ResearchRabbit is a literature review tool that makes it easier to search for papers, see the citation network, and explore academic literature visually. It’s had some significant updates recently, and in this review, we break down exactly what’s changed with ResearchRabbit and how to get the most out of it for your lit review.
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What is ResearchRabbit?
ResearchRabbit is a literature search and discovery tool, unique in that it shows how papers connect via visual graphs. It provides paper recommendations based on how they connect to each other via citations and references. Plus, it allows you to organise papers for a literature review by separating them into different collections, and exporting references (or syncing with Zotero).
We’ll go into detail in this article on just how ResearchRabbit works, and what are its best use cases for researchers.
How to use ResearchRabbit
Searching for papers is a crucial component of any literature review. Most researchers are familiar with classic, query-based searching. That means searching for your topic in academic databases, Google Scholar or, these days, in AI-powered tools like Consensus, SciSpace, or Scite.
One important sub-step to the search for literature is taking a look at citations. Practically any detailed lit review will include some citation analysis (as recommended here, by the University of Texas Libraries). However, this process can be extremely time-consuming to do manually.
This is where tools like ResearchRabbit, Litmaps, and Connected Papers come in. These automate the citation search by helping you quickly discover the most inter-connected articles based on the citation network. It’s like the traditional way of citation searching, but highly automated and optimised.
We’ll look at using ResearchRabbit in practice to discover new papers for the lit review, as well as to analyse citations for specific papers.
👉 Curious about the difference between ResearchRabbit vs Litmaps vs Connected Papers? Check out our in-depth comparison & review.
Use ResearchRabbit to Discover New Papers
You can use ResearchRabbit to find papers for a literature review, whether you’re starting from scratch or already have a collection of articles. But, since ResearchRabbit uses citation-based searching, it does require using at least on article as an input. For this reason, some basic familiarity with your field can be helpful before getting started with this tool.
To discover new papers with ResearchRabbit, you can:
- Create a free account
- Search for keywords on your topic, or search for a specific paper by DOI or name in the search bar.
- Check the box next to that paper in the results.
- Optional: You can also select other papers in the results. You can have up to 50 inputs on the free version.
- Click “Search”
- You’ll see a visual with your input article(s) and suggested, relevant articles. The relevant articles will also be visible in a list, which you can go through.
To find relevant papers, simply go through the list provided on the left, or click on the papers on the visualisation to see more details. You can go to the source paper by clicking on the title itself.
💪 Pro Tips for Discovery with ResearchRabbit:
To get the most out of ResearchRabbit when discovering new papers:
- Use multiple input papers. The more papers you input, the better the results, because the recommendations are connected to multiple papers you already know, making them even more relevant.
- Save articles you find relevant by clicking “Save to…”. Then, you can re-run the search with that article also added as an input (thus refining your search).
- Interact with the visualisation: This is truly one of the perks of ResearchRabbit compared to other literature discovery tools. You can hover over articles to see how they connect, and even move articles around by pressing and holding on the article node.
- Go “back” by clicking on the rabbit in the hole picture at the top left.
How to dive deeper
You can try to “dive deeper” into your topic by saving papers. After saving an article within the app, it’ll automatically give you the option to re-run your search with this article added as an input. Then, you can always “jump back” to earlier searches. This is similar to the “tab” display of the older version of ResearchRabbit (2025 and earlier). Check out the video below for an example.
Use ResearchRabbit to Explore Citations
What makes ResearchRabbit unique is how it displays literature both as a list as well as a visual graphic. These graphics let you easily see how papers connect via citations and references.
Looking at the ResearchRabbit visual, each circle represents a paper, and lines show how articles cite one another. The direction of the arrow indicates citations (i.e. paper A points to B if B was published earlier, and A references it).
To explore the citations and/or references of a paper (or multiple papers) in ResearchRabbit, you can:
- Search for the paper in the search bar, or upload a BibTeX of papers (directions here).
- Click “Similar to…” at the top and change the search to “Citations” (directions here).
- Change to either “Citations” or “References”. Or, if you want to search on authors, you can select “Authors -> These Authors” or “Authors -> Other Related Authors”.
- Click “Save”
ResearchRabbit will re-run the search with the same input articles, but this time returning papers based on what you put in the settings. When reviewing the results, you can scroll through the list in the side-bar, or select papers directly in the visual.
Keep in mind, it won’t return all the references (unless you are explicitly looking at references for a single paper). Instead, ResearchRabbit returns the most relevant references based on the input set of papers. This is determined by how they all connect to each other. The more connections a paper has with your input articles, the more likely it is to be recommended. In fact, that’s what makes citation-based searching so convenient.
💡Tip: Take advantage of how the graph is sorted to identify relevant papers quicker. Look towards the top right for articles that are both more recent and with a higher citation count.
What’s changed in the new ResearchRabbit?
If you use ResearchRabbit before roughly October 2025, you used what we’d now call “the old version” of ResearchRabbit. Since then, the application was acquired by Litmaps, and has changed dramatically. The image below is a brief comparison of the old versus new versions of ResearchRabbit.
Although it looks quite different, the new ResearchRabbit does have much of the same functionality as the older version. You can search for papers based on DOI or title, use one or more papers to begin a new search, and discover relevant references based on how they connect via citations and references.
There are many significant changes though, such as:
- No more “Network Graph” function. You can only see the visual sorted based on citation count and date.
- Selecting and adding papers to a search on works very differently
- Searching for “Earlier Work” and “Later Work” for papers you input works very differently
Below, we outline how to do some of this functionality in the new ResearchRabbit. Keep in mind, not all things are possible in the new version (for example, commenting or using collaborators).
How to see “Network Graph” in the new ResearchRabbit?
In the older version of ResearchRabbit, the default visualisation for the visualisation of papers was called the “Network Graph”. This showed articles in an unsorted visual, with green dots corresponding to inputs and blue dots corresponding to recommended papers. You could also switch to the “Timeline” view, which would order papers based on their date of publication.
In the new ResearchRabbit, there is no Network Graph view. The graph is sorted by default on citation count (y-axis) and date of publication (x-axis), which makes it similar to the Timeline view of the old version. An additional feature in the new version is the ability to customise the view. By clicking on the axes, you can adjust the X Axis or Y Axis sorting, as well as size of the nodes.
How to search on my papers in ResearchRabbit?
The new version of ResearchRabbit offers the same basic flow as the old: look up or upload papers, use them as inputs, and discover relevant work based on connection.
To search on a set of papers you have in the new ResearchRabbit, you can:
- Manually look up papers and add them one by one, from the Search bar.
- Upload a BibTeX and create a new Collection.
- Connect Zotero to ResearchRabbit, and sync a Collection/Folder.
The main difference in the new version of ResearchRabbit is that #2 and #3 are now in the “Library” section of the app.
Additionally, you can only upload papers once in the search process. For example, after uploading a set of papers to ResearchRabbit and starting a search, you cannot add any additional papers to that search, except for those recommended by the algorithm. If you forgot something, you’ll need to start back on the Library page, adding it to your Collection, and starting a new search from there.
How to search for “Earlier Work” or “Later Work” in the new ResearchRabbit?
The original version of ResearchRabbit allowed users to upload one or more papers and discover either “Similar Work”, “Earlier Work”, or “Later Work”. If there was only one paper to start with, then the choices would be “Similar Work”, “Citations”, and “References”. The new version of ResearchRabbit functions the same way, but the main difference is how to access “Earlier Work” or “Later Work”.
To search for earlier work, later work, references, citations or authors in the new ResearchRabbit, you’ll want to start a new search and then update the search settings. To update the search settings, click on the “Similar to…” at the top left of the search screen. From here you’ll see a dialog with many search settings, including how to search for articles or authors. See the image below for context.
Is ResearchRabbit free to use?
Yes, ResearchRabbit is free to use, up to a certain limit. You can do unlimited searches, each up to 50 paper inputs and search on references, citations, and authors all for free. However, to use the advanced functionality or run bigger searches, you’ll need to upgrade to their premium subscription, RR+. The image below details the free versus RR+ options, from their pricing page.
How to create a citation map?
A citation map is a useful tool either to summarise a literature review, or to help understand the papers you have. These maps illustrate research papers and how they connect via citations and references. Traditionally, researchers needed to create these in visual graphic software, or even by hand. Now, you can generate these graphs using ResearchRabbit.
To make a citation map with ResearchRabbit, you’ll just want to upload the articles as a Collection and then use the “Map” view to see the visual. It is automatically sorted so the x-axis is the date of publication and the y-axis is citation count. You can adjust the axes by clicking on them.
However, at this time, Litmaps offers more functionality when it comes to building citation maps and customising them (see our comparison here).
How reliable is ResearchRabbit?
Compared to most other AI research tools, ResearchRabbit is particularly trustworthy because it uses straightforward, automated methods to recommend literature. However, as AI becomes more and more prevalent, other tools may be able to out-perform citation-based searching. If you want to control the search process, look only for papers based on connection, and keep your search simple, then ResearchRabbit is an ideal tool.
Additionally, ResearchRabbit has a robust database of academic papers. They source articles, books and papers from Semantic Scholar, Crossref and Open Alex. This makes their database larger than Connected Papers, Scite, Consensus, or Elicit.
ResearchRabbit vs Connected Papers
ResearchRabbit and Connected Papers are similar in that they both provide paper recommendations based on the citation network. However, they differ in how much functionality they offer and the limitations on the free version.
Most importantly, Connected Papers allows only one paper input, whereas ResearchRabbit lets you search up to 50 inputs on the free version. Overall, Connected Papers is a much simpler and lighter-weight version, with a limited set of functionality compared to ResearchRabbit. Plus, it’s not as maintained, and hasn’t had any updates in the last couple of years. However, both do achieve a similar goal, and your use may depend on what you’re more comfortable with.
👉 ResearchRabbit vs Connected Papers In-depth Review
Does ResearchRabbit use AI?
Although ResearchRabbit is often called an “AI research tool”, it doesn’t actually use AI. ResearchRabbit works by discovering scientific papers based on their connections via citations and references. This kind of searching can sometimes be called “bibliometric searching” or “citation searching”. As they share on their site, they do not use AI in the search algorithms or to provide recommendations.
Summary
For students, academics and researchers who want to discover papers, books and articles for literature review via citations, ResearchRabbit is a great tool to use. It automates the citation-based search process, automatically recommending the most relevant papers based on how inter-connected they are to papers you already know.
ResearchRabbit is especially useful once you already have some basic familiarity with your topic and know a few papers in your field. It can also be used to explore authors, and find similar work they’ve published.
As of 2026, the tool has undergone some dramatic updates, so it may not be how you remember it (if you used it before Oct 2025). Much of the core functionality is still there, although it’s changed significantly in how you access and use it.
Of course, ResearchRabbit is just one of many tools available today that make the literature review process easier. For a crash-course on all the most relevant tools and workflows for an AI-assisted literature review today, check our free course 👇
