researching-literature

To create a structured bibliography and download papers, you need a topic and a project directory. The tool searches for relevant academic sources, extracts metadata, attempts PDF downloads, and writes stable REF-NNN entries to a central references.md file.

Citation snowballing finds additional relevant papers by tracing the references of a known source backward and forward. It expands your literature review systematically by surfacing both foundational works and recent developments connected to your initial query.

You compile a reading list by running the tool with your research topic. It uses a dual-track strategy, querying Semantic Scholar first for academic coverage and falling back to web search and fetch to ensure both landmark and recent literature are included.

Yes, you can gather citations without a database subscription. The tool prefers the Semantic Scholar API when available but automatically falls back to general web search and web fetch to extract metadata and attempt PDF downloads.

The best way to maintain a curated bibliography is to centralize all sources into a single versioned references.md file. This process includes automated metadata extraction, duplicate detection, and assigning stable identifiers for reliable cross-referencing.

Some PDFs may be missing from your references directory because automated download attempts depend on open access availability. The tool extracts metadata and attempts to fetch the PDF, but restricted or paywalled papers will not be downloaded locally.