28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier

Academic Search Engines

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 is a “computational knowledge engine” that can answer factual questions posed in natural language. It can be a useful search tool. 

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.

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#7. Science.gov

Science.gov is a search engine developed and managed by the United States government. It includes results from a variety of scientific databases, including NASA, EPA, USGS, and NIST. 

#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.

Infotopia touts itself as an “alternative to Google safe search.” Scholarly book results are curated by librarians, teachers, and other educational workers. Users can select from a range of topics such as art, health, and science and technology, and then see a list of resources pertaining to the topic. 

#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)

DOAJ is a free search engine for scientific and scholarly materials. It is a searchable database with over 8,000 peer-reviewed research papers organized by subject. It’s one of the most comprehensive libraries of scientific and scholarly resources, with over 8,000 journals available on a variety of themes.

#24. Baidu Scholar

#25. pubmed central.

PubMed is a free search engine that provides references and abstracts for medical, life sciences, and biomedical topics.

#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!

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Best Academic Search Engines [2024]

Sumalatha G

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

research article search engine

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Search Help

Get the most out of Google Scholar with some helpful tips on searches, email alerts, citation export, and more.

Finding recent papers

Your search results are normally sorted by relevance, not by date. To find newer articles, try the following options in the left sidebar:

  • click "Since Year" to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance;
  • click "Sort by date" to show just the new additions, sorted by date;
  • click the envelope icon to have new results periodically delivered by email.

Locating the full text of an article

Abstracts are freely available for most of the articles. Alas, reading the entire article may require a subscription. Here're a few things to try:

  • click a library link, e.g., "FindIt@Harvard", to the right of the search result;
  • click a link labeled [PDF] to the right of the search result;
  • click "All versions" under the search result and check out the alternative sources;
  • click "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result to explore similar articles.

If you're affiliated with a university, but don't see links such as "FindIt@Harvard", please check with your local library about the best way to access their online subscriptions. You may need to do search from a computer on campus, or to configure your browser to use a library proxy.

Getting better answers

If you're new to the subject, it may be helpful to pick up the terminology from secondary sources. E.g., a Wikipedia article for "overweight" might suggest a Scholar search for "pediatric hyperalimentation".

If the search results are too specific for your needs, check out what they're citing in their "References" sections. Referenced works are often more general in nature.

Similarly, if the search results are too basic for you, click "Cited by" to see newer papers that referenced them. These newer papers will often be more specific.

Explore! There's rarely a single answer to a research question. Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" to see closely related work, or search for author's name and see what else they have written.

Searching Google Scholar

Use the "author:" operator, e.g., author:"d knuth" or author:"donald e knuth".

Put the paper's title in quotations: "A History of the China Sea".

You'll often get better results if you search only recent articles, but still sort them by relevance, not by date. E.g., click "Since 2018" in the left sidebar of the search results page.

To see the absolutely newest articles first, click "Sort by date" in the sidebar. If you use this feature a lot, you may also find it useful to setup email alerts to have new results automatically sent to you.

Note: On smaller screens that don't show the sidebar, these options are available in the dropdown menu labelled "Year" right below the search button.

Select the "Case law" option on the homepage or in the side drawer on the search results page.

It finds documents similar to the given search result.

It's in the side drawer. The advanced search window lets you search in the author, title, and publication fields, as well as limit your search results by date.

Select the "Case law" option and do a keyword search over all jurisdictions. Then, click the "Select courts" link in the left sidebar on the search results page.

Tip: To quickly search a frequently used selection of courts, bookmark a search results page with the desired selection.

Access to articles

For each Scholar search result, we try to find a version of the article that you can read. These access links are labelled [PDF] or [HTML] and appear to the right of the search result. For example:

A paper that you need to read

Access links cover a wide variety of ways in which articles may be available to you - articles that your library subscribes to, open access articles, free-to-read articles from publishers, preprints, articles in repositories, etc.

When you are on a campus network, access links automatically include your library subscriptions and direct you to subscribed versions of articles. On-campus access links cover subscriptions from primary publishers as well as aggregators.

Off-campus access

Off-campus access links let you take your library subscriptions with you when you are at home or traveling. You can read subscribed articles when you are off-campus just as easily as when you are on-campus. Off-campus access links work by recording your subscriptions when you visit Scholar while on-campus, and looking up the recorded subscriptions later when you are off-campus.

We use the recorded subscriptions to provide you with the same subscribed access links as you see on campus. We also indicate your subscription access to participating publishers so that they can allow you to read the full-text of these articles without logging in or using a proxy. The recorded subscription information expires after 30 days and is automatically deleted.

In addition to Google Scholar search results, off-campus access links can also appear on articles from publishers participating in the off-campus subscription access program. Look for links labeled [PDF] or [HTML] on the right hand side of article pages.

Anne Author , John Doe , Jane Smith , Someone Else

In this fascinating paper, we investigate various topics that would be of interest to you. We also describe new methods relevant to your project, and attempt to address several questions which you would also like to know the answer to. Lastly, we analyze …

You can disable off-campus access links on the Scholar settings page . Disabling off-campus access links will turn off recording of your library subscriptions. It will also turn off indicating subscription access to participating publishers. Once off-campus access links are disabled, you may need to identify and configure an alternate mechanism (e.g., an institutional proxy or VPN) to access your library subscriptions while off-campus.

Email Alerts

Do a search for the topic of interest, e.g., "M Theory"; click the envelope icon in the sidebar of the search results page; enter your email address, and click "Create alert". We'll then periodically email you newly published papers that match your search criteria.

No, you can enter any email address of your choice. If the email address isn't a Google account or doesn't match your Google account, then we'll email you a verification link, which you'll need to click to start receiving alerts.

This works best if you create a public profile , which is free and quick to do. Once you get to the homepage with your photo, click "Follow" next to your name, select "New citations to my articles", and click "Done". We will then email you when we find new articles that cite yours.

Search for the title of your paper, e.g., "Anti de Sitter space and holography"; click on the "Cited by" link at the bottom of the search result; and then click on the envelope icon in the left sidebar of the search results page.

First, do a search for your colleague's name, and see if they have a Scholar profile. If they do, click on it, click the "Follow" button next to their name, select "New articles by this author", and click "Done".

If they don't have a profile, do a search by author, e.g., [author:s-hawking], and click on the mighty envelope in the left sidebar of the search results page. If you find that several different people share the same name, you may need to add co-author names or topical keywords to limit results to the author you wish to follow.

We send the alerts right after we add new papers to Google Scholar. This usually happens several times a week, except that our search robots meticulously observe holidays.

There's a link to cancel the alert at the bottom of every notification email.

If you created alerts using a Google account, you can manage them all here . If you're not using a Google account, you'll need to unsubscribe from the individual alerts and subscribe to the new ones.

Google Scholar library

Google Scholar library is your personal collection of articles. You can save articles right off the search page, organize them by adding labels, and use the power of Scholar search to quickly find just the one you want - at any time and from anywhere. You decide what goes into your library, and we’ll keep the links up to date.

You get all the goodies that come with Scholar search results - links to PDF and to your university's subscriptions, formatted citations, citing articles, and more!

Library help

Find the article you want to add in Google Scholar and click the “Save” button under the search result.

Click “My library” at the top of the page or in the side drawer to view all articles in your library. To search the full text of these articles, enter your query as usual in the search box.

Find the article you want to remove, and then click the “Delete” button under it.

  • To add a label to an article, find the article in your library, click the “Label” button under it, select the label you want to apply, and click “Done”.
  • To view all the articles with a specific label, click the label name in the left sidebar of your library page.
  • To remove a label from an article, click the “Label” button under it, deselect the label you want to remove, and click “Done”.
  • To add, edit, or delete labels, click “Manage labels” in the left column of your library page.

Only you can see the articles in your library. If you create a Scholar profile and make it public, then the articles in your public profile (and only those articles) will be visible to everyone.

Your profile contains all the articles you have written yourself. It’s a way to present your work to others, as well as to keep track of citations to it. Your library is a way to organize the articles that you’d like to read or cite, not necessarily the ones you’ve written.

Citation Export

Click the "Cite" button under the search result and then select your bibliography manager at the bottom of the popup. We currently support BibTeX, EndNote, RefMan, and RefWorks.

Err, no, please respect our robots.txt when you access Google Scholar using automated software. As the wearers of crawler's shoes and webmaster's hat, we cannot recommend adherence to web standards highly enough.

Sorry, we're unable to provide bulk access. You'll need to make an arrangement directly with the source of the data you're interested in. Keep in mind that a lot of the records in Google Scholar come from commercial subscription services.

Sorry, we can only show up to 1,000 results for any particular search query. Try a different query to get more results.

Content Coverage

Google Scholar includes journal and conference papers, theses and dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, abstracts, technical reports and other scholarly literature from all broad areas of research. You'll find works from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies and university repositories, as well as scholarly articles available anywhere across the web. Google Scholar also includes court opinions and patents.

We index research articles and abstracts from most major academic publishers and repositories worldwide, including both free and subscription sources. To check current coverage of a specific source in Google Scholar, search for a sample of their article titles in quotes.

While we try to be comprehensive, it isn't possible to guarantee uninterrupted coverage of any particular source. We index articles from sources all over the web and link to these websites in our search results. If one of these websites becomes unavailable to our search robots or to a large number of web users, we have to remove it from Google Scholar until it becomes available again.

Our meticulous search robots generally try to index every paper from every website they visit, including most major sources and also many lesser known ones.

That said, Google Scholar is primarily a search of academic papers. Shorter articles, such as book reviews, news sections, editorials, announcements and letters, may or may not be included. Untitled documents and documents without authors are usually not included. Website URLs that aren't available to our search robots or to the majority of web users are, obviously, not included either. Nor do we include websites that require you to sign up for an account, install a browser plugin, watch four colorful ads, and turn around three times and say coo-coo before you can read the listing of titles scanned at 10 DPI... You get the idea, we cover academic papers from sensible websites.

That's usually because we index many of these papers from other websites, such as the websites of their primary publishers. The "site:" operator currently only searches the primary version of each paper.

It could also be that the papers are located on examplejournals.gov, not on example.gov. Please make sure you're searching for the "right" website.

That said, the best way to check coverage of a specific source is to search for a sample of their papers using the title of the paper.

Ahem, we index papers, not journals. You should also ask about our coverage of universities, research groups, proteins, seminal breakthroughs, and other dimensions that are of interest to users. All such questions are best answered by searching for a statistical sample of papers that has the property of interest - journal, author, protein, etc. Many coverage comparisons are available if you search for [allintitle:"google scholar"], but some of them are more statistically valid than others.

Currently, Google Scholar allows you to search and read published opinions of US state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, US federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791. In addition, it includes citations for cases cited by indexed opinions or journal articles which allows you to find influential cases (usually older or international) which are not yet online or publicly available.

Legal opinions in Google Scholar are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed lawyer. Google does not warrant that the information is complete or accurate.

We normally add new papers several times a week. However, updates to existing records take 6-9 months to a year or longer, because in order to update our records, we need to first recrawl them from the source website. For many larger websites, the speed at which we can update their records is limited by the crawl rate that they allow.

Inclusion and Corrections

We apologize, and we assure you the error was unintentional. Automated extraction of information from articles in diverse fields can be tricky, so an error sometimes sneaks through.

Please write to the owner of the website where the erroneous search result is coming from, and encourage them to provide correct bibliographic data to us, as described in the technical guidelines . Once the data is corrected on their website, it usually takes 6-9 months to a year or longer for it to be updated in Google Scholar. We appreciate your help and your patience.

If you can't find your papers when you search for them by title and by author, please refer your publisher to our technical guidelines .

You can also deposit your papers into your institutional repository or put their PDF versions on your personal website, but please follow your publisher's requirements when you do so. See our technical guidelines for more details on the inclusion process.

We normally add new papers several times a week; however, it might take us some time to crawl larger websites, and corrections to already included papers can take 6-9 months to a year or longer.

Google Scholar generally reflects the state of the web as it is currently visible to our search robots and to the majority of users. When you're searching for relevant papers to read, you wouldn't want it any other way!

If your citation counts have gone down, chances are that either your paper or papers that cite it have either disappeared from the web entirely, or have become unavailable to our search robots, or, perhaps, have been reformatted in a way that made it difficult for our automated software to identify their bibliographic data and references. If you wish to correct this, you'll need to identify the specific documents with indexing problems and ask your publisher to fix them. Please refer to the technical guidelines .

Please do let us know . Please include the URL for the opinion, the corrected information and a source where we can verify the correction.

We're only able to make corrections to court opinions that are hosted on our own website. For corrections to academic papers, books, dissertations and other third-party material, click on the search result in question and contact the owner of the website where the document came from. For corrections to books from Google Book Search, click on the book's title and locate the link to provide feedback at the bottom of the book's page.

General Questions

These are articles which other scholarly articles have referred to, but which we haven't found online. To exclude them from your search results, uncheck the "include citations" box on the left sidebar.

First, click on links labeled [PDF] or [HTML] to the right of the search result's title. Also, check out the "All versions" link at the bottom of the search result.

Second, if you're affiliated with a university, using a computer on campus will often let you access your library's online subscriptions. Look for links labeled with your library's name to the right of the search result's title. Also, see if there's a link to the full text on the publisher's page with the abstract.

Keep in mind that final published versions are often only available to subscribers, and that some articles are not available online at all. Good luck!

Technically, your web browser remembers your settings in a "cookie" on your computer's disk, and sends this cookie to our website along with every search. Check that your browser isn't configured to discard our cookies. Also, check if disabling various proxies or overly helpful privacy settings does the trick. Either way, your settings are stored on your computer, not on our servers, so a long hard look at your browser's preferences or internet options should help cure the machine's forgetfulness.

Not even close. That phrase is our acknowledgement that much of scholarly research involves building on what others have already discovered. It's taken from Sir Isaac Newton's famous quote, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

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Top 10 Best Academic Search Engines for Scholarly Articles in 2024

Jc Chaithanya

14 min read

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Best Search Engines to Search for Scientific Papers at a Glance 

Top 10 best search engines to search for scientific papers, google scholar key features , google scholar reviews , base key features , base reviews , scispace key features, scispace reviews , core key features , core reviews , scopus key features , scopus reviews, pubmed key features , pubmed reviews , jstor key features , jstor reviews , science.gov key features , science.gov reviews , semantic scholar key features , semantic scholar reviews , baidu scholar key features , baidu scholar reviews , our selection criteria to pick search engines for search for scientific papers, how to choose the best search engine to search for scientific papers, elephas: the research assistant that halves your research time, conclusion , 1. where can i search for scientific papers, 2. how do you search for scientific papers effectively, 3. how to find research papers on google.

Research is the cornerstone of scientific discovery. However, sifting through the vast amount of scholarly literature can feel overwhelming. Fear not, intrepid researchers! Today, we will equip you with the top 10 search engines designed specifically to streamline your search for scientific papers.

We'll delve into the strengths of each platform, helping you identify the perfect tool for your specific research needs. Whether you're seeking a broad overview or a deep dive into a niche topic, our analysis will ensure you learn about the most relevant and reliable search engines to propel your research forward.

To further maximize your research efficiency, we'll also introduce you to Elephas, a powerful AI writing assistant that can revolutionize your research paper writing process. However, we'll save that discussion for later in our article. For now, let's delve into the best search engines to search for scientific papers.

Google Scholar: General search for scholarly literature across various disciplines.

BASE: Free search engine for scholarly articles with summaries and full-text links.

SciSpace: Powerful search engine with AI-powered recommendations for related research.

CORE: User-friendly search engine for open-access scholarly publications.

Scopus: Search engine for high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific publications.

PubMed: Free search engine for biomedical and life sciences literature.

JSTOR: Comprehensive digital library for scholarly articles, ebooks, and primary sources across disciplines.

Science.gov: Free search engine for scientific research from US government agencies.

Semantic Scholar: Uses AI to find relevant research papers and uncover hidden connections.

Baidu Scholar: Search engine for academic literature in Chinese 

Google Scholar 

General Academic Search

Base 

Scientfic Research Papers 

Scispace 

AI-Powered Academic Search

CORE

Latest Research Papers

Scopus 

Peer-Reviewed Focus

Pubmed 

Medical Research

JSTOR 

Articles, Ebooks, Images

Science.gov 

Search in US federal Agencies

Semantic Scholar 

Plain Language Search

Baidu Scholar 

English & Chinese

1. Google Scholar 

Google Scholar

Google Scholar simplifies searching for scholarly literature. It crawls millions of academic publications across various disciplines, including articles, theses, books, and conference papers. Researchers can set up alerts to stay updated on new publications in their field. Google Scholar is like Google Search but specifically designed for academic research.

Massive Database: Search roughly 200 million scholarly articles.

Find Freely Available Papers: Locate research papers and often access full PDFs.

Stay Updated: Set alerts for new publications in your field.

Explore Research: Discover related articles, references, and citations.

Easy Citation Management: Export citations in various formats.

Formatting: Easily export your search results into common citation formats like APA and MLA.

We could not find any public reviews on Google Scholar, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

2. Base 

Base

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is a free search engine specializing in scholarly articles. With over 136 million publications (including duplicates), BASE allows you to search for research papers across various disciplines. It provides summaries and links to full text whenever available. While BASE doesn't offer features like finding related articles, cited references, or who cited the paper, it excels in its core function: searching for scientific publications effortlessly.

Free Search Engine: Access millions of scholarly publications without any cost.

Focus on Academic Content: Search a vast collection of research papers across various fields.

Article Summaries: Quickly grasp the research topic with summaries (abstracts) provided for each article.

Full Text Links: When available, access the full scientific paper directly through BASE.

Simple Interface: Navigate BASE's user-friendly interface to find what you need efficiently.

We could not find any public reviews on Base search engine, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

3. Scispace

Scispace

SciSpace is a powerful search engine specifically designed for academic research. With over 300 million scholarly articles across various fields, SciSpace utilizes advanced algorithms to deliver relevant search results. Its user-friendly interface makes navigating millions of research papers simple for both beginners and experienced researchers.

Massive Academic Database: Search over 300 million scholarly articles.

Advanced Search & Filters: Find relevant papers by author, citation count, and more.

AI-powered Recommendations: Get suggestions for related research based on your search.

Integrated Research Tools: Read papers, conduct literature reviews, and generate citations.

User-friendly Interface: Easy to navigate for both novice and experienced researchers.

Scispace Reviews

CORE is a user-friendly search engine designed specifically for scholarly research papers. Unlike traditional search engines, CORE focuses on freely accessible, open-access publications. This means you can easily find millions of scientific articles without any paywalls or restrictions. Every search result on CORE conveniently links directly to the full-text PDF or webpage of the research paper, allowing you to dive deeper into your chosen topic

Vast Collection: Search through over 136 million academic publications.

Full Text Access: Every search result includes a link to the complete article, either in PDF or on the publisher's webpage.

Enhanced Discovery: Easily explore related articles to broaden your research scope.

Simple Interface: CORE's user-friendly design lets you find what you need quickly and efficiently.

Focus on Open Access: CORE prioritizes freely available research, ensuring you can access the latest scientific findings without restrictions.

We could not find any public reviews on Core Search engine, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

Scopus

Scopus is a search engine for scientific research. It helps researchers find scholarly articles, conference papers, and patents. Unlike regular search engines, Scopus focuses on high-quality, peer-reviewed publications. This ensures you find reliable information to support your research. Scopus also offers advanced search options to help you narrow down your search and find relevant papers quickly.

Extensive Coverage: Search millions of peer-reviewed publications across various disciplines.

Accurate Search: Find relevant research with advanced search options and filters.

Verified Content: Explore high-quality, trusted publications with a focus on peer review.

Author Tracking: Monitor the impact of your research by tracking citations and authorship.

Discover Connections: Explore how different research papers are linked and build upon each other.

Scopus Reviews

PubMed , a free search engine developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), specializes in biomedical and life sciences literature. Offering a vast collection of scholarly articles, journals, clinical trials, and more, PubMed is a trusted resource for medical professionals, researchers, students, and anyone seeking scientific information. 

Extensive Collection: Search millions of scientific citations in medicine, health sciences, and related fields.

Accurate Results: PubMed's curated database ensures the quality and trustworthiness of your search results.

Advanced Search Options: Refine your search using keywords, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms, publication dates, and more.

User-Friendly Interface: The search engine features a user-friendly interface for efficient exploration of scientific data.

We could not find any public reviews on Pubmed, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

JSTOR

JSTOR is a comprehensive digital library for researchers across disciplines. Search for academic journals, books, and primary sources in an easy-to-use interface. Explore millions of images and historical documents alongside scholarly articles. JSTOR offers an interdisciplinary approach, allowing you to research immigration through text and imagery or delve into art history with collections from leading museums.

Search All Content: Find scholarly articles, ebooks, images, and primary sources.

Primary Sources: Explore millions of historical documents, artwork, maps, and photographs.

Image Search: Discover over 3 million images to enhance your research.

Independent Voices: Access alternative publications like underground newspapers and magazines.

Artstor Integration: Search millions of art and cultural artifacts from leading institutions.

We could not find any public reviews on the JSTOR search engine, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

8. Science.gov 

Science.gov

Science.gov is a free search engine designed specifically for scientific research. It simplifies your search by providing access to over 200 million scientific articles and reports from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies in one central location. This eliminates the need to search through individual agency websites, saving you valuable time and effort.

Search across 15+ U.S. government science agencies: Find scientific information from a vast collection of resources.

200 million+ scientific articles and reports: Access a comprehensive database of scientific research.

Links to full text (when available): Access the complete scientific paper if offered by the database.

Export Options: Export your search results in various citation formats for convenient reference management (availability may vary depending on the database).

We could not find any public reviews on science.gov, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

9. Semantic Scholar 

Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is a powerful search engine that uses artificial intelligence to help you find relevant research papers. Its advanced algorithms go beyond keywords to uncover hidden connections and relationships between research topics, delivering more impactful search results.

Natural Language Search: Find research papers using plain language, just like you would search the web.

Comprehensive Coverage: Explore over 40 million scholarly articles across various disciplines.

Detailed Information: Access abstracts, related articles, references, citations, and links to full text (when available).

Export Options: Easily export citations in popular formats like APA, MLA, Chicago, and BibTeX.

We could not find any public reviews on Semantic Scholar, so we advise users to stay cautious when using the search engine.

10. Baidu Scholar 

Baidu Scholar

Baidu Scholar is a powerful search engine designed specifically for academic literature. Despite its Chinese interface, Baidu Scholar indexes a vast collection of scientific papers in English alongside Chinese publications. With over 100 million articles, it offers a valuable resource for researchers worldwide. While some features are limited, like the lack of "cited by" functionality and only showing snippets of abstracts.

Multilingual Search: Find research papers in both English and Chinese.

Large Database: Explore over 100 million indexed articles.

Abstract and Reference Exploration: Gain insights from snippets of abstracts and identify related and cited articles.

Free to Use: Access and search for scientific papers without any cost.

Baidu Scholar Reviews

Our selection process focuses on several key criteria to ensure you get the most relevant and reliable results for your scientific inquiry.

1. Depth and Breadth of Content: A vast library of scientific papers is crucial. We looked for search engines that indexed millions of scholarly articles, journals, and publications across various disciplines.

2. Accuracy and Credibility: Trustworthy information is paramount in science. We prioritized search engines that focused on peer-reviewed publications and curated databases to ensure the quality of your results.

3. User-Friendly Interface: A user-friendly interface makes the search process efficient. We considered search engines with clear navigation, advanced search options, and filtering capabilities to help you refine your research.

4. Open Access: Unrestricted access to scientific knowledge is vital. We included search engines that offered a significant amount of freely available, open-access content, alongside those with subscription-based resources for comprehensive searching.

5. Additional Features: Powerful search engines go beyond basic searches. We considered functionalities like AI-powered recommendations for related research, citation management tools, and the ability to export search results in various formats.

By following these selection criteria, we create the top 10 search engines to search for scientific papers. So, explore all the search engines and find the one that is best to Search for Scientific Papers

There are tons of search engines to search for scientific papers out there, and picking the best one for your scientific research can feel like a real challenge. Don't worry, we will help you find the perfect Search Engine to Search for Scientific Papers

Step 1: Identify Your Needs

Breadth vs. Depth: Are you looking for a general overview of a topic or a deep dive into specific research?

Open Access: Do you need freely available articles, or are you affiliated with an institution with access to a wider range of resources?

Focus: Is your research in a specific field like medicine, engineering, or social sciences?

Step 2: Choosing Your Weapon

Now that you know your needs, let's explore some of the top search engines to search for  scientific papers:

General Search Engines:

Google Scholar: The go-to option for a broad search across many disciplines. It crawls millions of scholarly articles and often provides links to full PDFs.

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine): A search engine with over 136 million publications, offering summaries and links to full text whenever available.

Specialized Search Engines:

SciSpace: Employs AI to deliver relevant results and suggest related research based on your search.

CORE: Focuses on open-access publications, ensuring you can find millions of scientific articles without paywalls.

Scopus: Curates high-quality, peer-reviewed publications for a focus on reliable information.

PubMed: Developed for the medical and life sciences field, PubMed offers a vast collection of articles, journals, and clinical trials.

Additional Powerhouses:

JSTOR: A comprehensive digital library with scholarly articles, ebooks, and primary sources across disciplines, including historical documents and images.

Science.gov: A one-stop shop for scientific research from US government agencies, providing access to over 200 million articles and reports.

Semantic Scholar: Uses artificial intelligence to uncover hidden connections between research topics for more impactful results.

Baidu Scholar: While the interface is in Chinese, Baidu Scholar indexes a vast collection of scientific papers in both English and Chinese.

Remember: No single search engine is perfect. Experiment with a few based on your needs and combine them for a comprehensive search. Many of these engines allow advanced search options to further refine your results.

Elephas

Now you've got the perfect search engine to find the best research papers, but what about after you've found them? Elephas is an AI writing assistant that can help you with every stage of your research paper writing, from summarizing complex sources to generating creative ideas and even helping you stay on track with your grammar and citations.

Here's how Elephas can make you a research paper writing master:

Summarizes complex research: Struggling to understand a dense academic paper? Elephas can break it down for you, highlighting the key points and saving you valuable time.

Boosts your writing: Whether you need help with brainstorming ideas, structuring your paper, or simply polishing your writing style, Elephas has a variety of features to get you there.

Check your grammar: No more typos or embarrassing mistakes! Elephas ensures your writing is clear, concise, and error-free.

Multiple writing styles: Need your paper to be formal or informal? Funny or serious? Elephas can adapt its writing style to fit your needs.

Works offline: Worried about data privacy? Elephas has an offline mode that lets you work securely without an internet connection.

These are just a few of the ways Elephas can help you write research papers faster and more efficiently. Elephas offers many more features that can significantly reduce your daily workload.

So why not give it a try and see how much time you can save?

In summary, there are many great search engines to search for scientific papers out there, each with its own strengths. The best one for you depends on what you're researching.

Need a quick overview? Try Google Scholar or BASE.

Want in-depth studies? Look at Scopus or PubMed (for medical stuff).

Need free articles? Try CORE or JSTOR (for more than just science).

If you're not sure where to start, try a few and see which one you like best. You can even use them together to find the most information!

Remember, the ideal search engine hinges on your specific requirements.

Are you seeking a broad overview of a particular field, or a deep dive into a niche topic?

Does open-access content suffice, or do you have institutional access to a wider range of resources?

What is your research area's primary discipline (medicine, engineering, social sciences)?

By considering these questions, you can ensure you select the most effective search engine to propel your research forward.

While powerful search engines are essential, there are additional tools that can significantly enhance your research efficiency. Consider Elephas, an advanced AI writing assistant designed to streamline every stage of the research paper writing process. From summarizing complex sources to generating creative ideas and maintaining flawless grammar and citations, Elephas helps you to become a research paper writing master.

You can search for scientific papers in many online search engines like Google Scholar, BASE, CORE, Scopus, PubMed, JSTOR, Science.gov, Semantic Scholar, and Baidu Scholar. Each engine has its strengths, so it depends on your specific needs. 

First, identify your needs. Are you looking for a general overview or a deep dive? Do you need free articles or have access to paid resources? Then choose a search engine that fits your needs. Finally, use the advanced search options in the research search engines to refine your results.

Google Scholar is a search engine specifically designed for scholarly articles. You can search for papers by topic, author, title, and more. It also allows you to find freely available PDFs of many papers.

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In the ever-changing landscape of academic research, staying at the forefront requires modern tools. Scopus AI is an AI-powered tool that helps you navigate the vast amount of information available in Scopus, allowing you to gain a deeper understanding of your research topic, generate new insights, and enhance your overall research experience.

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Scopus empowers organizations with unparalleled access to critical global research, which can be integrated with existing platforms to increase analysis and insights.

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Scopus Author Profiles offer new insights into the reach and influence of research, helping to build a reliable body of work to support career goals. Once a profile is validated, Scopus takes over, automatically populating it and continuously building on an author's credentials.

Scopus is the only database to blend automated and manually curated data to generate current author profiles. This process allows us to deliver over 17m profiles that support accurate author searches in the same way you can search for articles: efficiently and easily.

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Scopus outperforms other abstract and citation databases by providing a broader range of research metrics covering nearly twice the number of peer-reviewed publications.

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It's here! CiteScore 2023 is now available, providing transparent insights into journal citation impact.

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Industry-leading collection of scholarly abstracts and citations, comprehensive coverage, greater insights, independent review and selection, intuitive search, better tools, better results, more metrics, serve your organization's research and education needs, scopus for enterprise.

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100 Search Engines For Academic Research

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.

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Welcome to SEforRA, a Search Engine for Research Articles that allows you to directly see search results articles coming from indexed journals and ranked by Scopus (ScimagoJR) and download files related to search results that are useful for bibliometric analysis.

This website only mines 500 most relevant big data articles by default (max 1,000 items on the results page). Due to server limitations and extensive data will burden your device, wait for 15 seconds if you want to continue searching.

Please read this document which might be useful for you Panduan Analisis Bibliometrik , can be cited (APA Style): Sidiq, M. (2019). PANDUAN ANALISIS BIBLIOMETRIK SEDERHANA. Unpublished. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.15688.37125 and this publication: Sidiq, M., Hanafi, I., & Ekaputra, F. J. (2020). SEforRA: A Bibliometrics-ready Academic Digital Library Search Engine Alternative. KnE Social Sciences, 4(14), 206–218. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v4i14.7877

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The SEforRA server will be down periodically during the upgrade to version 3. Make sure you save the search result permalinks, which can be used to continue the search process.

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Educators Technology

Innovative EdTech for teachers, educators, parents, and students

4 Good AI Academic Search Engines

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: August 1, 2024

Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, generative AI has taken center stage in technological innovation. This transformative technology is making steady inroads into all aspects of our lives, including education. We’ve witnessed a proliferation of AI tools enhancing both teaching and learning. Even established edtech platforms like Khan Academy, Kahoot, and Quizlet have embraced the AI revolution, integrating it into their systems. In essence, AI, and more specifically generative AI, is reshaping education in unprecedented ways.

As this generative AI revolution unfolded, I shifted the focus of my academic research to this emerging technology, becoming deeply interested in its educational potential. To this end, I authored a book titled “ ChatGPT for Teachers ,” which explains the fundamentals of generative AI, outlines practical prompting strategies for educators, and discusses the limitations of AI, especially within educational settings.

Currently, I’m working on another book that explores the use of AI in academic research. This post draws insights from this ongoing work. Today, I aim to share a collection of AI-powered academic search engines that will enable you to find research papers and journal articles with unprecedented ease. I often find myself wishing these tools had been available during my doctoral studies; they could have saved me considerable time and effort.

AI Academic Search Engines

While these AI academic search engines are valuable at any stage of research, I find them particularly helpful in conducting literature reviews, which typically involve extensive exploration of existing scholarship. Using these AI tools will allow you to access relevant research materials more efficiently and organize your papers more effectively. You can also combine these with the PDF Chat Tools I covered in an earlier post to further streamline your research process.

AI Academic Search Engines

These AI-powered search engines are most beneficial during the initial stages of research, where you’re engaging in extensive literature review. They enable quicker access to relevant research materials and more efficient organization of papers. For an even more streamlined research process, consider combining these tools with the PDF Chat Tools I discussed in a previous post.

1. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an AI-powered search engine for over 214 million scientific publications across all disciplines. It allows refined searches using filters such as journals, conferences, authors, publication formats, and date ranges. Results can be sorted by recency, relevance, or citation count. One standout feature is the “highly influential citations,” which identifies publications with significant impact based on a machine-learning model analyzing citations. Other features include saving papers to your library, creating author alerts for recent publications, and setting up topic alerts for new papers.

I’ve used Semantic Scholar for years, and the platform has integrated several AI features to enhance functionality. These include TLDR, which provides concise summaries for papers, and AI-powered paper recommendations based on your library. You can also explore topics with AI-generated definitions and related papers. The “Ask This Paper” feature lets you interact with a paper’s content by asking specific questions, and the Semantic Reader facilitates reading by offering citation cards, TLDR summaries, and a table of contents to help navigate between sections.

2. Consensus

Consensus is an AI-powered academic search engine that helps you quickly find relevant research papers. Simply input your research questions and enable the ‘Synthesize’ toggle. Consensus then synthesizes insights from a vast pool of academic papers and presents results in a user-friendly format, with each tile representing a single paper. Each tile includes information about the journal, authors, and citations, along with a grey box containing key insights from the paper or answers to your questions.

The ‘Study Snapshot’ is one of my favourite features. It provides an AI-generated summary of the paper’s population, sample size, methods, and outcomes. Clicking on the paper title reveals detailed information, including references, links to full texts, and quality metrics. Consensus also offers powerful research filters to refine searches by sample size, study design, methodology, and more, and includes paper quality indicators to assess credibility. This helps streamline the literature review process by extracting main insights and citing sources, allowing you to explore relevant literature and expand your research efficiently.

Elicit is an AI-powered academic search engine ideal for preparing literature reviews. Simply input your question, and Elicit synthesizes insights from relevant papers, providing titles, authors, journals, citations, summaries, and external links for further exploration. You can refine your search with filters such as publication year, journal quality, study type, PDF availability, and more. For example, using the ‘Abstract Keywords’ filter, Elicit returns papers with abstracts containing your specified keywords. Additionally, you can filter papers using over 30 predefined columns or create custom ones.

Elicit offers a library service to save and organize papers and a notebook feature to capture thoughts and highlights. You can upload PDFs to extract insights, aiding in reading papers. An interesting feature is the ‘List of Concepts,’ which allows you to search for related concepts across different papers. This helps you learn more about your research topic and discover new research avenues. Elicit excels at citing sources and provides comprehensive information to streamline your literature review process.

4. R Discovery

R Discovery is an AI tool designed to assist with academic research, making it easy to find relevant papers. Start by creating an account and customizing your feed by selecting your research area and adding topics or journals. This will generate a feed of research papers tailored to your interests. Each paper in the feed includes details like the abstract, DOI link, options to export to Zotero or Mendeley, an audio version, translation, and more. The ‘Similar Papers’ feature is particularly useful, providing an AI-curated collection of papers on the same topic, helping you discover relevant materials to enrich your research.

R Discovery also features a custom GPT called Ask GPT, allowing real-time interaction with the R Discovery bot inside ChatGPT. You can ask questions, and Ask GPT will fetch and synthesize answers from its extensive database of scientific and academic papers, providing a seamless way to enhance your literature review process.

Final thoughts

I hope you have found these tools helpful in navigating your academic research. Each of these AI-powered search engines can significantly streamline your literature review process, saving you time and effort. Stay tuned for my upcoming book on AI tools for academic research, which will be a treasure trove of resources and insights to enhance your research journey. From detailed guides to practical tips, this book will provide everything you need to leverage AI effectively in your academic work.

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Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational technology landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

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08-10-2024 TECH

Google who? This new service actually gets AI search right

By scouring published scientific research, Consensus makes ChatGPT and Gemini look like ill-informed rubes by comparison.

Google who? This new service actually gets AI search right

[Source Illustration: Pixabay ]

BY  JR Raphael 3 minute read

Time for a bit o’ brutal honesty: Whenever I hear about a new search tool or info-surfacing service, my first reaction is to proactively cringe a little—and then set my skepticism guard to its highest possible setting.

Surely you’ve had this same sort of response by now, too—right? Since the start of this whole generative-AI explosion, we’ve seen an endless parade of apps touting themselves as The Future of Search™.

And with very rare exception, more or less all of ’em share the same fatal flaw: They just aren’t reliable. They serve up inaccurate info , with a shocking amount of confidence to accompany it. It’s as true for the high-profile AI search tools by companies like Google and Microsoft as it is for the creations from small, scrappy startups.

Today’s tool is one of those rare exceptions. It’s an AI-powered search app that’s extremely specific in its purpose and the type of info it provides. In fact—no exaggeration—it might just be the most reliable, fact-driven search service you’ve ever encountered.

Unearth all sorts of little-known tech treasures with my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence . A genuinely useful new discovery in your inbox every Wednesday!

AI-powered search, with a twist

So here’s the deal: The problem with most generative AI search services, at the simplest possible level, is that they have no idea what they’re even telling you.

By their very nature, the systems that power services like ChatGPT and Gemini simply look at patterns in language without understanding the actual context. And since they include all sorts of random internet rubbish within their source materials, you never know if or how much you can actually trust the info they give you.

➜ The tool I want to introduce you to today is designed to be the antidote to all that uncertainty.

It’s called Consensus​ , and it’s an AI-powered search engine that relies entirely on published scientific research as its source.

⌚ It’ll take you 20 seconds to figure out and start using:

  • Just open up Consensus.app ​ in any browser, on any device in front of you.
  • Type any question into the search box on the center of its main screen. (If you want some ideas, check out the service’s ​ sprawling​ ​lists​ of ​suggested​ queries ​ . There are all sorts interesting possibilities here beyond what you might initially expect!)
  • Either hit Enter or tap the search icon to get fact-based answers in a flash.

research article search engine

In the blink of an eye, Consensus will consult over 200 million scientific research papers and then serve up an ocean of answers for you—with clear context, citations, and even a simple “consensus meter” to show you how much the results vary (because here in the real world, not everything has a simple black-and-white answer!).

research article search engine

You can dig deeper into any individual result, too, with helpful features like summarized overviews as well as on-the-fly analyses of each cited study’s quality. Some questions will inevitably result in answers that are more complex than others, but the service does a decent job of trying to simplify as much as possible and put its info into plain English.

research article search engine

Consensus provides helpful context on the reliability of every report it mentions. ~

And if you don’t have a specific question, you can also search Consensus for a general subject to see all sorts of research related to it.

As you’d imagine, Consensus won’t be the right tool for every possible search purpose. It isn’t gonna tell you where the next Right Said Fred concert is set to take place, for instance (though kudos for the dedication).

But when it comes to a specific sort of science-related, fact-driven inquiry—anything where extensive research could help provide a reliable answer—it’s a singular resource that stands out in an ever-rising sea of uncertainty.

  • Consensus is completely web-based ​ , as of now—no downloads or installations required.
  • The core service is free with unlimited searching. A premium plan is also available for $9 a month with a variety of ​optional extras​ .
  • The site doesn’t require any manner of personal info to operate. (After a few searches, it might prompt you to create an account and sign in. But in my experience, simply going back to its home page and starting over will get around this and let you keep going anonymously.)

Treat yourself to even more productivity-boosting goodness with my free Cool Tools newsletter —a new tech treasure in your inbox every Wednesday!

Apply to the Most Innovative Companies Awards and be recognized as an organization driving the world forward through innovation. Early-rate deadline: Friday, August 23.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JR Raphael is obsessed with productivity and finding clever ways to make the most of modern technology. Check out his Android Intelligence newsletter to get tasty new tips in your inbox every Friday.   More

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Google logo under a microscope

A US judge just called Google the ‘highest quality search engine’. But how do we determine ‘quality’?

research article search engine

Dean of Research and Professor of Information Retrieval, RMIT University

Disclosure statement

Mark Sanderson received funding from Microsoft Research in 2018.

RMIT University provides funding as a strategic partner of The Conversation AU.

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In his landmark ruling against Google earlier this week, United States district judge Amit Mehta said the tech giant has built “the industry’s highest quality search engine”.

Judge Mehta made clear this was partly because Google had an illegal monopoly over the market. Nonetheless, Google was keen to promote the praise it received for its flagship product. Its president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said :

This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.

But is the Google search engine as good as the company (and Judge Mehta) says it is? And by what metric do we measure whether Google has the “best” search engine in the world?

To answer these thorny questions, it’s important to think about the broader context of the internet – and, in particular, the powerful place of advertising.

Search engines are an expensive business

On September 4 1998, computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google . In the 26 years since, the company has radically transformed our ability to find information.

Its search engine currently processes 8.5 billion queries per day – 15% of which have never been made before.

People expect the search engine to rapidly deliver accurate answers to every one of those queries. To fulfil this expectation, Google must keep the index up to date by regularly scanning and re-scanning the internet.

This huge task requires thousands of staff – and is therefore very expensive.

One edge Google has over its competitors when it comes to delivering relevant results is its large customer base. They can tune their algorithms based on customer clicks to be more accurate and cover a broader range of queries.

Crucially, however, they wouldn’t have as large a customer base were it not for them having an illegal monopoly over the market .

Advertising is key

A good way to measure the quality of Google’s search engine is by tracking the presence of advertisements to see how much they affect peoples’ ability to find the information they are looking for.

Advertising has long been a key part of Google.

The company doesn’t appear to keep copies of its search result pages. However with some sleuthing, examples of how ads in search have changed over the years can be found on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine . The picture that emerges indicates the line between high-quality search results and sponsored content is increasingly blurred.

The first page captured in the year 2000 shows only two adverts at the very top of the page. These are clearly identified by different coloured boxes and the prominently displayed message “sponsored link”.

research article search engine

The next example, taken from 2013, shows many more ads. But they are clearly labelled in a coloured box and in a separate column on the right.

research article search engine

In 2016, the column has disappeared and the ads at the top lose their distinctiveness from Google’s main result list, for which Google receives no money.

research article search engine

Finally, the capture of the Google result today shows sponsored links occupying much screen space before the main results can be seen at the bottom of the page.

research article search engine

There are other problems impacting the quality of Google’s search engine – as well as its competitors’. In a study published earlier this year, German researchers found that spam and other low quality content is very prevalent among the top results for product review searches on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo.

They concluded:

We find that search engines do intervene and that ranking updates, especially from Google, have a temporary positive effect, though search engines seem to lose the cat-and-mouse game that is [search engine optimisation] spam.

So, what’s the fix?

The impact of forcing Google to give up some of its market share might increase competition, which could push Google to improve the experience search engine users have by reducing the volume and display of advertising.

However, reducing the search engine’s customer base too much might impact on the search engine’s ability to deliver high quality results, because the number of customer clicks that help tune the search engine algorithm would drop.

Apart from breaking up a monopoly, are there other ways to improve search quality?

The most promising approach at the moment is to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) behind the scenes.

A recent leak of how the Google algorithm works found that a generative AI system was being used to judge the quality of web pages.

Microsoft has also applied an “AI model to our core Bing search ranking engine, which led to the largest jump in relevance in two decades.”

Hopefully this works. Because with multiple disruptions from the courts and AI innovations including Chatbots, the sedate changes in the quality of search results are about to accelerate.

  • Advertising
  • Search engines
  • Online advertising
  • Search engine optimisation

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Business Development Manager, MDHS

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Newsletter and Deputy Social Media Producer

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College Director and Principal | Curtin College

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Head of School: Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences

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Educational Designer

  • Open access
  • Published: 08 August 2024

Evidence for motivational interviewing in educational settings among medical schools: a scoping review

  • Leonard Yik Chuan Lei 1 ,
  • Keng Sheng Chew 1 ,
  • Chee Shee Chai 1 &
  • Yoke Yong Chen 1  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  856 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

88 Accesses

Metrics details

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a person-centred approach focused on empowering and motivating individuals for behavioural change. Medical students can utilize MI in patient education to engage with patients’ chronic health ailments and maladaptive behaviours. A current scoping review was conducted to 1) determine the types of MI (conventional, adapted, brief and group MI) education programs in medical schools, delivery modalities and teaching methods used; 2) classify educational outcomes on the basis of Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy; and 3) determine the key elements of MI education via the FRAMES (feedback, responsibility, advice, menu of options, empathy, self-efficacy) model.

This scoping review was conducted via the framework outlined by Arksey and O’Malley. Two online databases, CINAHL and MEDLINE Complete, were searched to identify MI interventions in medical education. Further articles were selected from bibliography lists and the Google Scholar search engine.

From an initial yield of 2019 articles, 19 articles were included. First, there appears to be a bimodal distribution of most articles published between the two time periods of 2004--2008 and 2019--2023. Second, all the studies included in this review did not use conventional MI but instead utilized a variety of MI adaptation techniques. Third, most studies used face-to-face training in MI, whereas only one study used online delivery. Fourth, most studies have used a variety of interactive experiences to teach MI. Next, all studies reported outcomes at Kirkpatrick’s Level 2, but only 4 studies reported outcomes at Kirkpatrick’s Level 3. According to the FRAMES model, all studies ( n =19; 100%) reported the elements of responsibility and advice. The element that was reported the least was self-efficacy ( n = 12; 63.1%).

Our findings suggest that motivational interviewing can be taught effectively in medical schools via adaptations to MI and a variety of teaching approaches. However, there is a need for further research investigating standardized MI training across medical schools, the adequate dose for training in MI and the implementation of reflective practices. Future studies may benefit from exploring and better understanding the relationship between MI and self-efficacy in their MI interventions.

Peer Review reports

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a person-centred approach that focuses on empowering and motivating individuals for behavioural change [ 1 ]. Undoubtedly, the empathetic approach of MI in clinical settings fosters a supportive environment that encourages discussion of the benefits of enhanced self-care [ 2 ]. In this context, MI practitioners utilize a set of essential skills encapsulated by the acronym “OARS”, which stands for O = open-ended questions, A = affirmations, R = reflections and S = summaries to promote active listening [ 3 ]. MI was developed primarily for the treatment of addiction disorders but has since progressed to include other physical and mental ailments as well [ 4 ]. In a study on MI interventions in alcoholism, Miller & Sanchez [ 68 ] identified six common motivational elements that should be covered, represented by the acronym “FRAMES”, where F = feedback (e.g., personalized feedback on the impacts of alcoholism on the client’s own experiences, as opposed to providing generic information); R = responsibility (e.g., empowering clients to make their own choices and take responsibility for their change process); A = advice (e.g., effectively given in a nondirective and noncoercive manner); M = menu (e.g., offering a variety of choices on transition methods and plans); E = empathy (e.g., rendering empathic, reassuring and reflective listening); and S = self-efficacy (e.g., supporting clients to succeed in a specified goal). This review used the FRAMES model to determine the key elements of MI education. FRAMES was a predecessor to MI and was initially designed to address drinking problems [ 5 ]; however, it is also used in other health issues, such as decreasing stroke risk [ 6 ], substance use screening and brief intervention [ 7 ]. The FRAMES model offers a structure that can be used to improve the delivery of MI by ensuring that key elements of MI are present in educational interventions.

Mechanisms of motivational interviewing

Frey et al. [ 8 ] developed mechanisms of the motivational interviewing (MMI) framework and described the mechanisms of fidelity of practice in MI, including a technical component, a relational component and MI-inconsistent practices [ 8 ]. The technical component consists of the interviewer’s ability to evaluate the participant’s language relating to a specific behaviour change target and then build a conversation that evokes change talk. The relational component includes respect for the participant’s self-determination, appropriate empathy, and equal partnership. Non-MI consistent behaviours include confrontation, offering unsolicited advice, and persuasion. Additionally, it is important to identify and understand the mechanisms of change so that MI users and researchers can focus on these mechanisms during training, which can lead to improved outcomes and fidelity [ 8 ].

Types of motivational interviewing

MI can be categorized into four types: conventional, adaptive, brief, and group. Conventional MI is an evidence-based approach and directive form of interviewing developed by Miller & Rollnick [ 9 ]. Throughout the course of MI, four important tasks occur: engaging (building mutual relationships), focusing (setting goals), evoking (developing clients’ motivations for change) and planning (negotiating change) [ 9 ]. In this review, the term conventional MI is defined as an approach that utilizes MI-consistent tasks and behaviours in multiple sessions that target an identified population of clients.

Adapted MI consists of culturally sensitive MI and digitally supported interventions that can be used as adjunct interventions to the primary behavioural program [ 10 ]. This review defines the term adapted MI to include any adaptations made to adapt MI culturally to the setting or delivered by technology through various types of technologies and content (e.g., computers, smartphones, applications, videos and audio). Additionally, it also includes adaptations made to structured curricula, such as using role plays or real patient interactions to facilitate the learning of MI.

Brief MI is a type of MI with varying lengths, ranging from 5--90 minutes in duration, emphasizing the lack of an accepted definition of brief MI [ 10 ]. This review defines the term brief MI as an MI that provides brief consultations centred on typically fewer sessions (e.g., 1--2 sessions) than conventional MI (e.g., 3--4 sessions or more).

Group MI can be defined as groups of clients that apply the MI spirit, processes and methods to increase motivation for change and promote beneficial collaboration among participants and practitioners in a shared location to encourage change [ 11 ]. This review defines the term group MI as MI that is adapted for group format and is MI consistent (e.g., applying MI principles, spirit and techniques in its delivery).

Additionally, MI can be used in patient education to help patients better handle their chronic health conditions and maladaptive behaviours. Therefore, behavioural change is vital in the recovery course of different mental and physical disorders, as a change to a healthier lifestyle has been shown to result in a significant decrease in chronic disease risk [ 12 ]. More than 120 studies have demonstrated the efficacy of MI in addressing a wide range of problematic behaviours, such as substance abuse and risky behaviour, as well as promoting healthy behaviours [ 13 ]. There is specific evidence regarding the effectiveness of MI across different health behaviours (substance abuse, risky behaviours and promoting health behaviours), according to the types of MI: conventional, adaptive, brief and group. For conventional MI, research has shown effectiveness in treating substance abuse [ 14 ], reducing risky behaviours in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive men [ 15 ] and promoting physical activity in older adults [ 16 ]. Adaptive MI has demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing alcohol problems in women [ 17 ], reducing risky sexual behaviours and psychological symptoms in HIV-positive older adults [ 18 ] and promoting self-management to reduce BMI and improve lifestyle adherence with a computer assistant [ 19 ]. Brief MI has been effective in reduction in alcohol misuse in college students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [ 20 ] and improvement in the engagement of physical activity in patients with low physical activity levels [ 21 ]. Research has revealed that group MI is effective in treating drug use among women [ 22 ], reducing risky sexual behaviour among adolescents [ 23 ] and improving self-efficacy and oral health behaviours among pregnant women [ 24 ].

Unhealthy lifestyle-linked behaviours characterize common preventable risk factors that lead to the majority of noncommunicable diseases and their associated mortality and morbidity [ 25 ]. MI provides an approach for healthcare providers to assist patients in investigating and resolving their ambivalence toward changing unhealthy lifestyle behaviour [ 27 ]. Studies have reported the effectiveness of teaching MI to medical students [ 4 , 26 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Therefore, considering the prevalence and widespread application of MI in health care settings, this underscores the importance of MI being taught in the initial stages of medical education.

In a recent systematic review, Kaltman and Tankersley [ 31 ] reviewed MI curricula in undergraduate medical education (UME) and revealed important findings. Their research findings suggest that generally being involved in an MI curriculum can be linked to enhanced MI-related knowledge and skills in the short term. Additionally, they noted that 1) the MI curricula were heterogeneous in nature; 2) the curricula were different in terms of timing, duration and number of sessions; 3) the curricula employed in studies were multiple pedagogies; and 4) the quality of the evaluations and research evidence varied. However, this review by Kaltman and Tankersley [ 31 ] was limited to reporting only on MI-specific outcomes such as knowledge, skills, attitudes towards, and self-efficacy in implementing MI. Kaltman and Tankersley [ 31 ] systematic review did not stratify and explore in detail studies on the types of MI (conventional, adaptive, brief, or group). Furthermore, the systematic review did not investigate the key elements of MI education as described by the FRAMES model. The scoping review aimed to bridge the knowledge gap on types of MI (conventional, adapted, brief, group MI) and key elements of MI education covered via the FRAMES model. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to 1) determine the types of MI education programs in medical schools, the delivery modalities, and the teaching methods used; 2) classify educational outcomes on the basis of Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy [ 32 ]; and 3) determine the key elements of MI education covered via the FRAMES model.

This study adopted the methodological 5-step framework of Arksey and O’Malley for this scoping review. The five steps are as follows: 1) define our research objectives; 2) identify relevant studies; 3) identify studies based on our selection criteria; 4) chart and analyse the data; and 5) collate, summarize, and disseminate the results.

Eligibility criteria

Relevant peer-reviewed articles on MI studies conducted in medical education settings, published in academic journals only, in the English language, with no time limit imposed on the publication period, were identified. Studies involving nonmedical students as well as grey literature, such as conference proceedings, technical reports, videos, and informal communications, were excluded. Studies in languages other than English were also excluded. The search strategy was guided by the methodology of Aromataris and Riitano [ 33 ]. The Boolean operators and keywords used in this search strategy were ("medical education" OR "medical teaching*" OR "medical graduate*" OR "medical postgraduate*” OR “medical student*”) AND ("motivational interview*" OR "motivational enhanc*" OR "motivational chang*" OR "motivational behavior”) AND ("psycholog*" OR "health*"). The search utilized databases from the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE Complete) and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL Complete) databases via the EBSCOHost database search query, covering all study designs (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, and mixed studies). The protocol was developed a priori before the search process was conducted, including establishing the objectives and eligibility criteria for determining the studies selected. The reference lists of the selected studies were further checked for additional sources, including traditional and systematic reviews. Articles that met the eligibility criteria were selected through a consensus among the authors and were charted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines [ 34 ]. The first author conducted the searches and screened the articles using the search strategy and the inclusion and exclusion criteria stated above. This process resulted in the identification of 59 articles. The decision process resulted in 19 studies for inclusion in this review based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data were extracted and charted by the first author. Notably, the following data were extracted: 1) the study characteristics of the identified articles (publication year, country of origin, type of MI, and medical student phase) and 2) a detailed description of the key findings of the articles (i.e., author, year, objectives, participants, delivery, duration, teaching methods, assessments, and educational outcomes based on Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy). Proforma was developed by all the authors and used to extract and chart the data. The study characteristics are then charted in Table 1 , and detailed descriptions of the key findings of the articles are charted in Table 2 . The other authors assisted in identifying specific data elements to be charted onto Tables 1 and 2 . All the authors contributed to analysing the charted data to ensure the consistency and accuracy of the analysis. The outcomes of educational intervention were classified under the four levels of Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy. Studies classified as Level 3 consists of simulations and observations of behaviours in activities (e.g., roleplay, standardized patients, real patients) after a learning activity such as a workshop. Although Level 3 is usually linked to students applying what they have acquired in training to job settings, our classification extends to controlled settings simulating real-life applications. The most recent search of MEDLINE Complete, CINAHL Complete and Google Scholar was carried out in October 2023.

From an initial pool of 2,019 articles, after removing duplicates and screening for relevance, 19 articles were included in this review. The detailed selection process is illustrated in the PRISMA flow diagram in Fig. 1 .

figure 1

Prism flow diagram

Characteristics of the identified articles

The study characteristics, country of origin, and phase of study are presented in Table 1 . The detailed descriptions of the key findings of these articles (i.e., author, year, objectives, participants, delivery, duration, teaching methods, assessments, and educational outcomes based on Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy) are provided in Table 2 . Most of the studies were published between 2004–2008 and 2019–2023, with each period accounting for 31.5% of the total articles. The majority of MI studies originated from the US (57.8%).

Types and characteristics of MI

With respect to the first research objective, none of the 19 studies in this scoping review conducted conventional MI. Rather, most studies in this scoping review used adapted MI ( n =8; 42.1%) [ 4 , 36 , 38 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 49 ], followed by group MI ( n =7; 36.8%) [ 26 , 29 , 35 , 40 , 45 , 48 , 39 ] and brief MI ( n =4; 21%) [ 37 , 41 , 43 , 50 ].

Adapted motivational interviewing was utilized in 8 studies. This approach includes any adaptations utilized to adjust MI culturally to the situation or facilitated by technology via different types of content and technologies (e.g., computers, smartphones, applications, videos and audio). Additionally, it also includes adaptations made to structured curricula, such as using role plays via standardized patients or real patient interactions to facilitate the learning of MI. Adapted MI was reported in 8 studies. Specifically, 5 studies [ 36 , 38 , 42 , 44 , 47 ] adapted their curricula to teach MI via role playing standardized patients or real patients. Additionally, 3 studies [ 4 , 46 , 49 ] utilized technological adaptations and blended learning (face-to-face and online) to teach motivational interviewing.

In group MI, this approach consists of MI that is adapted for group format and is MI consistent (e.g., applying MI principles, spirit and techniques in its delivery). Group MI was carried out in 7 studies. Two studies [ 26 , 45 ] used training workshops to teach and practice MI in smaller groups. The remaining 5 studies [ 29 , 35 , 39 , 40 , 48 ] used a small group format to teach MI skills consisting of lectures, roleplay, a case-based curriculum and demonstrations.

Brief MI provides brief consultations centred on typically shorter number sessions (e.g., 1--2 sessions) than conventional MI (e.g., 3--4 sessions or more). A brief MI was conducted in 4 studies. Two studies [ 41 , 51 ] delivered a single session of MI training within two hours. Another study [ 50 ] conducted four (10–15 minute) sessions teaching MI, with a total of less than 1 hour of training. Opheim et al. [ 43 ] conducted a four-hour workshop on MI, which is a relatively brief training intervention.

More than half of the studies focused on clinical medical students ( n =10; 52.6%) [ 4 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 49 ], and the least studied was the combination of preclinical and clinical students ( n =2; 10.5%) [ 40 , 47 ]. There was a diverse number of participants, ranging from 17 to 339 students. The median number of participants in these studies was 93. The most common delivery mode identified was face-to-face learning ( n =15; 78.9%) [ 26 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 51 ], followed by blended learning ( n =3; 15.7%) [ 4 , 46 , 49 ], and the least common delivery mode was online learning ( n =1, 5.2%) [ 50 ]. The duration of intervention for brief MI ( n =4; 21.0%) [ 37 , 41 , 43 , 50 ] ranged from 10 minutes to 2 hours per session. The duration of adapted MI ( n =8; 42.1%) [ 4 , 36 , 38 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 49 ] and group MI ( n =7; 36.8%) [ 26 , 29 , 35 , 40 , 39 , 45 , 48 ] ranged from 3 hours to 12 hours. The teaching methods include workshops, lectures, videos, role plays, demonstrations, interviews, interactive exercises, small and large group activities, simulated patients, and online forums.

Classifying educational outcomes based on Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy

With respect to the second research objective (i.e., classifying educational outcomes on the basis of Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy [ 32 ]), all 19 studies [ 4 , 26 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] were categorized at Kirkpatrick’s Level 2 (knowledge/skills/attitudes). This is followed by 16 out of 19 studies [ 4 , 26 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] categorized at Kirkpatrick’s Level 1. Only 4 out of 19 studies [ 35 , 38 , 41 , 47 ] are categorized at Kirkpatrick’s Level 3 (Behaviour). One of the studies [ 38 ] compared the effectiveness of standardized patients versus role plays from colleagues and reported that both were equally effective for teaching basic MI skills among medical students. The students were evaluated in a simulated environment and demonstrated their MI skills in terms of student roleplay or standardized patients. The study reported that standardized patient role play is as effective as student role play in teaching basic MI skills. The sessions focused on demonstrating skills in a simulated setting, suggesting that the student’s behaviour (i.e., adherence to MI skills) was evaluated and improved via the educational intervention. In another study, Bell et al. [ 35 ] investigated the use of a curriculum to teach medical students the principles of MI to increase their knowledge, skills and confidence in counselling patients with the aim of health behaviour change. The research indicated that video-recorded interactions between students and patients enabled students to effectively apply MI skills to real-life patients. None of the studies included reported outcomes at Level 4 (results).

Key elements of the reported FRAMES model and assessment methods used

With respect to the third research objective, all 6 elements in the FRAMES model were covered in 9 out of 19 studies [ 4 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 44 , 45 , 51 ], 5 elements were identified in another 4 studies [ 26 , 41 , 48 , 49 ], and 4 elements were identified in 4 studies [ 42 , 43 , 46 , 47 ]. The most reported element in all 19 studies was responsibility and advice ( n =19; 100%), and the least reported element was self-efficacy in only 12 studies ( n =12; 63.1%) [ 4 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 51 ]. Figure 2 shows additional details on the important elements present in the MI interventions.

figure 2

Important elements of MI interventions ( n  = 19) identified as “reported” via the FRAMES model

The primary assessment method used across the studies was the use of pre- and posttest surveys, which are used to measure knowledge ( n =10, 52.6%), skills ( n =5, 26.3%) and attitudes ( n =3, 15.8%) pertaining to MI. Moreover, the specific instruments employed for focused assessments were (1) MITI to measure fidelity of MI in 5 out of 19 studies ( n =5, 26.3%), (2) Video Assessment of Simulated Encounters (VASE-R) to measure MI skills in 2 out of 19 ( n =2, 10.5%) (3) Behaviour Change Counselling Index (BECCI) to measure practitioner’s skill and competence in delivering effective MI in 2 studies out of 19 ( n =2, 10.5%), (4) Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to measure clinical competence in 2 studies out of 19 ( n =2, 10.5%), (5) Motivational Interviewing Knowledge and Attitudes Test (MIKAT) to measure the practitioner’s knowledge and attitude pertaining to MI in 1 study out of 19 ( n =1, 5.2%), (6) Motivational interviewing skill code (MISC) to measure adherence to MI in 1 study out of 19 ( n =1, 5.2%), (7) the Calgary-Cambridge Observation Guide (C-CG) to measure communication skills between practitioners and patients was used in 1 study out of 19 ( n =1, 5.2%), (8) Motivational interviewing confidence scale (MICS) to measure confidence in health behaviour change dialogues in 1 study out of 19 ( n =1, 5.2%) and (8) the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) to measure empathy in patient care among health practitioners in 1 study out of 19 ( n =1, 5.2%).

Our scoping review sheds light on the current trends and key findings to determine the types of MI education programs in medical schools, the delivery modalities and teaching methods used, classify educational outcomes on based on Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy [ 32 ] and determine the key elements of MI education covered via the FRAMES model. First, there appears to be a bimodal distribution of most articles published between the two time periods of 2004--2008 and 2019--2023. Second, all the studies included in this review did not use conventional MI but instead utilized a variety of MI adaptation techniques. Third, most studies used face-to-face training in MI, whereas only one study used online delivery. Fourth, most studies have used a variety of interactive experiences to teach MI. Next, all studies reported outcomes at Kirkpatrick’s Level 2, but only 4 studies reported outcomes at Kirkpatrick’s Level 3. Finally, the most covered elements of MI training in these studies were responsibility and advice ( n = 19; 100%), and the least covered element in MI training was self-efficacy ( n = 12; 63.1%) [ 4 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 51 ]. This review expands on the evidence of MI interventions among medical schools. The results of our findings generally suggest that MI can be effectively taught in medical schools. Furthermore, we have provided several recommendations for further research to improve the implementation of MI in medical schools.

There appears to be a bimodal distribution of published articles between the two time periods, i.e., between 2004 and 2008 and between 2019 and 2023. A decline in the number of articles published was observed between 2009 and 2019. This decline could be due to the shift in the applications of MI beyond treating addictive behaviours to include a broad range of other behavioural conditions [ 52 ], such as its expanded applications in school education [ 53 , 54 , 55 ], lifestyle coaching [ 56 , 57 , 58 ], probation and parole [ 59 , 60 ] and digital health care and telemedicine [ 61 , 62 ]. From 2019 onwards, however, there was an increasing trend in the number of published articles on MI training for medical students. This could be attributed to the MI Network of Trainers (MINT) making it mandatory to attend MI training during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide virtual training in 2020 and 2021 [ 52 ], which has facilitated remote participation.

Types of MI education programs in medical schools

All the studies included in this review did not use conventional MI but utilized a variety of MI adaptation techniques. Most studies [ 4 , 36 , 38 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 49 ] have used adapted MI to conduct their MI training, possibly because of the need to tailor MI programs to fit medical school curricula. Medical students have been linked to extensive academic responsibilities and clinical rotations [ 63 ], contributing to this adaptation of MI. In fact, the lack of harmonization of training methods among medical schools has led to challenges in understanding the optimal approach to teach MI among medical students [ 31 ]. Furthermore, there is no consensus on the standard dose of training in MI that is adequate or mandatory for learners to acquire sufficient skilfulness in the practice of MI [ 9 ]. Moreover, medical schools have time constraints and limited MI teaching opportunities because of their hectic medical curriculum schedules [ 41 ]. This may lead to a variety of adaptations of MI, as noted in this review. Future research can focus on addressing the lack of harmonization in MI training methods and emphasize building and employing standardized MI training with adequate dosing across medical schools.

Delivery modalities and teaching methods used

In the present review, the delivery modalities used to train medical students in MI varied across the studies. Most studies [ 26 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 51 ] have focused on delivering face-to-face training on MI to clinical medical students. This aligns with the current literature, which suggests that MI is a complex communication skill [ 57 ] and is reported to be taught more effectively in face-to-face sessions [ 64 ]. In this review, only one study [ 50 ] used a fully online approach to teach MI to medical students. A systemic study suggested that for an online MI intervention to be effective, it requires significant emphasis on fidelity and training procedures [ 65 ]. In a recent comparative study, Schaper et al. [ 66 ] reported similar effects of training MI among general practitioners in both online and face-to-face training in MI skills and spirit. Future studies could focus on the implementation of online versus face-to-face training for medical students with an emphasis on fidelity and training procedures for MI.

A large proportion of the studies in this review report the use of a variety of teaching approaches (e.g., workshops, role-play, standardized patients, and small and large group sessions) to teach MI. This aligns with Kolb’s experiential learning cycle [ 67 ], where the process of learning occurs when knowledge is formed via the transformation of experience. This model is guided by four phases of the learning process: concrete experience (having an experience), reflective observation (reflecting on an experience), abstract conceptualization (learning from the experience), and active experimentation (experimenting what you have learned). Medical students who are given the opportunity to engage in Kolb’s learning cycle [ 67 ] via interactive activities, reflection and simulated or real-life settings are likely to develop good MI skills. Future research should underpin educational theories into MI training by implementing structured reflective exercises in MI education.

Educational outcomes based on Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy

Our review shows that all studies reported outcomes at Kirkpatrick’s Level 2, suggesting that medical students have acquired the intended knowledge, skills, and attitudes. There are only 4 studies that reported outcomes at Kirkpatrick’s Level 3, which evaluates the degree to which the students apply their learning to simulated or real-world settings. The first 3 studies [ 38 , 41 , 47 ] showed their improvement in behaviour by showing their learned skills in realistic settings, which included observing students’ behaviour in standardized patients or real patients. The last study [ 35 ] revealed improvements in the MI skills of real patients in diverse settings, such as traditional health behaviour interventions, such as alcohol, tobacco and weight loss interventions. Future studies should include longitudinal evaluations of the effectiveness of MI skills.

Key elements of MI education covered via the FRAMES model

According to the FRAMES model [ 68 ], all included studies reported the elements of responsibility and advice ( n =19; 100%) in the training of MI. The element responsibility is the shared responsibility of the learner’s growth by the learner and teacher. This could be attributed to the move towards competency-based medical education, which emphasizes shared responsibility among students while incorporating student-centric learning techniques and formative assessment as a vital element of the learning process [ 69 ]. In other words, the high reporting of ‘responsibility’ and ‘advice’ suggest that the present MI training significantly emphasizes medical students taking ownership of their learning and decision-making processes (‘responsibility’). Moreover, from a patient education perspective, empowering patients to take ownership of their health [ 70 ] and effectively guiding patients toward positive behavioural changes through good advice in a nonconfrontational approach is a basic tenet of MI (‘advice’).

The least reported element found in training for MI in our included studies [ 4 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 51 ] was self-efficacy. This may be due to MI training focusing less on self-efficacy and instead emphasizing other elements, such as empathy, open-ended questioning and reflective listening. An educational theory that is linked to the element of self-efficacy is social cognitive theory. Social cognitive theory can be defined as a person’s belief in their ability to determine the behaviours required to reach their desired goals and their perceptions of their ability and skills to manage their environment [ 71 , 72 ]. Continued research into integrating social cognitive theory into MI training could assist practitioners in comprehending the role and importance of self-efficacy in behaviour change and reflective practice. The lower reporting of ‘self-efficacy’ might also indicate a potential gap in MI training. Self-efficacy is essential because it relates to the practitioner’s confidence in their ability to effectively implement MI techniques and facilitate behaviour change in patients. Addressing this gap in future research could lead to more competent and confident practitioners who are better equipped to address challenging patient interactions and support positive health outcomes. Future studies can also utilize FRAMES to guide research design and interventions and investigate which aspects of FRAMES in the training of MI are most effective within the limited time frame of medical curricula.

Limitations

This scoping review is subject to several limitations. We included only English-language studies in which medical students were the target participants. We did not include articles that are categorized as grey literature or other forms of nonpeer review articles, which might have resulted in biased outcomes. Most of the studies focused on evaluating learner knowledge and skills in MI, which might have limited the practical applications of MI to real patients. The first author conducted the search and screening of the articles. This may lead to selection bias and reduce the reliability of the study selection process. The protocol for this review was developed before the search was initiated but was not registered or published online, which increases the risk of selective reporting. The database search was limited to MEDLINE Complete and CINAHL Complete, which were accessed via EBSCOhost and the search engine Google Scholar. Although a comprehensive search was conducted, other databases that were relevant to the review, such as the PsycINFO and ERIC databases, were not included, potentially resulting in missing relevant articles. Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy was utilized to assess educational outcomes in this review. This approach may neglect other core aspects of educational interventions. Furthermore, although we have extensively searched various countries, most of the studies reported are from the USA ( n =11; 57.8%) or Germany ( n =4; 21.0%). A lack of diversity among studies in other regions may lead to biased outcomes.

Based on our review, the findings suggest that motivational interviewing can be taught effectively in medical schools via adaptations of MI and a variety of teaching approaches. However, there is a need for further research investigating standardized MI training across medical schools, the adequate dose for training in MI and the implementation of reflective practices that are supported by educational learning theories. Furthermore, longitudinal studies can assess the effectiveness of MI. Future studies may benefit from exploring and better understanding the relationship between MI and self-efficacy in their MI interventions. The FRAMES model can be used to guide research and explore which aspects of FRAMES are optimally delivered within the limited time frame of medical curricula.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

Abbreviations

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Behaviour Change Counselling Index

Brief motivational interviewing

Course Experience Questionnaire

Calgary-Cambridge Observation Guide

Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature

Feedback, Responsibility, Advice, Menu of Options, Empathy, Self-Efficacy

Human immunodeficiency virus

Helpful response questionnaire

Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy

Large Group Activities

Learning Outcomes Questionnaire

Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online

  • Motivational interviewing

Motivational Interviewing Confidence Scale

Motivational Interviewing Knowledge and Attitudes Test

Motivational interviewing network of trainers

Motivational interviewing skill code

Motivational interviewing treatment integrity

Mechanisms of Motivational Interview

O = open-ended questions, A = affirmations, R = reflections, and S = summaries to promote active listening

Objective Structured Clinical Examination

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analysis extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines

Small Group Activities

Simulated Patient

Tabacco Intervention Basic Skills

Theory of Planned Behaviour

Video Assessment of the Simulated Encounter

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Additionally, the authors would like to thank Universiti Malaysia Sarawak for the support provided for this publication.

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Leonard Yik Chuan Lei, Keng Sheng Chew, Chee Shee Chai & Yoke Yong Chen

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LLYC, the first author, made significant contributions to developing the idea, the searches, conducting analysis and was responsible for drafting the manuscript. KSC and CYY contributed significantly to the conceptualization, alignment and reviewing of the manuscript. KSC and CYY and CCS participated in the analysis and writing of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Lei, L., Chew, K., Chai, C. et al. Evidence for motivational interviewing in educational settings among medical schools: a scoping review. BMC Med Educ 24 , 856 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05845-w

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05845-w

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  • Scoping review
  • Motivational behaviour
  • Motivational change
  • Motivational enhancement
  • Medical education
  • Medical teaching

BMC Medical Education

ISSN: 1472-6920

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Forget Apple, the biggest loser in the Google search ruling could be Mozilla and its Firefox web browser

research article search engine

“ Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”

With those words from United States District judge Amit Mehta on Monday, Google suffered a historic antitrust case loss at the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice. Mehta, the judge presiding over the trial, ruled that the tech giant has illegally maintained a monopoly through the billions of dollars in annual payments it makes to partners to secure the default search engine position on popular web browsers and mobile phones. With those dominant positions locked in, the argument goes, other competitors in the search and search advertising businesses have no chance of competing effectively.

The ruling immediately prompted speculation about the impact to Apple , which receives as much as $20 billion from Google every year in exchange for putting the search engine front and center on its iPhones via the Apple Safari web browser.

But while Apple would certainly take a big hit if the ruling is upheld, Apple is a large, diversified company with many sources of revenue. That’s not the case for another partner of Google’s located in the fallout zone of Monday’s ruling: Mozilla, the nonprofit tech org that makes the Firefox web browser.

When users of Firefox type a search term into the browser, the query is automatically routed to Google’s search engine. The arrangement is vital for Mozilla. According to the Mozilla Foundation’s 2021–2022 financial statement, which is the most recent one published, $510 million out of its $593 million in revenue came courtesy of Google’s search payments.

If that $510 million were to go away entirely, Mozilla would have a serious problem on its hands.

Mozilla is putting on a brave face for now, and not directly addressing the existential threat that the ruling appears to pose.

“Mozilla has always championed competition and choice online, particularly in search,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune on Monday. “We’re closely reviewing the court’s decision, considering its potential impact on Mozilla and how we can positively influence the next steps… Firefox continues to offer a range of search options, and we remain committed to serving our users’ preferences while fostering a competitive market.”

For Mozilla, which first rose to prominence in the late 1990s as a community-driven project to challenge Microsoft’s stranglehold on the web browser market via Internet Explorer, Monday’s ruling is the latest setback in a quest to find relevance in a market dominated by Big Tech companies. Mozilla laid off about 60 staffers earlier this year and saw its CEO step down.

You can be sure that critics of the judge’s ruling will highlight the potentially devastating impact on Mozilla to make the case that the antitrust ruling will have unintended consequences on smaller tech industry players. Others might argue that Mozilla hasn’t done enough with those spoils to differentiate its Firefox browser, or that it could cut a deal with another search engine like Bing if its Google deal goes away completely.

Either way, Google will appeal the suit, so a long battle may ensue. And there’s another big domino to fall: The judge will rule on the remedy or remedies—essentially, the business-model penalties—that Google will face.

Evercore ISI research analyst Mark Mahoney ticked them off in a research note on Monday evening:

“The exact remedy is key, and so far, it’s hard to pick a winning horse among a range of outcomes,” he wrote. “i) forbidding payment from Google altogether, ii) a cap on the amount of distribution agreement fees, iii) pushing Apple to implement a “choice screen”, or iv) something else? In any case, we expect at least another 6 months to a year before we would know the exact remedies (or longer if the judge decides to stay the remedies phase pending GOOG’s appeal).”

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