AI Research Tools: Perplexity, Research Rabbit & More

Tool Overview

Each research tool has strengths. Use the right tool for the right task:

Perplexity (Free + Premium Education)

An AI-powered search engine that provides answers with cited, clickable sources.

Best For

• Quick literature discovery
• Understanding the state of the art on any topic
• Getting cited answers you can verify

How to Use

1. Go to perplexity.ai
2. Type your research question in plain English
3. Perplexity searches the web and provides a cited answer
4. Click on sources to verify and read the original papers

Research Rabbit

A free tool that discovers related papers through citation mapping.

Best For

• Discovering papers you didn't know existed
• Mapping the citation network around a key paper
• Finding the most influential papers in a field

How to Use

1. Go to researchrabbit.ai and create a free account
2. Add a paper you already know (by title, DOI, or URL)
3. Research Rabbit shows related papers via citation connections
4. Explore the visual map to find clusters of related work
5. Click "Show all similar works" to grow the network

Brave Search

An ad-free, privacy-focused search engine. Good for finding resources without tracking.

Best For

• Quick, clean search results without ads
• Academic and technical searches
• Finding PDFs and open-access papers

How to Use

1. Go to search.brave.com
2. Search the exact paper title — authors often host PDFs on ResearchGate or university sites
3. Filter to PDF results by adding filetype:pdf to your query

Recommended Workflow

1. Start with Perplexity — Get an overview of your topic with cited sources
2. Use Research Rabbit — Take the best papers and map their citation networks
3. Use sciSpace — Deep-dive into specific papers you don't fully understand
4. Use Brave Search — Find open-access versions of paywalled papers
5. Use DeepSeek — Generate summaries and analysis of your collected literature

Worked Example: Researching "Mobile Money & Small Businesses"

Follow this live example from topic to reference list:

1. Perplexity: Ask "What is the state of research on mobile money adoption by small businesses in sub-Saharan Africa?" — set Focus to Academic. Copy the 5 cited sources it returns.
2. Research Rabbit: Paste the 3 strongest sources as seeds. Open the resulting map and add the 4 most-cited neighboring papers to your list.
3. sciSpace: Open the most technical paper and click Explain on the methodology section to understand its model.
4. Brave Search: For any paywalled paper, search "exact paper title" filetype:pdf to find an open copy on a university repository.
5. DeepSeek: Paste the abstracts of your 10 shortlisted papers and ask: "Summarize these as a themed literature overview with citations."
6. Google Scholar: Verify each citation and click Cited by to walk forward to the newest work.

Google Scholar: The Verification Backbone

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) is where every source you find with AI tools gets verified:

• Search the exact title to confirm the paper exists and get its canonical citation
• Click "Cited by" to walk forward to newer work that cites it
• Click "Related articles" to find siblings you didn't know existed
• Create a search alert for your topic so new papers email you automatically

sciSpace

Interact with research papers — ask questions, get explanations, find related work.

Best For

• Understanding complex papers
• Getting plain-language explanations of technical content
• Finding related papers

How to Use

1. Go to scispace.com and search for a paper
2. Click "Ask" on any paper to ask questions about its content
3. Select a highlighted section and click "Explain" for a plain-English version
4. Install the Chrome extension to add an "Explain" button to papers anywhere on the web

DeepSeek

A powerful AI model with strong technical and scientific capabilities. Free to use.

Best For

• Analyzing technical content
• Generating research summaries
• Code analysis and explanation

Full Tool Comparison Table

When to Use Which (Quick Rules)

• Don't know the field? → Perplexity (Academic focus) first
• Found one great paper? → Research Rabbit to expand it
• Paper too technical? → sciSpace "Explain" section by section
• Paper is paywalled? → Brave Search filetype:pdf for an open copy
• Need a comparison summary? → DeepSeek on your collected PDFs
• Verify a citation? → Google Scholar "Cited by"

Integrating Tools with Your Literature Review

1. Run Perplexity to draft a state of the art paragraph
2. Map the citations with Research Rabbit to find anchor papers
3. Read the top 5 papers fully in sciSpace
4. Log every source in a tracking sheet (title, theme, citation, notes)
5. Use DeepSeek to draft your thematic synthesis chapter

Niche Tools Worth Knowing: Connected Papers & Litmaps

Two more free tools complement the core set:

Combining Tools with AI Writing Assistants

Research tools find sources; writing assistants turn them into prose. The full pipeline:

1. Perplexity + Research Rabbit → curated paper list
2. sciSpace → plain-English understanding of each paper
3. Brave Search → free full-text PDFs
4. ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini → draft the literature review section, feeding it the PDFs
5. Google Scholar → verify every citation before it goes in

Never paste AI-drafted claims without checking the source citation exists — this is the single biggest integrity risk with AI-assisted research.

Edge Cases: When the Tools Fall Short

• Very new or very niche topics — Research Rabbit and Connected Papers return thin results because few papers cite them yet. Fall back to Google Scholar keyword search + "Cited by".
• Non-English literature — Perplexity can translate, but indexing varies; search the native-language terms directly in Brave and Google Scholar.
• Paywalled everything — Before paying: check Unpaywall (browser extension), the author's ResearchGate page, and your KNUST library proxy.
• Conflicting AI answers — when Perplexity and DeepSeek disagree, the paper itself is the arbiter — read the primary source, not the summaries.
• Gray literature (reports, theses, white papers) — none of the AI tools index it well. Use Google Scholar's "Includes citations" and Brave with filetype:pdf.

Ready-to-Use Tool Prompts

Prompt 1: Perplexity State-of-the-Art

Map the current research landscape on [TOPIC]. Identify:
1. The 5 most-cited seminal papers
2. 3 recent (last 3 years) high-impact studies
3. The main theoretical frameworks used
4. Any systematic reviews or meta-analyses
Cite every claim with a source URL.

Prompt 2: Research Rabbit Expansion Plan

I have these seed papers: [LIST]. In Research Rabbit, map their
citation network. Then find:
- 5 papers that cite ALL my seeds (common descendants)
- 5 papers my seeds all cite (common ancestors)
- The 3 most influential papers in the resulting network
Explain why each matters for a literature review.

Prompt 3: sciSpace Deep-Read

Using this paper in sciSpace [PAPER], explain in plain English:
1. The research question and hypothesis
2. The methodology — sample, design, measures
3. The key findings and effect sizes
4. Three limitations
5. How this relates to my topic: [TOPIC]

Prompt 4: Brave PDF Hunter

Search Brave for open-access PDFs of these paywalled papers:
[LIST]. For each, find: a free PDF link, the authors' institutional
repository, and any preprint (arXiv, SSRN, ResearchGate) version.

The Complete Research Tools Checklist

• Account set up — Research Rabbit and sciSpace accounts created (free)
• Perplexity Focus — Academic mode used for discovery
• Seed papers ready — 2–3 known papers to start the network
• Citation map done — common ancestors and descendants identified
• Anchor papers found — most influential papers shortlisted
• Top 5 read — full-text reading done in sciSpace
• Paywalled papers rescued — Brave Search PDF hunting completed
• Summaries drafted — DeepSeek synthesis of collected literature
• Research diary kept — tools, queries, and result counts logged
• Citations verified — Google Scholar cross-check on every source
• Thematic clusters identified — papers grouped by theme
• Reference list started — APA 7th, with DOIs/URLs

Troubleshooting FAQ

• "Perplexity's sources look fake" — Always click through to the source URL; if the page is gone, drop the claim.
• "Research Rabbit can't find my paper" — Try adding it by DOI or a Google Scholar link instead of the title.
• "sciSpace has no explanation for my section" — Paste the paragraph directly into the sciSpace "Ask" box instead.
• "The paywalled paper has no free PDF" — Use your KNUST library proxy for institutional access before paying.
• "Too many papers to read" — Rank by citation count, then read only the top 10 fully.
• "I need a systematic review, not a map" — Switch to Elicit (elicit.org) to extract structured data across 50+ papers.
• "DeepSeek has no citations" — Feed it your collected PDFs and demand page references in the output.
• "I'm worried about sharing my search history" — Brave Search does not track you, and Perplexity lets you switch to "no saving" mode; keep sensitive preliminary searches on Brave, then move to AI tools once you have the topic.
• "My references are a mess" — Install the Zotero browser extension and click "save" on every paper you keep; it stores the citation and full-text link automatically, ready to export in APA.
• "I keep losing papers I found" — Use a tool each (research diary or Zotero collection) to save every paper in the moment you find it — never "I'll bookmark it later."
• "How do I cite something I found with an AI tool?" — You cite the paper, never the AI. The tools are search aids; your reference list cites the sources they surfaced, exactly as if you found them by hand.

Mini Systematic-Review Workflow (Elicit + sciSpace)

When you need to compare dozens of papers on the same variables (sample sizes, methods, findings), a manual read is too slow. Use this structured workflow:

1. Elicit (elicit.org): paste your research question. Elicit returns papers AND extracts data into a sortable table — participants, sample size, effect sizes, findings.
2. Screen titles: filter the table to a shortlist of 20–30 relevant studies.
3. Verify each row: open the paper in sciSpace to confirm the extracted numbers against the actual text.
4. Export: pull the table into a spreadsheet — it becomes your evidence matrix for the results chapter.
5. Draft synthesis: feed the matrix to DeepSeek: "Summarize these 25 studies by theme, noting sample sizes and effect directions."

The 20-Minute Research Session

When time is tight, run this fixed routine — every step is deliberate, none is wasted:

1. 0–3 min: Perplexity (Academic focus) — "map the state of the art on [TOPIC]".
2. 3–8 min: Research Rabbit — paste the 2 best sources as seeds, screenshot the map.
3. 8–12 min: Brave Search — hunt open PDFs for the 3 most important papers.
4. 12–17 min: sciSpace — read the methodology of the hardest paper with "Explain".
5. 17–20 min: Log everything in your research diary + Zotero; save the PDFs.

Twenty focused minutes a day beats a five-hour weekend marathon — and the diary gives you a defensible methodology trail.

Extra Resources

• connectedpapers.com — instant visual graph of similar papers
• litmaps.com — citation tracking with weekly alerts
• elicit.org — extract structured data from 50+ papers for systematic reviews
• scholar.google.com — "Cited by" chains and topic alerts
• KNUST Library Portal — free institutional access to Scopus and Web of Science with your student login
• Zotero (zotero.org) — free reference manager that saves citations as you browse
• unpaywall.org — browser extension that finds legal open-access PDFs automatically
• arxiv.org — free preprint server for physics, CS, and engineering papers (often months before the journal version)