ResearchRabbit is a research discovery and literature-review tool that helps you find related academic papers, explore citation networks, and organize research into collections.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Open ResearchRabbit
Go to the official ResearchRabbit website in your browser.
Click Sign Up if you are creating a new account.
If you already have an account, click Login instead.
Step 2: Create Your Account
Choose the sign-up option and enter the information requested by ResearchRabbit.
Use an email address that you can access because ResearchRabbit requires email verification after registration.
Step 3: Verify Your Email
After signing up, check your email for the ResearchRabbit verification message.
Enter the verification code or follow the verification instructions provided by ResearchRabbit.
If you don’t receive it, check your Spam, Junk, or Promotions folder. ResearchRabbit says verification emails normally arrive within about a minute.
Step 4: Set Up Your First Project
After verification, ResearchRabbit asks for your name and the title of your first project.
Choose a project name related to what you are researching.
Example:
AI in Education
You can change the project information later, so don’t worry about making the perfect name.
Step 5: Choose How You Want to Start
ResearchRabbit’s current onboarding gives you several ways to begin:
- Start from an article
- Start from a reference manager
- Start from your Zotero library
- Start from scratch
If you’re a beginner and don’t already have research papers, choose Start from scratch.
Step 6: Search for Your Research Topic
Enter a keyword, topic, paper title, or DOI into the search bar.
Example
If your topic is artificial intelligence in education, search:
AI in education
ResearchRabbit can use keywords or known papers as starting points for discovering related literature.
Step 7: Select Your Seed Papers
ResearchRabbit will show papers related to your search.
Choose 1–3 relevant papers as your initial seed papers.
Look at:
- Paper title
- Authors
- Publication date
- Abstract
- Citation information
These papers become the starting point for ResearchRabbit’s citation-based discovery.
Step 8: Explore the Citation Network
After selecting your seed papers, start the search.
ResearchRabbit creates a visual map showing connections between papers.
The visualization can help you identify:
- Related research
- Earlier research
- Later research
- Citation connections
- Research clusters
- Potentially important papers
The map uses papers as points and citation relationships as connections.
Step 9: Save Papers to a Collection
When you find a useful paper, save it to your ResearchRabbit library or a collection.
You can create collections based on your research topics.
Example collections
- AI in Education
- Machine Learning
- Literature Review
- Important Papers
- Research Methodology
ResearchRabbit supports collections for organizing papers by topic, project, or research stage.
Step 10: Continue Discovering and Organizing Research
Once you’ve saved useful papers, use them as new starting points to continue your research.
You can:
- Explore Similar Work
- Find Earlier Work
- Find Later Work
- Explore Citations
- Explore References
- Explore authors
- Add useful papers to collections
- Add notes to papers
- Export your research when needed
ResearchRabbit is designed around an iterative workflow: discover a paper, save it, use it as a new seed, discover more papers, and continue refining your collection.
Simple ResearchRabbit Workflow
Search topic → Select seed papers → Build citation map → Explore related papers → Save useful papers → Organize collections → Add new seeds → Repeat