Alternatives to Litmaps
A literature review tool that maps citation networks around seed papers to find related research. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Litmaps
A literature review tool that maps citation networks around seed papers to find related research.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Litmaps.
ResearchRabbit
A web tool for literature reviews that finds related papers and builds citation maps.
ResearchRabbit is free and builds visual citation maps from a single seed paper, working alongside an existing reference library, but requires an account and is web only.
Inciteful
A free web tool that uses citation graphs to find related academic papers and connect two papers.
Inciteful is a free web tool that finds related papers through citation graphs and can show how two papers connect, with a focus on open access.
Open Knowledge Maps
A nonprofit visual search engine that builds topic maps of research literature.
Open Knowledge Maps is a free nonprofit service that builds topic maps from metadata rather than citation networks, and also covers datasets and software; its AI mapping is in beta.
OpenRead
A web platform for searching, reading, comparing and taking notes on academic papers with AI help.
OpenRead adds a related-paper graph to search across more than 300 million papers, paper Q&A and comparison, with advanced features on the Pro plan.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Litmaps as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Keenious
A research recommender that suggests relevant academic papers based on the text you are writing.
Litmaps finds related research by mapping citation networks around seed papers and sends alerts on new papers, but it has no Word or Google Docs integration.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Semantic Scholar
A free, AI-powered search engine for scientific literature covering papers from all fields of science.
Google Scholar
Google's free search engine for scholarly articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions.
Undermind
An AI research agent that searches the scientific literature in depth and cites every source.
Paperlib
An open-source desktop app for organizing academic papers, scraping their metadata and exporting references.
Scite
An AI research tool that answers questions from scholarly articles and shows how claims are cited.
