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10 Best Apps for PhD Students | 2024

Best Mobile Applications for Researchers

There are millions of mobile applications available in the Android play store, but still, there are very few useful apps only available for researchers. We analyzed more than 50 applications and identified the 10 most appropriate applications for researchers based on daily activities like research collaboration, data collection, document reading, updating real-world issues related to their domain, resource gathering, daily schedule maintenance, and journal reading. This post gives an explanation to use the top 10 Useful Mobile Apps software 2024 for PhD Scholars that are really the best apps for PhD Students.

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose   – Zora Neale Hurston

10 Best Android Apps for PhD Students

Here are 10 of the best Android apps that can be extremely helpful for graduate students in their academic pursuits. I’ll also provide some insights on how these apps can benefit you.

• These apps are essential for creating, editing, and presenting documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
• Store and sync your documents, making them accessible from any device. Collaboration features are a plus for group projects.
• A reference manager and academic social network. It helps you organize your research, collaborate with peers, and discover the latest research.
• An excellent note-taking app that allows you to capture and organize ideas, research notes, and web clippings.
• Another robust reference manager that simplifies the process of collecting, organizing, and citing research materials.
• Enhance your writing by checking grammar, spelling, and style. It’s an indispensable tool for proofreading.
• Manage your projects and tasks effectively. Great for keeping track of deadlines and staying organized.
• Boost your productivity by using the Pomodoro technique. Stay focused and limit distractions during study sessions.
• Access a wide range of educational content in various subjects, making it a great resource for learning beyond your coursework.
• Turn your smartphone into a portable scanner. Scan and digitize documents, notes, and books for easy reference.

10 Best iOS Apps for PhD Graduate Students

Here are 10 iOS apps that can be incredibly helpful for graduate students:

• An excellent note-taking app that allows you to write, draw, and annotate PDFs.
• A reference management tool that helps you organize and cite your research materials.
• A writing assistant can help you improve the clarity and correctness of your writing.
• Another powerful reference manager with a mobile app for on-the-go access to your research library.
• A versatile note-taking app that syncs across devices and allows you to organize your thoughts and research.
• If you struggle with staying focused, this app helps you stay on track by growing virtual trees when you avoid your phone.
• A comprehensive digital notebook that’s great for organizing your research notes.
• Access a vast database of scholarly articles and research papers.
• A project management app that can help you organize your tasks and deadlines.
• If your research involves multiple languages, this app can help you learn and practice them.

These apps cover a range of functions, from note-taking and reference management to productivity and language learning. They can be valuable tools for graduate students in various disciplines.

Best Apps for PhD Students

1. mendeley.

What is the Mendeley App?

Mendeley is a free reference manager and PDF reader crafted especially for researchers. It helps you to organize your literature in a proper manner so you could effectively use it during your thesis writing or dissertation. Mendeley is available in both mobile and desktop applications, It will help you to read your collected articles wherever you go.  

How to Use it for Research?

• Create a free account at www.mendeley.com and download a desktop version in your system.
• Add all your Journals , Magazines, Book Chapters, Thesis , and other materials in an organized manner.
• Segregate the files based on year, author, publication, and domain using TAG option.
• Download the Mendeley mobile application and log in with the same account.
• Allow the application to synchronize with your account.
• Now you can see all the files that you saved on your desktop that will appear in the mobile application.

Organizing Resources is the first step towards the solution

2. Flipboard

What is Flipboard App?

Flipboard is the most popular mobile application used by millions of people every day, It helps you to keep yourself updated with your domain-related information and also read the daily news, blog posts, and trending topics all together in one place. Flipboard allows the user to collect posts based on their passion and interest. The powerful and smooth user interface gives a pleasant feel to reading more articles.  

• Download the Flipboard mobile application and create your account.
• Flipboard will give a virtual tour to learn the basic features of the application.
• Click  “WHAT’S YOUR PASSION?” Next to the Flipboard icon.
• Search for your domain. Ex: Machine Learning.
• It will show many sub-categories inside the topic. Based on your requirement personalize the magazine. That’s it!
• Keep up with the news related to your domain every day with The Daily Edition.

Don’t be outdated, Because you are working for the future!

3. Researcher

What is a Researcher App?

Researcher is a free journal-finding mobile application that helps you to read new journal papers every day that are relevant to your research. It is the most popular mobile application used by more than 3 million scientists and researchers to keep themselves updated with the latest academic literature.

• Download Researhcer mobile application on your mobile.
• Open and search for your required journal in the search bar.
• You can follow any number of journals and you can read new articles as well.

4. Plagiarism Checker

What is Plagiarism Checker App?

Plagiarism Checker is a free application that works with Plagiarisma.net. It will detect duplicate content in your papers from more than five popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, Babylon, Google Scholar, and Google Books.

• Download Plagiarism Checker mobile application.
• No need for registration so you can directly go into the app.
• Scan your essay, article, term paper, or dissertation with a single tap of your smartphone.
• It also has voice support and direct URL support.
• Save results to HTML, PDF, EPUB. That’s it!

5. Google Keep

What is Google Keep App?

Google Keep is a free remainder application from Google LLC, It helps researchers quickly capture what’s on their mind and get a reminder later at the right place or time. 

• Download Google Keep mobile application.
• Log in with your Google account.
• Record a voice memo and Keep will transcribe it so you can find it later.
• Take quick notes.
• Schedule your daily plan and enable the remainder.
• Take handwritten notes.
• Capture important results using the camera and save them.
• Access it when you working on a desktop or laptop as well.

6. Curiosity

What is Curiosity App?

Curiosity is a very popular mobile application from curiosity.com, it helps researchers to learn new scientific inventions in a more detailed way with videos.

How to Use it for Research? 

• Download the Curiosity mobile application.
• Create an account to access the app.
• Read inspiring articles from your topics.
• Watch smart videos from millions of creators.
• Personalize your favorites, then follow your favorite categories. 

7. Paperity

What is Paperity App?

Paperity is a free mobile application for researchers from www.paperity.org. It helps you to aggregate various open-access journals through your mobile.

• Download Paperity mobile application.
• Browse the most recent articles.
• Browse journals and their Tables of Contents of Open Access papers.
•  Search papers and their full text for specific keywords, phrases, authors, publication dates, languages, and countries of origin. 
• View and read full-text PDFs of more than one million articles. All for FREE!

What is Slack App?

Are you doing Collaborative Research? Then Try this useful mobile application Slack it brings team communication and collaboration into one place so you can get more work done, whether you belong to a small lab or doing collaborative research with researchers from another part of the world. Make effective conversations on different topics using #TAG. 

• Download Slack mobile application.
• Include your lab members using their Email-ID.
• Communicate with your lab mates and organize your conversations by topics, projects, or anything else that matters to your work.
• Message or call any person or group within your team.
• Integrate into your workflow, the tools, and services you already use including Google Drive, Salesforce, Dropbox, Asana, Twitter, and Zendesk.
• Customize your notifications so you stay focused on what matters.

What is Dropbox?

Dropbox is a free another free mobile application for researchers to make creative collaboration space, store all files together in one central place, and safely sync them across all your devices.

• Download Dropbox  mobile application.
• Create a Dropbox account and choose a free version. (Limited space only but more than enough for document files).
•  Work on files with others through shared folders.
• Use the document scanner to turn receipts, whiteboards, and notes into PDFs.
• Comment on files to share feedback with your team
• Sync, share, and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

10. Camscanner

What is Camescanner App?

Camescanner is a mobile document scanning and sharing application, It helps you to scan, store, sync and collaborate on various contents across smartphones, iPads, tablets and computers.

• Download the Camscanner application and Create an account.
• Use your mobile camera to scan and digitize all kinds of paper documents.
• Using smart cropping and auto-enhancing ensures the texts and graphics in scanned documents.
• Easily share documents in PDF or JPEG format with friends in various ways.
• Instantly print out any documents in CamScanner with a nearby printer via AirPrint.

Hope, this article would help you to know about the 10 Best Apps for PhD Students.

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How to Check Scopus Indexed Journals 2024

List of open access sci journals in computer science, 24 best online plagiarism checker free – 2024.

[…] 10 Useful Apps for PhD Scholars […]

[…] Earth Institute Postdoctoral Research program provides innovative postdoctoral scholars with the opportunity to build a foundation in one of the […]

[…] tool also available as mobile applications in Android and iOS […]

[…] 10 Useful Apps for PhD Scholars | 2020 […]

Hello, I loved this article! All of your resources listed here are spot on, thank you for taking the time to write this. I sent you an email about a tool we created by (a team of researchers) that is free for PHD and graduate students to use. We started this no-code app to help our own academic research students and faculty, and would love to help more people. Thanks again! – Pathverse Team

Mendeley App was removed in 2021 – the mobile web version is sadly close to unusable. If anybody finds a proper workaround or a usable third party app, please include that in the article.

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R Discovery: Academic Research 4+

Access 100m+ research papers, cactus communications private limited, designed for ipad.

• 4.8 • 255 Ratings

Screenshots

Description.

R Discovery is a free app for students and researchers to find and read research papers. This literature search and reading app for researchers curates an academic reading library based on your interests so you stay updated on latest academic research with access to scholarly articles, scientific journals, open access articles, and peer reviewed articles. With R Discovery, you can do a literature search like on Google Scholar, refseek, Research Gate, or Academia.edu, or let our AI generate separate feeds of relevant scholarly articles for you. We search, you read. It’s that simple! R Discovery gives you access to: • 250M+ Research articles (journal articles, clinical trials, conference papers & more) • 40M+ Open access articles (world’s largest OA journal articles library) • 3M+ Preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv & other preprint servers • 9.5M+ Research topics • 14M+ Authors • 32K+ Academic journals • 100K+ Universities & Institutions • Content from Microsoft Academic, PubMed, PubMed Central, CrossRef, Unpaywall, OpenAlex, etc. See how R Discovery’s personalized research reading feed and unique features save time and improve your literature reading! Largest repository of open access articles Access the largest library of open access journal articles and preprints on mobile, with 40M+ open access articles from top publishers and global research databases. Unlock full-text papers with institutional access Use your university credentials to log in and access paywalled journal articles for your thesis research with our GetFTR & Libkey integrations. Most reliable, cleanest research database Read science articles from the most trustworthy global research paper database, cleaned to remove duplication, eliminate ambiguities in journal, publisher, author names, and exclude predatory content. Curated research feeds Benefit from our AI-curated research feeds dedicated to the Top 100 papers, open access articles, preprints, paywalled papers, journal feeds, etc. Coming up: New feeds on patents, conferences & seminars. Reading lists from the research community Access and share research recommendations by a community of peers in your field; these lists allow for quick, easy, relevant research discovery and better literature reading. Collaborative reading lists Save, view, and share your reading lists with co-researchers on your study. Easy knowledge sharing via our premium collaborative reading list feature helps accelerate innovation; so invite your peers to join now. Audio streaming Amplify your reading with audio listening for library lists, research paper titles & abstracts. This Prime feature lets you create audio playlists and delve into research articles on the go. Research paper translation Read research articles in your own language with our academic translation Prime feature. Choose a paper to read and click on the translate option to read in your chosen language. Auto sync library with Zotero, Mendeley Our auto sync Prime feature integrates your research paper topics and research library with Mendeley, Zotero, updating it every time you save or remove papers. Coming up: Endnote integrations! Easy accessibility, summaries & notifications Read research that matters with alerts on Just Published research papers and assess relevance with research summaries. Bookmark articles on the research app and read on the web. R Discovery partners with research publications, including Elsevier, Wiley, IOP, Springer Nature, Sage, Taylor & Francis, Hindawi, NEJM, Emerald Publishing, Duke University Press, Intech Open, AIAA, Karger, Underline.io, SAGE, JStage for the best content. Enjoy free research discovery or upgrade to R Discovery Prime to unlock unlimited use of our premium features. Join 3M+ academics and redefine the way you read on R Discovery, the highest rated app in this space (rated 4.6+ on App Store). Get it now!

Version 3.3.7

This version provides you with better performance and reduced bugs on the app.

Ratings and Reviews

255 Ratings

Best research app/tool I’ve used (and I’ve tried them all)

I’m a final year PhD student who has just started writing my thesis. It’s such a chaotic process and R discovery has been such a help. It’s structured my reading, helped me find all the relevant papers I need, it’s constantly sending me emails with new papers in my research area so I’m able to come to research meetings and impress my supervisors! It’s saved me so much time it’s unreal. So much love for this & the fact it’s completely free (with no catch) is the icing on the cake. If you haven’t downloaded this yet - what are you doing??!?!?

Developer Response ,

Hi Emilack, thanks for the hearty endorsement of our app! Your review has made our day! We're pleased to know you're finding it so useful in finding relevant research recommendations. Do help us by spreading the word about our app amongst your friends and colleagues. And if there's any new feature that you'd like added, or if you have any other suggestions for us, please let us know at [email protected]. Have a good week!

Very useful app

That app is wonderful to keep up with the papers of a particular topic

Hi eichimochi, thanks so much for leaving us a review and a 5-star rating! We're happy to know you're finding the app useful. Do use it everyday for better recommendations of research papers and peer reviewed articles. Write to us at [email protected] to share any feedback or suggestions you might have for us. We'd love to hear from you!

Fantastic app

As a researcher, this app is incredibly valuable. I often use it to browse unrelated topics in an easy and intuitive manner. Highly recommend. To the developers; please consider horizontal rotation when viewing pdfs! This would make the app a lot easier to use. Many thanks

App Privacy

The developer, Cactus Communications Private Limited , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Contact Info
• Search History
• Identifiers

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

• Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary based on, for example, the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

• App Support
• Privacy Policy

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Screen reading apps

iPhones and other smart phones have an accessibility tab under their general settings. In this tab, you will be able to turn on such tools as Voiceover , Zoom , Magnifier and Speech . These screen readers are free to use on your device.

Android devices have very similar functions including TalkBack , Select to Speak and braille display. 

Read, annotate and share

This app holds over 200,000 audio books and podcasts, it is a library at your fingertips. Listen offline and catch up with your reading on the train or while exercising. Price: free Device: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

Audible is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Save your articles, video or links in Pocket and come back to them later. With Pocket, you will never have to go searching for that interesting story you lost that morning again. Price: free Device: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

A huge amount of eBooks can be found on Kindle and many of the classics are free! You can also sample a book before you buy Price: free Device: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

Search current and archived global news.  Price : free  Device : iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

This app gives you eyes or allows you to be the eyes for someone else. Be My Eyes is designed to help those who are sight impaired.  Price:  free  Device:  iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

Read EPUB and PDF e-books. You can also highlight, bookmark, annotate, find definitions and share book excerpts via email and social media.  Price:  free  Device:  iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

Organise your academic research on the go, wherever you are. This app allows you to read, organise, find and share research papers, helping you to create your own personal library of papers overtime. Search simultaneously from more than twenty databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, JSTOR, Scopus and more.  Price:  free  Device:  iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Explore, download, and read digital editions of magazines that your library subscribes to, e.g. Choice, Techlife Australia, Asia Today, Macworld, and many more! Price: free Device: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

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Advertisement

Best apps for research papers

List of the best apps, 1. mendeley.

Other platforms

• Mendeley for Windows
• Mendeley for Android
• Mendeley for Mac
• Mendeley for iPhone

• Website: http://www.mendeley.com/download-mendeley-desktop/

Age rating: 4+

Category: productivity,education, publisher: elsevier inc., size: 98.07 mb.

• Genre: Not available

by Gilberto Marín

This seems to be a great resource for reading and managing research papers. The app allows users to keep track of sources and save notes.

2. Notability

Notability is a premium app for iOS devices in which you can take notes and annotate PDFs all in a simple and clean interface that works both on mobile and desktop. Indicated for students, teachers, and business people.

• Notability for iPhone

• Website: http://www.gingerlabs.com

Publisher: Ginger Labs, Inc.

Size: 131.39 mb.

by Tiffany Wan

Notability is an app that was recommended to me by a friend. I tried it out for a bit thinking that it would help me with my research papers but honestly I did not like the layout that much.

3. Evernote

Evernote is an app that allows users to create all kinds of notes and keep all their ideas organized and collected in the same spot. The app also offers a lot of tools to share ideas and even create agendas for their teammates.   

• Evernote for Windows
• Evernote for Android
• Evernote for Mac
• Evernote for iPhone

• Website: https://evernote.grsm.io/ebcc-SoftonicSolutions
• Age rating: Not available
• Category: Not available
• Publisher: Not available
• Size: Not available

by Jonathan Stephens

Evernote is a good complementary solution for research papers, as it allows some robust notetaking capabilities, but it is not very useful for research or word processing.

4. Instapaper

• Instapaper for Android
• Instapaper for iPhone

• Website: Not Available

by Kathleen Jordan

Instapaper is the perfect solution for when I'm on the train, during my commute. I simply save the news articles I want to read and don't have to worry about using the unsafe wifi. Instapaper let's me organize my articles and even provides a dictiona ry. The latest version is a little buggy, but I have no doubt they will fix that and get it working as well as ever.  More

5. Khan Academy

Khan Academy is an educational organization founded by Salman Khan. It offers learning resources available on the web and the mobile app. It features an interactive classroom blackboard teaching style with short quizzes and questions.

• Khan Academy
• Khan Academy for Android
• Khan Academy for iPhone

• Website: https://www.khanacademy.org/

by Marilyn Hunter

One of the best resources available to prepare yourself for tests or aide in research papers. I used this free site to get recommendations and feedback while working on a research paper that I only had a short time to complete. There are many differe nt available views on each subject which allows for better critiquing of your own work.  More

6. Ask for Papers

Ask for Papers

• Ask for Papers for Android

by Evelyn Hudson

I like this app, very user friendly. I needed this to finish my class papers and found a large variety of topics that helped me find what I needed. I recommend this app as a very useful database. It worked well for me.

7. Academic Writing in English

Academic Writing in English is a complete course that will teach you how to compose essays, experimental reports,  dissertations and academic articles. The app features interactive exercises, checklists, and a glossary.

Academic Writing in English

• Academic Writing in English for iPhone

• Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/apps/awe

Age rating: Unrated

Category: education, publisher: ucl business plc, size: 1.89 mb.

by Crystal Gutierrez

Useful for building on your English skills. Interface could be a bit cleaner, but overall it's a good little app to help with your writing and grammar.

EasyBib is a free app that let you create citations for your bibliography in a very fast manner! All the citation generated are simply perfect because they're revised by teachers and librarians.

• EasyBib for Android
• EasyBib for iPhone

by Christian Reyes

I have to say this app is solid but still needs a few tweaks to make it fantastic! The sharing options are one area in particular I would love to see improvements on, and if that happened, then this would be a simply great app!!

9. NoteLedge

• NoteLedge for Windows
• NoteLedge for Android
• NoteLedge for Mac
• NoteLedge for iPhone

• Website: https://www.kdanmobile.com/en/noteledge

by Scott Medina

I love this product. It helps me organize all my work related items. I can easily search for past notes and information. Before I had this product I was very unorganized

• Writer for Android

• Website: http://jamesmcminn.com

Age rating: Everyone

Category: productivity, publisher: james mcminn, size: 98.30 kb.

by Mick Fang

I needed something to help with writing research papers and this helps a lot. It's not research paper specific but that's quite alright.

11. [CHANNEL] TED Talks

• [CHANNEL] TED Talks
• Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug

by Luz María Lugo

Coming up with topics for research papers can be tough. There's a lot of information out there, but sorting through it is a chore. Ted Talks are very interesting and engaging, and while they don't always provide a lot of facts to back up arguments, t hey can at least help you start your brainstorming session while giving you a positive frame of mind.  More

Top 10 Best Academic Search Engines for Scholarly Articles in 2024

Jc Chaithanya

14 min read

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 

1. 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 (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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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 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.

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.

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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What is the best app for reviewing scientific papers?

There was a time people printed papers for reviewing. Double-spaced text with tables and figures at the end. Well, with devices like the iPad, people need not print papers anymore. If paper is better for you, that’s ok, I understand, but there’s no longer a “need to print”. Today you have apps where you can read PDF files, make annotations and export them. The question is: what app is best to review a scientific paper?

I’ve been using several over the years and confess none of them fully satisfies me. My perfect app for reviewing should 

– be able to pop-up figures with a click when they’re mentioned

– make notes linked with a certain line or range of lines in the text

– ability to make free comments, as most already do

– write equations using LaTeX

– use markdown language as well

– and finally, and most important, be able to export these comments in a simple and easy to read fashion, allowing me to copy and paste into the boxed reserved for this at the journal’s website.

My purpose in this post is not to make an extensive review of the apps I used, but share my experience and why I changed.

In the early days of the iPad, I reviewed papers with iAnnotate. One of the main advantages was selecting a part of the PDF, like an image, and copy/paste it next to the part of the text mentioning the figure. Thus, when I read the authors analysis, I could easily access the figure to see the results. I could add notes, and write in the margins, as in most PDF annotation apps. An interesting feature is the ability to go directly to a page farther away, see a figure for example, and go back to the page where I was reading, like we do with webpages with hyperlinks. But…

If I wanted to export my notes, I couldn’t. This means I needed to split my screen into the annotated PDF and a Notes app where I compiled my comments. Also, the handwriting trace became sluggish with a few updates and I looked for alternatives.

This is when I tried PDF-notes. It was faster than iAnnotate, the handwriting trace is better, and I could easily write something in the text by double-tapping the screen to zoom the area where I wanted to annotate something. However, I lost the ability to have figures accessible. Even so I tried to compensate with a small page scroll at the bottom for an easier access to the images.

I used this app for a long time, but the method for compiling my notes was still the same and some features I had on iAnnotate were no more. However, the experience compensated these lacks because I didn’t return to iAnnotate. But then something happened.

For some reason I became tired of PDF notes. Maybe some operations demanded too many steps, and I looked for a different experience. This is when I found Readdle’s PDF Expert. One of the major advantages was the sync between the iPad and the mac apps. This made compiling the notes much easier. In fact, a good synching was the major problem I experienced with PDF-notes.

The app had all the features for quality handwriting, comments insertion, it is fast and the page grid view makes accessing any page easier without intermediate steps uploaded the annotated file to a cloud like Dropbox. I still miss the image capture feature of iAnnotate, the double-tap to zoom of PDF-notes, but the synching and user experience compensates that. Until I found another surprising app.

This app is out-of-the-box. It’s still not my perfect paper reviewing app, but closer. Finally, I got the figure capture feature back. I’m able to make annotations relatively to a part of the text, or free comments. There’s this neat feature of pinching to shrink the PDF (hard to explain, you need to see it!) allowing me the access to a figure while I read the authors analysis. Free handwriting on a side area independent of the document. But these are not the most important feature.

Finally I can export or copy to the clipboard my comments, including the page in the document. This is a major change in the hard-compilation scheme I had and the main reason I changed. Synching to cloud services could be better, but not a problem because of the export feature.

  I focused on apps for the iPad because that is my ecosystem, but I’m sure there are similar apps in other platforms. If you have an experience with reviewing papers with apps in Android or Windows, share your experience in the comments for others.

QUESTION: Do you have a great paper reviewing experience with one of these, or any other app you’d like to share?

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Android Apps for Research Paper Organisation

Joseph Osbourne | 01 Oct 2023 | Featured

A digital research paper organiser is a super helpful tool made just for students, researchers, and writers to keep their research papers organised and on point.  Initially, it was created to make things easier and more efficient. In fact, it takes all the complicated stuff and makes it way less scary.

With a digital research paper organiser, you can put research papers in a very systematic way. It makes sure that every part, including the intro, thesis statement, methodology, findings, and conclusion, is all clear and connected in a logical way. Such tools have a super easy interface that lets you outline your paper, organise sections, and add content without any hassle.

No doubt, it can make your study experience better. But what else can help you when you are working on a research project? Actually, turning to research paper writing services and an online research paper writer in a digital organiser could be great helpers. These services can assist you a lot, ensuring that your content meets high academic standards. By the way, have you heard about apps for research organisation? If not, keep reading! Here is the list of them. 

Zotero is a super handy companion. This research paper organizer helps you gather and organise all your research stuff, store PDFs, and make citations in different styles.

• Collect and organize materials.
• Store and sync PDFs.
• Generate citations in various styles.
• Collaborate with groups.
• Create bibliographies.
• Web browser integration for easy reference capture.

EndNote makes faster to organise and manage your references. It’s got features for formatting citations, searching online databases, and working together with your buddies.

• Organize and manage references.
• Format citations and bibliographies.
• Search online databases.
• Collaborate with others.
• Import PDFs and annotate.
• Sync with the desktop version.

ReadCube is one of the best best research apps. It is all about making your reading experience better by organising and annotating academic papers. It also has cool features for students to find more articles on the same topic.

• Import and organize academic papers.
• Annotate and highlight text.
• Access supplementary materials.
• Discover related articles.
• Sync across devices.
• Built-in reference manager.

Papership is a research app for students that integrates with other cool Android apps for students, including Mendeley, Zotero, and CiteULike. It offers advanced features for organizing, reading, and annotating research papers.

• Integration with Mendeley, Zotero, and CiteULike.
• Organize and read research papers.
• Annotate PDFs.
• Synchronize with reference libraries.
• Collaboration features.
• Advanced search capabilities.

RefME makes citing sources super easy with instant citation generation. It also has cool features for scanning book barcodes and working together on citations.

• Generate citations instantly.
• Scan book barcodes for references.
• Collaborative citation creation.
• Export citations to various formats.
• Cross-platform synchronization.
• Access reference materials on the web.

The Best Ways to Use Research Applications

Just having research organization tools is not enough. You gotta use them effectively if you wanna get all the sweet benefits. We’re gonna show you how to get the most out of your research organising app. 

Step 1: Pick the app that’s right for you

Before you can start using research apps for your education, you gotta pick the one that suits you best. There are a bunch of great options like Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, RefWorks, and ReadCube, and more. Make sure the app you pick:

• matches your goals
• supports your citation style
• has the tools you need for taking notes, managing PDFs, and organising references.

Step 2: Get your stuff together

Once you’ve picked your app, it’s time to start getting your research stuff in order. Start off by importing or adding all your stuff like documents, articles, PDFs, and references into the app’s library. Most apps let you drag and drop files or have browser extensions to save web articles. Make sure you use the same naming style for your files so you can find them easily later on.

Step 3: Make a nice folder structure

Put all your research stuff into folders or categories that make sense to you. You could make folders for different research projects, topics, or chapters, depending on what you need. Having a good folder structure is gonna make it way easier for you to find the docs you need for writing.

Step 4: Add some tags and keywords

Most research paper writing apps have tagging and keyword stuff. Use these tools to slap on some tags or keywords that actually make sense for your documents. This makes finding specific info must faster. Make sure you tag stuff consistently so our database stays organised.

Step 5: Annotate and highlight

Lots of research apps let you annotate and highlight text right in the documents. Just use these features to:

• mark important parts
• highlight the main points. 

Step 6: Sync on all your devices

To make things super easy, just sync your research app on all your devices – your computer, tablet, or even your phone. This way, you can get to your research materials wherever you go, so you can work on your projects without any interruptions.

Step 7: Keep up with the latest info

Keep updating your research paper writing app to the latest version so you can get all the cool bug fixes, security upgrades, and new features. Note that using old software can cause problems like stuff not working together or losing your data, so it’s super important to keep everything up to date.

Step 8: Work together with other people

If you’re working on a project with others, there are apps that can help you stay organised and collaborate with each other. Why not invite your colleagues to check out and add to your research stuff? 

Step 9: Make sure you back up all your data, just in case

Apps usually have backup features, but it’s always a good idea to make extra backups , especially for important information. You might wanna think about using cloud storage or external hard drives for some extra security.

Wrapping Up

If you’re a student, academic, or just someone doing research, apps can change how you do things in a root . They’ll save you time and make you way more productive.

There are so many cool apps out there for researchers. You’ve got Mendeley and Zotero for managing references, and Paperpile and EndNote for those who like things simple and easy to use. As technology keeps getting better, these research paper organisation apps will also keep improving. So, check out all the options, pick the one that works best for you, and start your research journey with more organisation and efficiency.

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The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI) , 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey  on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year , with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Alex Singla , Alexander Sukharevsky , Lareina Yee , and Michael Chui , with Bryce Hall , representing views from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and McKinsey Digital.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy—as well as the emerging practices of top performers to mitigate those challenges and capture value.

AI adoption surges

Interest in generative AI has also brightened the spotlight on a broader set of AI capabilities. For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50 percent. This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72 percent (Exhibit 1). And the interest is truly global in scope. Our 2023 survey found that AI adoption did not reach 66 percent in any region; however, this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region say their organizations are using AI. 1 Organizations based in Central and South America are the exception, with 58 percent of respondents working for organizations based in Central and South America reporting AI adoption. Looking by industry, the biggest increase in adoption can be found in professional services. 2 Includes respondents working for organizations focused on human resources, legal services, management consulting, market research, R&D, tax preparation, and training.

Also, responses suggest that companies are now using AI in more parts of the business. Half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023 (Exhibit 2).

Gen AI adoption is most common in the functions where it can create the most value

Most respondents now report that their organizations—and they as individuals—are using gen AI. Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function, up from one-third last year. The average organization using gen AI is doing so in two functions, most often in marketing and sales and in product and service development—two functions in which previous research  determined that gen AI adoption could generate the most value 3 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. —as well as in IT (Exhibit 3). The biggest increase from 2023 is found in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled. Yet across functions, only two use cases, both within marketing and sales, are reported by 15 percent or more of respondents.

Gen AI also is weaving its way into respondents’ personal lives. Compared with 2023, respondents are much more likely to be using gen AI at work and even more likely to be using gen AI both at work and in their personal lives (Exhibit 4). The survey finds upticks in gen AI use across all regions, with the largest increases in Asia–Pacific and Greater China. Respondents at the highest seniority levels, meanwhile, show larger jumps in the use of gen Al tools for work and outside of work compared with their midlevel-management peers. Looking at specific industries, respondents working in energy and materials and in professional services report the largest increase in gen AI use.

Investments in gen AI and analytical AI are beginning to create value

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions (Exhibit 5). Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management (Exhibit 6). For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year —as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales.

Inaccuracy: The most recognized and experienced risk of gen AI use

As businesses begin to see the benefits of gen AI, they’re also recognizing the diverse risks associated with the technology. These can range from data management risks such as data privacy, bias, or intellectual property (IP) infringement to model management risks, which tend to focus on inaccurate output or lack of explainability. A third big risk category is security and incorrect use.

Respondents to the latest survey are more likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider inaccuracy and IP infringement to be relevant to their use of gen AI, and about half continue to view cybersecurity as a risk (Exhibit 7).

Conversely, respondents are less likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider workforce and labor displacement to be relevant risks and are not increasing efforts to mitigate them.

In fact, inaccuracy— which can affect use cases across the gen AI value chain , ranging from customer journeys and summarization to coding and creative content—is the only risk that respondents are significantly more likely than last year to say their organizations are actively working to mitigate.

Some organizations have already experienced negative consequences from the use of gen AI, with 44 percent of respondents saying their organizations have experienced at least one consequence (Exhibit 8). Respondents most often report inaccuracy as a risk that has affected their organizations, followed by cybersecurity and explainability.

Our previous research has found that there are several elements of governance that can help in scaling gen AI use responsibly, yet few respondents report having these risk-related practices in place. 4 “ Implementing generative AI with speed and safety ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 13, 2024. For example, just 18 percent say their organizations have an enterprise-wide council or board with the authority to make decisions involving responsible AI governance, and only one-third say gen AI risk awareness and risk mitigation controls are required skill sets for technical talent.

Bringing gen AI capabilities to bear

The latest survey also sought to understand how, and how quickly, organizations are deploying these new gen AI tools. We have found three archetypes for implementing gen AI solutions : takers use off-the-shelf, publicly available solutions; shapers customize those tools with proprietary data and systems; and makers develop their own foundation models from scratch. 5 “ Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide ,” McKinsey, July 11, 2023. Across most industries, the survey results suggest that organizations are finding off-the-shelf offerings applicable to their business needs—though many are pursuing opportunities to customize models or even develop their own (Exhibit 9). About half of reported gen AI uses within respondents’ business functions are utilizing off-the-shelf, publicly available models or tools, with little or no customization. Respondents in energy and materials, technology, and media and telecommunications are more likely to report significant customization or tuning of publicly available models or developing their own proprietary models to address specific business needs.

Respondents most often report that their organizations required one to four months from the start of a project to put gen AI into production, though the time it takes varies by business function (Exhibit 10). It also depends upon the approach for acquiring those capabilities. Not surprisingly, reported uses of highly customized or proprietary models are 1.5 times more likely than off-the-shelf, publicly available models to take five months or more to implement.

Gen AI high performers are excelling despite facing challenges

Gen AI is a new technology, and organizations are still early in the journey of pursuing its opportunities and scaling it across functions. So it’s little surprise that only a small subset of respondents (46 out of 876) report that a meaningful share of their organizations’ EBIT can be attributed to their deployment of gen AI. Still, these gen AI leaders are worth examining closely. These, after all, are the early movers, who already attribute more than 10 percent of their organizations’ EBIT to their use of gen AI. Forty-two percent of these high performers say more than 20 percent of their EBIT is attributable to their use of nongenerative, analytical AI, and they span industries and regions—though most are at organizations with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. The AI-related practices at these organizations can offer guidance to those looking to create value from gen AI adoption at their own organizations.

To start, gen AI high performers are using gen AI in more business functions—an average of three functions, while others average two. They, like other organizations, are most likely to use gen AI in marketing and sales and product or service development, but they’re much more likely than others to use gen AI solutions in risk, legal, and compliance; in strategy and corporate finance; and in supply chain and inventory management. They’re more than three times as likely as others to be using gen AI in activities ranging from processing of accounting documents and risk assessment to R&D testing and pricing and promotions. While, overall, about half of reported gen AI applications within business functions are utilizing publicly available models or tools, gen AI high performers are less likely to use those off-the-shelf options than to either implement significantly customized versions of those tools or to develop their own proprietary foundation models.

What else are these high performers doing differently? For one thing, they are paying more attention to gen-AI-related risks. Perhaps because they are further along on their journeys, they are more likely than others to say their organizations have experienced every negative consequence from gen AI we asked about, from cybersecurity and personal privacy to explainability and IP infringement. Given that, they are more likely than others to report that their organizations consider those risks, as well as regulatory compliance, environmental impacts, and political stability, to be relevant to their gen AI use, and they say they take steps to mitigate more risks than others do.

Gen AI high performers are also much more likely to say their organizations follow a set of risk-related best practices (Exhibit 11). For example, they are nearly twice as likely as others to involve the legal function and embed risk reviews early on in the development of gen AI solutions—that is, to “ shift left .” They’re also much more likely than others to employ a wide range of other best practices, from strategy-related practices to those related to scaling.

In addition to experiencing the risks of gen AI adoption, high performers have encountered other challenges that can serve as warnings to others (Exhibit 12). Seventy percent say they have experienced difficulties with data, including defining processes for data governance, developing the ability to quickly integrate data into AI models, and an insufficient amount of training data, highlighting the essential role that data play in capturing value. High performers are also more likely than others to report experiencing challenges with their operating models, such as implementing agile ways of working and effective sprint performance management.

About the research

The online survey was in the field from February 22 to March 5, 2024, and garnered responses from 1,363 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 981 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one business function, and 878 said their organizations were regularly using gen AI in at least one function. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky  are global coleaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and senior partners in McKinsey’s Chicago and London offices, respectively; Lareina Yee  is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, where Michael Chui , a McKinsey Global Institute partner, is a partner; and Bryce Hall  is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

They wish to thank Kaitlin Noe, Larry Kanter, Mallika Jhamb, and Shinjini Srivastava for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office.

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Microsoft at facct 2024: advancing responsible ai research and practice.

Published June 5, 2024

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The integration of AI and other computational technologies is becoming increasingly common in high-stakes sectors such as finance, healthcare, and government, where their capacity to influence critical decisions is growing. While these systems offer numerous benefits, they also introduce risks, such as entrenching systemic biases and reducing accountability. The ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM FaccT 2024) tackles these issues, bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines who are committed to the responsible development of computational systems.

Microsoft is proud to return as a sponsor of ACM FAccT 2024, underscoring our commitment to supporting research on responsible AI. We’re pleased to share that members of our team have taken on key roles in organizing the event, contributing to the program committee and serving as a program co-chair. Additionally, seven papers by Microsoft researchers and their collaborators have been accepted to the program, with “Akal badi ya bias: An exploratory study of gender bias in Hindi language technology,” receiving an award for Best Paper. 

Collectively, these research projects emphasize the need for AI technologies that reflect the Microsoft Responsible AI principles of accountability, inclusiveness, reliability and safety, fairness, transparency, and privacy and security. They underscore the importance of addressing potential risks and harms associated with deployment and usage. This post highlights these advances.

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AI Frontiers: AI for health and the future of research with Peter Lee

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Paper highlights

A framework for exploring the consequences of ai-mediated enterprise knowledge access and identifying risks to workers.

Anna Gausen, Bhaskar Mitra , Siân Lindley

Recent AI developments, especially LLMs, are significantly impacting organizational knowledge access and reshaping workplaces. These AI systems pose risks due to their interaction with organizational power dynamics. This paper introduces the Consequence-Mechanism-Risk framework to help identify worker risks, categorizing them into issues related to value, power, and wellbeing. The framework aims to help practitioners mitigate these risks and apply it to other technologies, enabling better protection for workers.

A structured regression approach for evaluating model performance across intersectional subgroups

Christine Herlihy, Kimberly Truong, Alex Chouldechova , Miro Dudík

Disaggregated evaluation is a process used in AI fairness assessment that measures AI system performance across different subgroups. These subgroups are defined by a mix of demographic or other sensitive attributes. However, the sample size for intersectional subgroups is often very small, leading to their exclusion from analysis. This work introduces a structured regression approach for more reliable system performance estimates in these subgroups. Tested on two publicly available datasets and several variants of semi-synthetic data, this method not only yielded more accurate results but also helped to identify key factors driving performance differences. 

Akal badi ya bias: An exploratory study of gender bias in Hindi language technology

Best Paper Award

Rishav Hada, Safiya Husain, Varun Gumma, Harshita Diddee, Aditya Yadavalli, Agrima Seth , Nidhi Kulkarni, Ujwal Gadiraju, Aditya Vashistha , Vivek Seshadri , Kalika Bali

Existing research on gender bias in language technologies primarily focuses on English, often overlooking non-English languages. This paper introduces the first comprehensive study on gender bias in Hindi, the third most spoken language globally. Employing diverse techniques and field studies, the authors expose the limitations in current methodologies and emphasize the need for more context-specific and community-centered research. The findings deepen the understanding of gender bias in language technologies in Hindi and lay the groundwork for expanded research into other Indic languages.

“I’m not sure, but…”: Examining the impact of large language models’ uncertainty expression on user reliance and trust

Sunnie S. Y. Kim, Q. Vera Liao , Mihaela Vorvoreanu , Stephanie Ballard, Jennifer Wortman Vaughan

LLMs can produce convincing yet incorrect responses, potentially misleading users who rely on them for accuracy. To mitigate this issue, there have been recommendations for LLMs to communicate uncertainty in their responses. In a large-scale study on how users perceive and act on LLMs’ expressions of uncertainty, participants were asked medical questions. The authors found that first-person uncertainty expressions (e.g., “I’m not sure, but…”) decreased participants’ confidence in the system and their tendency to agree with the system’s answers, while increasing the accuracy of their own answers. In contrast, more general uncertainty expressions (e.g., “It’s unclear, but…”) were less effective. The findings stress the importance of more thorough user testing before deploying LLMs.

Investigating and designing for trust in AI-powered code generation tools

Ruotong Wang, Ruijia Cheng, Denae Ford , Tom Zimmermann

As tools like GitHub Copilot gain popularity, understanding the trust software developers place in these applications becomes crucial for their adoption and responsible use. In a two-stage qualitative study, the authors interviewed 17 developers to understand the challenges they face in building trust in AI code-generation tools. Challenges identified include setting expectations, configuring tools, and validating suggestions. The authors also explore several design concepts to help developers establish appropriate trust and provide design recommendations for AI-powered code-generation tools.

Less discriminatory algorithms

Emily Black, Logan Koepke, Pauline Kim, Solon Barocas , Mingwei Hsu

In fields such as housing, employment, and credit, organizations using algorithmic systems should seek to use less discriminatory alternatives. Research in computer science has shown that for any prediction problem, multiple algorithms can deliver the same level of accuracy but differ in their impacts across demographic groups. This phenomenon, known as model multiplicity, suggests that developers might be able to find an equally performant yet potentially less discriminatory alternative.

Participation in the age of foundation models

Harini Suresh, Emily Tseng, Meg Young, Mary Gray , Emma Pierson, Karen Levy

The rise of foundation models in public services brings both potential benefits and risks, including reinforcing power imbalances and harming marginalized groups. This paper explores how participatory AI/ML methods, typically context-specific, can be adapted to these context-agnostic models to empower those most affected.

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Program co-chair.

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Program Committee

Steph Ballard   Solon Barocas   Su Lin Blodgett * Kate Crawford   Shipi Dhanorkar   Amy Heger Jake Hofman * Emre Kiciman * Vera Liao * Daniela Massiceti   Bhaskar Mitra   Besmira Nushi * Alexandra Olteanu   Amifa Raj Emily Sheng   Jennifer Wortman Vaughan * Mihaela Vorvoreanu * Daricia Wilkinson *Area Chairs

Career opportunities

Microsoft welcomes talented individuals across various roles at Microsoft Research, Azure Research, and other departments. We are always pushing the boundaries of computer systems to improve the scale, efficiency, and security of all our offerings. You can review our open research-related positions here .

Related publications

A framework for exploring the consequences of ai-mediated enterprise knowledge access and identifying risks to workers, “i’m not sure, but…”: examining the impact of large language models’ uncertainty expression on user reliance and trust, akal badi ya bias: an exploratory study of gender bias in hindi language technology, investigating and designing for trust in ai-powered code generation tools, less discriminatory algorithms, continue reading.

Research Focus: Week of April 15, 2024

Advancing transparency: Updates on responsible AI research

Research at Microsoft 2023: A year of groundbreaking AI advances and discoveries

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Investors Heavily Search AppLovin Corporation (APP): Here is What You Need to Know

AppLovin ( APP Quick Quote APP - Free Report ) has recently been on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks. Therefore, you might want to consider some of the key factors that could influence the stock's performance in the near future.

Over the past month, shares of this mobile app technology company have returned -1.7%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +3.5% change. During this period, the Zacks Technology Services industry, which AppLovin falls in, has gained 2%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?

While media releases or rumors about a substantial change in a company's business prospects usually make its stock 'trending' and lead to an immediate price change, there are always some fundamental facts that eventually dominate the buy-and-hold decision-making.

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Here at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.

Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.

AppLovin is expected to post earnings of $0.74 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +236.4%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +21.6%.

For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $2.96 points to a change of +202% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has changed +16.4%.

For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $3.57 indicates a change of +20.7% from what AppLovin is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +13.6%.

With an impressive externally audited track record , our proprietary stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- is a more conclusive indicator of a stock's near-term price performance, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates , has resulted in a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) for AppLovin.

The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:

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Which social media platforms are most common, who uses each social media platform, find out more, social media fact sheet.

Many Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. Explore the patterns and trends shaping the social media landscape.

To better understand Americans’ social media use, Pew Research Center surveyed 5,733 U.S. adults from May 19 to Sept. 5, 2023. Ipsos conducted this National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) for the Center using address-based sampling and a multimode protocol that included both web and mail. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race and ethnicity, education and other categories.

Polls from 2000 to 2021 were conducted via phone. For more on this mode shift, read our Q&A.

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and  its methodology ­­­.

A note on terminology: Our May-September 2023 survey was already in the field when Twitter changed its name to “X.” The terms  Twitter  and  X  are both used in this report to refer to the same platform.

YouTube and Facebook are the most-widely used online platforms. About half of U.S. adults say they use Instagram, and smaller shares use sites or apps such as TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter (X) and BeReal.

Note: The vertical line indicates a change in mode. Polls from 2012-2021 were conducted via phone. In 2023, the poll was conducted via web and mail. For more details on this shift, please read our Q&A . Refer to the topline for more information on how question wording varied over the years. Pre-2018 data is not available for YouTube, Snapchat or WhatsApp; pre-2019 data is not available for Reddit; pre-2021 data is not available for TikTok; pre-2023 data is not available for BeReal. Respondents who did not give an answer are not shown.

Source: Surveys of U.S. adults conducted 2012-2023.

Usage of the major online platforms varies by factors such as age, gender and level of formal education.

% of U.S. adults who say they ever use __ by …

• RACE & ETHNICITY
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This fact sheet was compiled by Research Assistant  Olivia Sidoti , with help from Research Analyst  Risa Gelles-Watnick , Research Analyst  Michelle Faverio , Digital Producer  Sara Atske , Associate Information Graphics Designer Kaitlyn Radde and Temporary Researcher  Eugenie Park .

Follow these links for more in-depth analysis of the impact of social media on American life.

• Americans’ Social Media Use  Jan. 31, 2024
• Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology and Home Broadband  Jan. 31 2024
• Q&A: How and why we’re changing the way we study tech adoption  Jan. 31, 2024

Find more reports and blog posts related to  internet and technology .

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