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Search for Articles with Litmaps

Here's how to dive into the scientific literature efficiently and start finding articles on your topic with Litmaps.

Marina Kisley avatar
Written by Marina Kisley
Updated this week

How to search for articles with Litmaps

  1. Click the search bar at the top left of the Litmaps app

  2. Search for your research topic, or a paper you know

  3. Select the article(s) relevant to your topic. These are your starting articles.

  4. Click "Explore Related Articles"

That's it! You've created your first Litmap on your research.

Your starting articles are dark dots, connected to suggested articles which are hollow dots. You can see all the suggested articles are listed on the side too.

Advanced Search with Litmaps

Use Litmaps Search Filters

Use customizable search filters to drill down on the right papers faster. Filter by:

  • Publication Date

  • Keywords

  • Author

  • Journal Title

  • Journal H-Index

  • Journal SJR Quartile

Publication Date Filter

Keyword filter

Tip: Want to use "or" or "and" operators here? Click here to read how.

Journal Filter

Limit results to those published by these journals.

The Quartile and H-Index filters let you limit your article suggestions to those from more prestigious journals.

Author Filter

Limit results to those published by these authors.

Advanced filters are available only in Litmaps Pro.

Change the Search Algorithm

Litmaps lets you change the search algorithm; read about our algorithms here.

To change the search algorithm in Litmaps:

  1. Go to your Litmap

  2. Click on the algorithm icon

  3. Select another algorithm

Search using your library

What makes Litmaps unique is that you can search on your entire research library.

Import articles from you reference manager into Litmaps to search on them. You can sync directly with Zotero, or import using a BibTeX, RIS or PubMed.

  1. Click Import at the top left

  2. Import a file of your existing literature

  3. Click "Explore Related Articles"

Your resulting Litmap finds relevant literature, based on your existing library.

Ignore certain articles

To better customize your results, you can also ignore recommendations you don't find useful. Below each recommendation, next to the "More like this" option, you can hit the Ignore icon.

๐Ÿค” Did you know? You can lookup articles from the Litmaps database too.

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