Connected Papers

Connected Papers is a small research tool made by an independent team of the same name. A researcher enters one paper, and the tool draws a graph of similar work around it. It links papers using co-citation and bibliographic coupling, which measure how often papers are cited or reference each other together, and the graph highlights older prior work and newer papers that build on the same idea. It draws on the Semantic Scholar database, which covers hundreds of millions of papers across every field. Users can build a reading list, export citations, and start a new graph from any paper in the results.

This fits a researcher at one specific moment in a project: getting oriented in an unfamiliar field. A good starting point is the free plan, which allows 5 graphs a month. A single researcher who needs more should look at the Academic plan, at about 3 dollars a month for unlimited graphs; a team or department should check the Business plan, around 20 dollars a month, or ask about an Institutional deal. One limit is that Connected Papers only maps citation links and does not read or summarize what a paper argues. It also depends on Semantic Scholar's coverage, so a very new or niche paper may not show many connections yet. Pair it with a full-text tool once you have picked your key papers.