Writing tools
Research assistant
Search for scholarly publication records related to a question or topic. Use the titles, metadata, and source links to decide which originals are worth opening.
3 minute readUpdated
Where to find it
Find scholarly sources. A short list of real scholarly sources with links to the originals.
You can also try Research assistant.
How it works
- Ask a focused research question: Describe the topic and the relationship you want to investigate.
- Read the source list: Review returned publication titles and metadata before deciding what to read.
- Open and assess the originals: Check relevance, methods, evidence, and publication context in the actual source.
Access and scope
Try it free, no sign-up needed. Your draft stays put when you switch tools, and each tool keeps its own result.
This is scholarly metadata search, not general live-web browsing or a guarantee that every result is relevant, available in full text, or suitable evidence for your claim.
What are the top academic search engines?
Widely used options include Google Scholar, BASE, CORE and Semantic Scholar, and many libraries run their own discovery search. StudySim's research assistant is a quick starting point. It returns a short list of scholarly records with links to the originals, so you can decide what to read next.
How do you tell if an article is scholarly?
Look for authors with academic affiliations, a journal or conference publisher, a reference list, and signs of peer review such as submission and acceptance dates. Your library's database filters can also limit results to peer-reviewed work.
What are scholarly articles?
Scholarly articles are written by researchers for other researchers. They report original studies or review existing work, cite their sources, and usually go through peer review before publication.
How do I search for scholarly articles on Google?
Use Google Scholar instead of the main search. Put exact phrases in quotes, filter by date, and use the Cited by link to find newer work on the same topic. Once you have a DOI, cite it by DOI to start a reference draft.
Is ChatGPT good for research?
A chatbot can help you brainstorm search terms, but it can invent sources. A records search avoids that because each result points to a real publication you can open. Read the originals yourself before you outline your essay.