underneath, while AI search engines can also generate concise summaries of search results — giving users an answer to their query without making them scroll and click onto multiple websites.

AI Search Learns Over Time, Regular Search Resets

AI search engines are designed to continuously learn and adapt to user interactions and new data, improving their performance and the quality of their search results over time. Meanwhile, regular search engines work from scratch with every new query, without taking into account any previous queries or user interactions.

AI Search Focuses on Semantics, Regular Search Focuses on Keywords

Regular search engines primarily depend on keyword matching to interpret user queries, while their AI counterparts concentrate on semantics, considering the broader meaning of words within the context of the sentence. This allows the AI search engine to more thoroughly understand user intent, enabling them to deliver search results that more closely match what a user is looking for. 

“It’s really focused on what you’re telling it,” said Dennis Perpetua, chief technology officer of digital workplace services at tech company Kyndryl . “And then you’re able to refine the results with follow-up prompts or questions, instead of using funny keywords and plus signs and whatnot.” 

By focusing on semantics instead of just keywords, AI search engines can deliver helpful results even when the intent is less than obvious. For example, if a user asks for the “best places to eat near me with outdoor seating,” the AI search engine should be able to list nearby restaurants with patios, despite the fact that the query doesn’t contain the specific words “restaurant” or “patio.”

“AI search engines are making the ability to find things accessible, simply because you can describe from more of an emotional point of view and a semantic point of view, less from a keyword or accuracy point of view,” Perpetua continued. “It casts a wider aperture and filters answers down to be much more narrow more quickly than the general keyword search, where you manually have to keep tweaking things.”

Regular Search Only Accepts Text Queries, AI Search Accepts Images, Video and Audio

Regular search engines only accept text inputs. But some AI search engines have multimodal capabilities, meaning they are able to process and understand information from formats beyond just text, such as images , videos and audio. For example, a multimodal AI search engine could let users search for information using voice commands, or by taking a photo with their phone — providing a more intuitive and flexible search experience than just typing in questions.

Related Reading What Is Black Box AI?

Are AI Search Engines Better Than Regular Search Engines?

While AI search engines are great at helping to plan a 21st birthday party, or providing a simple explanation for why the sky is blue, they aren’t always the best choice for handling all the other tasks we use search engines for — like navigating to specific websites, or following the progress of a sporting event in real-time.

“AIs don’t do as well with fresh stuff and they don’t do well with outliers,” Stevens said. “Anything that’s an extreme outlier or that’s fresh, I think the AIs are going to struggle.”

AI search engines may also produce more biased answers. Regular search engines simply organize information as links for users to click on, read and interpret on their own, whereas AI search engines summarize content found on the web, generating new responses based on what it has learned. That means the results produced by an AI search engine are likely to reflect the biases of its developers, introducing bias into areas where there wasn’t any to begin with, said Davi Ottenheimer, a VP of trust and digital ethics at tech company Inrupt . 

“AI search engines are disconnecting from the curators, the owners of the data,” Ottenheimer told Built In. “By adding AI in the middle, now you’re seeing the vision or the voice of the people who are writing and creating the AI algorithm.”

Like all generative AI, AI search engines are also prone to hallucinating , at times presenting falsehoods as facts. Some tools have incorporated line-by-line article citations to offset the problem, but the articles cited aren’t always accurate — and sometimes they don’t actually exist at all.

So while AI search engines may be more dynamic and interactive in nature than regular search engines, they don’t necessarily produce higher-quality responses than their AI-free counterparts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an ai-based search engine.

An AI search engine is a platform that uses artificial intelligence to interpret natural language queries, find relevant information, and generate concise summaries of that information — providing a more digestible and comprehensive online search experience.

How are AI search engines different from regular search engines?

AI search engines differ from regular search engines in several ways:

• Regular search engines display their results as a list of links, with short snippets of text underneath, while AI search engines can also generate concise summaries of search results.
• AI search engines are designed to continuously learn and adapt to user interactions, while regular search engines work from scratch with every new query, without taking into account any previous queries or user interactions.
• Regular search engines rely on keyword matching to understand, while AI search engines focus on semantics.
• Regular search engines can only accept text inputs, but some AI search engines have multimodal capabilities, meaning they are able to process and understand information from image, video and voice inputs, in addition to text.

How to use AI search engines?

The process of using an AI search engine is similar to that of a regular search engine: You enter a query into the search bar, wait a bit, and then review the results. But instead of producing pages of only links, AI search engines also provide concise summaries of the information they gather from the web — sparing you the need to scroll and click through various websites to find what you’re looking for.

Recent Artificial Intelligence Articles

• Do Not Sell My Personal Info

•  ⋅ 

Google’s E-E-A-T & The Myth Of The Perfect Ranking Signal

Google clarifies E-E-A-T's role in search rankings, emphasizing quality content over chasing specific signals for improved search performance.

• There is no single ranking signal that perfectly aligns with all elements of E-E-A-T.
• PageRank is related to authoritativeness but doesn't match other aspects of E-E-A-T.
• Websites should focus on demonstrating expertise and building trust, not chasing a mythical E-E-A-T score.

Few concepts have generated as much buzz and speculation in SEO as E-E-A-T.

Short for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, this framework has been a cornerstone of Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines for years.

But despite its prominence, more clarity about how E-E-A-T relates to Google ‘s ranking algorithms is still needed.

In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, Search Director & Product Manager Elizabeth Tucker addressed this complex topic.

Her comments offer insights into how Google evaluates and ranks content.

No Perfect Match

One key takeaway from Tucker’s discussion of E-E-A-T is that no single ranking signal perfectly aligns with all four elements.

Tucker explained

“There is no E-E-A-T ranking signal. But this really is for people to remember it’s a shorthand, something that should always be a consideration, although, you know, different types of results arguably need different levels of E-E-A-T.”

This means that while Google’s algorithms do consider factors like expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness when ranking content, there isn’t a one-to-one correspondence between E-E-A-T and any specific signal.

The PageRank Connection

However, Tucker did offer an example of how one classic Google ranking signal – PageRank – aligns with at least one aspect of E-E-A-T.

Tucker said:

“PageRank, one of our classic Google ranking signals, probably is sort of along the lines of authoritativeness. I don’t know that it really matches up necessarily with some of those other letters in there.”

For those unfamiliar, PageRank is an algorithm that measures the importance and authority of a webpage based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to it.

In other words, a page with many high-quality inbound links is seen as more authoritative than one with fewer or lower-quality links.

Tucker’s comments suggest that while PageRank may be a good proxy for authoritativeness, it doesn’t necessarily capture the other elements of E-E-A-T, like expertise or trustworthiness.

Why SEJ Cares

While it’s clear that E-E-A-T matters, Tucker’s comments underscore that it’s not a silver bullet to ranking well.

Instead of chasing after a mythical “E-E-A-T score,” websites should create content that demonstrates their expertise and builds user trust.

This means investing in factors like:

• Accurate, up-to-date information
• Clear sourcing and attribution
• Author expertise and credentials
• User-friendly design and navigation
• Secure, accessible web infrastructure

By prioritizing these elements, websites can send strong signals to users and search engines about the quality and reliability of their content.

The E-E-A-T Evolution

It’s worth noting that E-E-A-T isn’t a static concept.

Tucker explained in the podcast that Google’s understanding of search quality has evolved over the years, and the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines have grown and changed along with it.

Today, E-E-A-T is just one of the factors that Google considers when evaluating and ranking content.

However, the underlying principles – expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – will likely remain key pillars of search quality for the foreseeable future.

Listen to the full podcast episode below:

Featured Image: salarko/Shutterstock

Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, ...

Subscribe To Our Newsletter.

Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.

Mercedes-Benz spending more than previously planned on combustion engines - Wiwo

• Medium Text

• Company Mercedes-Benz Group AG Follow
• Company Wirtschaftswoche Follow

Sign up here.

Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Miranda Murray, editing by Thomas Seythal

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Business Chevron

Boeing agrees deal to buy spirit aero for $4.3 billion, sources say.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, would result in the breakup of Spirit, with some of the Kansas-based supplier's assets going to French planemaker Airbus.

• Connections
• Public Safety
• National Politics

Johnson City building to house innovative NSF Engines lithium-ion battery facility

A Johnson City building which once housed printing presses will now be at the forefront of lithium-ion battery research and development.

At a press conference Thursday morning at 10 Gannett Drive in Johnson City, Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger announced the official launch of the NSF Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine .

The building will house a manufacturing facility which specializes in the production of lithium-ion batteries, rechargeable batteries that are found in countless technologies including cell phones, electric vehicles and power tools.

Lithium-ion battery facility at former Gannett building in Johnson City

In January, the Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine, led by Binghamton University, secured an initial $15 million in funding and up to $160 million over the next 10 years through the U.S. National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines Competition (NSF Engines), a program created by the CHIPS & Science Law.

The grant came following the Southern Tier university's  New Energy New York  earning the designation of Battery Tech Hub last year, which opened up millions of dollars in funding and promised to create large-scale change for the region in following years.

More: Binghamton 'Engine' wins up to $160 million from National Science Foundation. What it means

Binghamton University purchased the Johnson City building for $4.5 million in 2020. The 97,000-square-foot facility closed when Gannett Corp., which owns the Press & Sun-Bulletin, shifted print production of the Press & Sun , the Ithaca Journal and the Elmira Star-Gazette to Rochester in June 2018.

Binghamton University stored part of its Glenn G. Bartle Library collection at the Gannett Drive building during renovations to the library's third floor.

According to Stenger, achieving this latest vision for the building required collaboration and communication between many local, state and federal partners, and will drastically impact the landscape of upstate New York.

"This, along with other efforts will help us decrease our reliance on foreign suppliers and create room for growth for startups and new businesses across upstate New York," said Stenger.

Stenger said the technologies developed at the new facility would be "transformational," and praised the area's community, researchers and all involved in making the project a reality.

"We want to develop something new, something different — a game-changing update to battery technology," said Stenger. "That development in technology, which is going to be made possible by the engine, the funding and our partnerships and relationships across the board, is part of a greater sustainable future for us all. We have all the ingredients, and all the elements to do it right here."

"This funding will let us come up with new inventions, which we intend to test out and build up to commercial stages in this facility," said Binghamton University professor and Nobel Prize winner M. Stanley Whittingham.

Filed under:

• Artificial Intelligence

Perplexity AI: the answer engine with a lot of question marks

By Jay Peters , a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

Share this story

Perplexity, which offers an AI search product that it calls an “answer engine,” is a buzzy AI startup embroiled in scandal following accusations that it rips off content , doesn’t respect robots.txt files , and even plagiarizes articles .

The company, which has already received funding from the likes of Jeff Bezos and is in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars more , advertises on its website that “every answer” is “backed by citations from trusted news outlets, academic papers, and established blogs.

However, plagiarism and paywall problems have made Perplexity a lightning rod for media industry frustrations as it attempts to overtake Google for the future of search on the internet.

Here’s our coverage of the ongoing developments.

Elizabeth Lopatto

Perplexity’s grand theft AI

In every hype cycle, certain patterns of deceit emerge. In the last crypto boom, it was “ponzinomics” and “rug pulls.” In self-driving cars, it was “just five years away!” In AI, it’s seeing just how much unethical shit you can get away with.

Perplexity, which is in ongoing talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars , is trying to create a Google Search competitor. Perplexity isn’t trying to create a “search engine,” though — it wants to create an “answer engine.” The idea is that instead of combing through a bunch of results to answer your own question with a primary source, you’ll simply get an answer Perplexity has found for you. “Factfulness and accuracy is what we care about,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told The Verge . 

In multiple scenarios, Perplexity relied on AI-generated blog posts, among other seemingly authentic sources, to provide health information. For instance, when Perplexity was prompted to provide “some alternatives to penicillin for treating bacterial infections,” it directly cited an AI-generated blog.

Reddit escalates its fight against AI bots

In the coming weeks, Reddit will start blocking most automated bots from accessing its public data. You’ll need to make a licensing deal, like Google and OpenAI have done, to use Reddit content for model training and other commercial purposes. 

While this has technically been Reddit’s policy already, the company is now enforcing it by updating its robots.txt file , a core part of the web that dictates how web crawlers are allowed to access a site. “It’s a signal to those who don’t have an agreement with us that they shouldn’t be accessing Reddit data,” the company’s chief legal officer, Ben Lee , tells me. “It’s also a signal to bad actors that the word ‘allow’ in robots.txt doesn’t mean, and has never meant, that they can use the data however they want.”

Sean Hollister

Fast Company asked him why his AI search engine is ripping content from paywalled news outlets like Wired , and... hoo boy. He attempted to shift blame to “third-party web crawlers,” refused to identify which ones, said it was too “complicated” to just stop doing that, and suggested it’s not technically illegal to ignore robots.txt . Sure.

[ Fast Company ]

Wired , June 19th: “Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine.”

Wired , today: “ Perplexity Plagiarized Our Story About How Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine .”

These links are paywalled, but that’s part of the point : it’s subscription journalism. Wired even blocks Perplexity in its robots.txt file , yet Perplexity is scraping stories anyhow. Might not be the only one , but that’s no excuse.

Jacob Kastrenakes

Wired and Robb Knight , a developer at MacStories , found that the AI search engine seems to ignore requests not to scrape their websites. They both blocked Perplexity in their robots.txt file — a standard instruction document for web crawlers — and found that Perplexity still managed to access their content. They’re not the only ones annoyed.

Emilia David

Perplexity will research and write reports

AI search platform Perplexity is launching a new feature called Pages that will generate a customizable webpage based on user prompts. The new feature feels like a one-stop shop for making a school report since Perplexity does the research and writing for you.

Pages taps Perplexity’s AI search models to find information and then creates what I can loosely call a research presentation that can be published and shared with others.  In a blog post , Perplexity says it designed Pages to help educators, researchers, and “hobbyists” share their knowledge.

Perplexity is ready to take on Google

It’s hard to have a conversation about AI startups these days without Perplexity coming up. 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang professes to using the AI search engine “almost every day,” Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke says it has replaced Google for him, and I’ve heard Mark Zuckerberg is also a user. I’ve been testing Perplexity in place of Google the past couple of months and have found it to be better for some searches, like ones with a very specific answer I’m looking for. But I’m not ready to completely switch. 

Covering the business and politics of space

Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and huge explosion

• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Clipboard (Opens in new window)

Wow. This is apparently what was supposed to be a STATIC FIRE TEST today of a Tianlong-3 first stage by China's Space Pioneer. That's catastrophic, not static. Firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months. https://t.co/BY9MgJeE7A pic.twitter.com/L6ronwLW1N — Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) June 30, 2024

Space Pioneer was conducting its test as a buildup to an orbital launch of the Tianlong-3, which is benchmarked against the SpaceX Falcon 9, in the coming months. The company announced earlier this month that it has secured $207 million in new funding .

Whoops…. possible Tianlong-3 first stage test failure… source: https://t.co/Z8CAyfPsCl pic.twitter.com/2WWQr4pC4O — DutchSpace (@DutchSpace) June 30, 2024

Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones covers China's space industry for SpaceNews. Andrew has previously lived in China and reported from major space conferences there. Based in Helsinki, Finland, he has written for National Geographic, New Scientist, Smithsonian Magazine, Sky... More by Andrew Jones

Sign up for a SpaceNews newsletter

Get top stories, military space news and more delivered to your inbox.