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Reed Library

AI Research Tools

Semantic Scholar

Overview

Semantic Scholar is a free AI-powered academic search engine created by the Allen Institute for AI, a non-profit research institute founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Launched in 2015, it uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and understand scientific literature, making it easier to find relevant research across disciplines. Unlike traditional keyword-based searches, Semantic Scholar uses the meaning and context of search terms, helping researchers discover papers they might miss with conventional searches. The platform covers over 200 million papers from all fields, focusing on science.

Access: https://www.semanticscholar.org/

Key Features

Semantic Search

  • Understands context and meaning
  • Finds related concepts even with different terminology

TLDR Summaries

  • One-sentence AI summaries of paper objectives and findings (these are LLM generated and not always reliable)
  • Quickly scan through search results

Research Feeds

  • Personalized recommendations based on saved papers
  • Email alerts for new relevant publications

Citation Context

  • Shows how papers cite each other
  • Identifies influential citations vs. mention

Getting Started

Video Tutorial

Best For

  • Initial topic exploration (AI-powered semantic search)
  • Staying current with new publications
  • Finding sources in a wide-ranging database