Skip to content
English

Switch theme

Discover▾

Not sure where to start? This week’s hottest software, models and stacks in three minutes.

AI Apps▾

AI software people use: from assistants like ChatGPT to tools for coding, video and workflows, picked by purpose.

For Agents▾

Software for AI: tools that let your agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor…) browse, read docs, run code and remember.

Models▾

Choose models, estimate cost, self-host: prices, rankings, benchmarks, free tiers and compute.

Solutions▾

A goal or an error message? Ready-made stacks, steps and fixes by scenario.

Learn▾

A systematic course from zero to the frontier, with an algorithm library, must-read papers and tutorials.

Frontier▾

Daily AI news, weekly highlights, the latest papers and how AI is changing every discipline.

// I want to solve · Researchers / Students

🔬 Research: find, read and review literature

Use AI to search and read papers, write literature reviews and translate PDFs, verify that every citation exists, and disclose AI use per journal policy before submitting.

6 steps5 alternatives3 stacks · 2 problemschecked 2026-10-22

How to do it

  1. 01Search scholarly databases first (Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, CNKI…) and use AI search (Perplexity, Metaso) only as a supplement; never trust an AI-generated reference list alone
  2. 02Manage PDFs in Zotero and ask questions over your library with plug-ins such as LLM for Zotero
  3. 03Read: translate English PDFs with PDFMathTranslate / BabelDOC (keeps formulas and layout); compare papers in a NotebookLM notebook per topic
  4. 04Review: have AI tabulate each paper’s method, data and findings, then write the argument yourself
  5. 05Verify: keep a citation only if you can find its DOI or full text in Crossref / Semantic Scholar
  6. 06Submit: disclose AI use per the journal’s policy; AI cannot be listed as an author

What it costs

Free start

Zotero, Semantic Scholar, PDFMathTranslate and NotebookLM are free

Individual paid

Deep research usually comes with ~$20 plans (ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Google AI Pro); see subscriptions

Institution

Many universities have institutional licences or student deals; ask your library

Prices change; the vendor’s official page wins. Subscriptions compared · API prices

Alternatives: which to pick

OptionChoose it when
NotebookLMQ&A over papers you chose, with citations
Perplexity / 秘塔 AI 搜索Get a quick overview of a new field
PDFMathTranslateTranslate papers while keeping formulas
GPT ResearcherSelf-hosted deep research with controlled sources
ZoteroReference manager (official site)

✓ Good fit

  • Literature surveys, proposals, reviews, reading foreign-language papers

✗ Not a good fit

  • Letting AI generate results, data or citations: that is research misconduct

Ready-made stacks

All stacks
Paper reading & research Read papers, survey literature, run experiments and take notes. 4 tools Deep research agentAdvanced Build your own web research assistant: self-hosted search, page fetching, Markdown conversion, and an agent framework that writes the report. 5 tools Personal knowledge base Capture notes, web pages and PDFs into a searchable second brain that AI can answer from. 3 tools

Software that helps

All software
NotebookLM AI notes & knowledge management Google's source-grounded notebook for Q&A, summaries and audio overviews. Closed / commercial Freemium WebiOSAndroid Perplexity AI apps & chat clients AI answer engine with cited sources, built for research. Closed / commercial Freemium WebiOSAndroid 秘塔 AI 搜索 AI search & research Ad-free Chinese AI search giving structured answers and handling files. Closed / commercial Freemium WebiOSAndroid gpt-researcher Agent frameworks & SDKsv3.7.0 ★ 30k An autonomous agent that conducts deep research on any data using any LLM providers Open source SDKAPI DeepResearch AI search & research ★ 20k Tongyi Deep Research, an open-source deep research agent. Open source Python PDFMathTranslate Document parsing & web scraping ★ 38k PDF scientific paper translation that preserves layout. Open source localWeb BabelDOC Document parsing & web scraping ★ 9.7k Yet another document translator. Open source CLI llm-for-zotero AI search & research ★ 3.3k Open-source research agent system for your Zotero library. Open source local Obsidian AI notes & knowledge management Local Markdown notes and personal knowledge base; plugins connect AI and agents. Closed / commercial Freemium macOSWindowsLinux

Problems & solutions

All problems

Needs in this scenario

  • IND-04Student and research perks

    Individual developers & researchers · People search for: github student pack copilot; research credits ai

  • IND-07Structured learning path plus free compute and required software

    Individual developers & researchers · People search for: llm learning roadmap; mcp tutorial; rag tutorial

Official references

Compiled from official documentation on 2026-10-22; not reproduced in our own environment. Follow the official docs if they differ.

Data updated: Solutions & stack guides(UTC+8)