Scientific Research: The Best Resources from AI
- Tretyak
- 16 hours ago
- 13 min read
🔬 Navigating the World of Scientific Research: 100 Essential Online Resources
Embarking on scientific research can feel like navigating a vast ocean of information. Fortunately, the internet offers a wealth of powerful tools and resources to guide your journey. Whether you're searching for literature, managing data, seeking funding, or developing new skills, these resources can significantly enhance your research process. Here’s a curated list of 100 top-tier global resources, categorized for easy navigation:
📊 Multidisciplinary Databases & Search Engines
(Your starting point for exploring the vast landscape of scientific literature)
Broad indexing of scholarly literature across disciplines. Free access.
Large abstract/citation database (Elsevier). Requires subscription.
Major citation database (Clarivate) with analysis tools. Requires subscription.
Linked research data system (publications, grants, patents, etc.). Free & paid versions.
Key database for biomedical/life sciences (NIH/NLM). Free access.
Elsevier's platform for journals and books. Requires subscription.
Digital library strong in humanities/social sciences, but includes science. Subscription often needed.
BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)
Voluminous search engine, strong focus on open access repositories. Free access.
CORE (Connecting Repositories)
Aggregator of open access research papers from global repositories. Free access.
AI-powered tool for literature discovery and context. Free access.
⚕️ Life Sciences & Medical Databases
(Specialized resources for biology, medicine, and health research)
Free full-text archive of biomedical/life sciences literature (NIH/NLM).
Comprehensive biomedical database (Elsevier) with strong drug/pharmacology focus. Requires subscription.
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
Key database for nursing and allied health. Requires subscription (via EBSCO).
Premier database for psychology and related behavioral sciences (APA). Requires subscription.
High-quality, independent evidence for health decision-making (systematic reviews). Subscription often needed for full access, abstracts free.
BioRxiv (See also Preprints)
Preprint server for biological sciences. Free access.
MedRxiv (See also Preprints)
Preprint server for health sciences. Free access.
Registry and results database of clinical studies globally (NIH). Free access.
WHO ICTRP (International Clinical Trials Registry Platform)
WHO's central database for clinical trial registration globally. Free access.
Central hub for protein sequence and functional information. Free access.
⚛️ Physical Sciences & Engineering Databases
(Resources for physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and related fields)
Database for technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science, electronics. Requires subscription.
arXiv (See also Preprints)
Pioneering preprint server for physics, mathematics, computer science, etc. Free access.
Comprehensive database for chemistry and related sciences (Chemical Abstracts Service). Requires subscription.
Chemistry database covering organic, inorganic, and organometallic chemistry (Elsevier). Requires subscription.
NIH database of chemical molecules and their activities against biological assays. Free access.
NASA/ADS (Astrophysics Data System)
Digital library for researchers in astronomy and physics (NASA). Free access.
Information system for high-energy physics literature. Free access.
Compendex (Engineering Village)
Broad engineering literature database (Elsevier). Requires subscription.
Full-text collection of publications from the Association for Computing Machinery. Requires subscription.
Major database for physics, engineering, computing (IET). Requires subscription.
🧑🤝🧑 Social Sciences & Humanities Databases
(Key portals for research in social sciences, economics, education, and humanities)
ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)
Database for education research and information (U.S. Dept of Education). Free access.
Comprehensive sociology research database (EBSCO). Requires subscription.
Database for economics literature (American Economic Association). Requires subscription.
SSRN (Social Science Research Network) (See also Preprints)
Platform for early-stage research, including preprints, in social sciences/humanities. Free access to abstracts/papers.
Database covering journals, books and other sources in the humanities (EBSCO). Requires subscription.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text
Database covering world history (excluding US/Canada) from 1450 onwards (EBSCO). Requires subscription.
Web of Science - Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI)
Part of WoS focusing on arts and humanities journals. Requires subscription.
Comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy. Managed by philosophers. Free access.
Platform hosting scholarly books and journals across disciplines, including social sciences. Access varies.
Large multidisciplinary database including many social science journals. Requires subscription.
📰 Major Journals & Publishers
(Influential journals and the publishers behind much of scientific literature)
Leading international weekly journal of science. (Publisher: Springer Nature)
Leading international weekly journal of science. (Publisher: AAAS)
Prominent journal for discoveries in life sciences. (Publisher: Cell Press/Elsevier)
Leading international medical journal. (Publisher: Elsevier)
New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
High-impact weekly medical journal. (Publisher: NEJM Group/Mass Medical Society)
PLOS (Public Library of Science)
Pioneering open access publisher (PLOS ONE, PLOS Biology, etc.).
Major academic publisher (Nature portfolio, SpringerLink, BMC).
Major academic publisher (ScienceDirect, Scopus, Cell Press, The Lancet).
Major academic publisher (Wiley Online Library).
Major academic publisher across disciplines.
Oxford University Press (OUP Journals)
Major university press publishing across disciplines.
Cambridge University Press (CUP Journals)
Major university press publishing across disciplines.
Leading general medical journal and publisher.
JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)
Leading international peer-reviewed general medical journal.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
Official journal of the US National Academy of Sciences, multidisciplinary.
📄 Pre-print Archives & Repositories
(Platforms for sharing early research findings before formal peer review)
Physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
Biological sciences.
Medical, clinical, and related health sciences.
Chemistry and related fields. (Supported by ACS, RSC, etc.)
Social sciences. (Hosted on OSF)
Psychological sciences. (Hosted on OSF)
Engineering. (Hosted on OSF)
Broad platform including many disciplines, strong in social sciences, economics, law.
Multidisciplinary preprint platform, also offers journal submission services.
French open archive for scholarly documents from all academic fields.
🔓 Open Access Resources
(Gateways to freely accessible research)
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Community-curated list of reputable open access journals across all fields.
PubMed Central (PMC) (See also Life Sciences)
NIH's free full-text archive of biomedical literature.
CORE (See also Databases)
Aggregator of millions of open access research papers.
Open access publishing platform for Horizon 2020 & Horizon Europe beneficiaries.
SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online)
Bibliographic database and digital library, particularly strong in Latin America, Spain, Portugal, South Africa.
Open science platform housing abstracts and full-text life sciences articles/preprints.
Aggregator of open access journals and papers across disciplines.
Database finding free, legal full-text PDFs via browser extension or API.
Full-text search index including journal articles, preprints, theses etc. archived by the Internet Archive.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
Discovery service for peer-reviewed open access books.
💾 Research Data Repositories
(Places to find, share, and preserve research data)
General-purpose open repository (CERN/OpenAIRE) for data, software, publications.
Repository where users can make all research outputs available in citable, shareable, discoverable manner.
Curated general-purpose repository for research data, particularly life sciences.
Platform supporting research workflows, collaboration, and data/material sharing.
Open source research data repository software and archive (Harvard). Open to all.
Open research data repository from Elsevier.
Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data)
A global registry of research data repositories across disciplines. Use this to find field-specific repositories.
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
Major archive for social and behavioral science research data (University of Michigan).
NIH genetic sequence database.
Global repository for 3D structural data of biological macromolecules.
💰 Funding Agencies & Grant Databases
(Resources for finding research funding opportunities)
Central portal for finding and applying for US federal government grants.
NIH (National Institutes of Health)
Major US agency for biomedical research funding.
NSF (National Science Foundation)
Major US agency funding fundamental research across non-medical science/engineering.
ERC (European Research Council)
Premier European funding organization for frontier research.
EU's key funding programme for research and innovation.
Independent global charitable foundation supporting health research (UK-based).
UKRI (UK Research and Innovation)
Umbrella body for UK's main public research funders.
DFG (German Research Foundation)
Central self-governing research funding organization in Germany.
Database listing research grants and awards globally.
Comprehensive global funding and collaboration opportunities database (often via institutional subscription).
🛠️ Research Tools & Productivity Platforms
(Software and platforms to streamline your research workflow)
Free, open-source reference management tool.
Reference manager and academic social network (Elsevier). Free & premium versions.
Commercial reference management software (Clarivate). Requires license.
OSF (Open Science Framework) (See also Data)
Free, open platform supporting research project lifecycle and collaboration.
Overleaf * Collaborative cloud-based LaTeX editor for scientific writing. Free & premium versions.
GitHub * Platform for version control and collaboration, widely used for research software and code.
protocols.io * Open access repository for research protocols and methods.
Scite.ai * AI tool analyzing how publications cite each other (supporting/contrasting evidence). Free & premium.
Connected Papers * Visual tool to explore academic papers connected via citations. Free & premium.
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) * Persistent digital identifier for researchers, connecting them to their contributions. Free.
🤝 Professional Societies & Organizations
(Connect with peers, access specialized resources, attend conferences)
🎓 Educational & Skill Development Resources
(Platforms for learning research methods, writing, statistics, etc.)
Coursera / edX * Offer numerous courses from universities on research skills, statistics, data science, specific scientific topics.
AuthorAID * Supports researchers in developing countries with writing, publication, and proposal guidance. Free resources and mentoring.
Nature Masterclasses * Online courses in scientific writing and publishing (Paid).
Data Carpentry / Software Carpentry * Workshops teaching foundational coding and data science skills for researchers.
This list provides a powerful toolkit for navigating the complex world of scientific research. While not exhaustive, these resources represent many of the most valuable and widely used platforms available to researchers globally. Happy exploring!
The exciting intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Scientific Research, listing Key resources from around the World.
Diving into the world where Artificial Intelligence meets Scientific Discovery is thrilling! AI is no longer just a futuristic concept; it's actively reshaping how research is conducted, accelerating breakthroughs, and automating complex tasks. From analyzing massive datasets to generating hypotheses and even assisting with writing papers, AI tools are becoming indispensable companions for researchers worldwide.
Here's a curated list of around 100 essential online resources dedicated to AI in Scientific Research:
🤖 AI Research Assistants & Discovery Platforms
(Tools designed to augment the research process, from finding papers to suggesting ideas)
AI research assistant that helps automate literature reviews by finding relevant papers, summarizing key takeaways, and extracting data.
Uses "Smart Citations" to show how subsequent papers cite a publication (supporting, contrasting, mentioning), aiding critical literature assessment. Offers an AI assistant feature.
An AI search engine focused on extracting and summarizing findings directly from scientific research papers to answer user questions.
AI-powered academic search engine providing literature discovery, personalized recommendations, and citation context.
A "discovery app" that visualizes research papers and authors through interactive networks, helping explore literature connections.
AI engine for reading scientific knowledge, helps map out relevant research, summarize, and extract data across disciplines.
AI tool that analyzes your text (manuscript, proposal) and recommends relevant research papers. Integrates with Word/Google Docs.
Creates interactive citation maps to visualize the academic landscape, track research evolution, and discover key papers.
SciSpace (formerly Typeset.io)
Platform combining AI search, literature review tools, PDF interaction ("Copilot"), and formatting assistance for research papers.
Visual tool to explore connected papers in a graph, helping discover prior and derivative works and understand research lineage.
AI co-scientist aiming to automate the generation of research paper drafts or patent disclosures based on a topic. (Status/availability may vary)
Presents itself as an integrated AI research hub combining note-taking, literature search, and AI analysis features with a focus on privacy.
✍️ AI Writing, Summarization & Literature Analysis Tools
(AI assistants focused on processing text, drafting, summarizing, and refining scientific writing)
Versatile large language model capable of drafting text, summarizing, brainstorming, coding assistance, and answering questions. Use critically, verify outputs.
AI assistant focused on helpful, harmless, and honest interactions; strong in summarizing, writing, and analysis tasks, with large context windows.
Google's conversational AI model, capable of text generation, translation, coding, and integrating with Google search results for up-to-date info.
Allows users to "talk" to their PDF documents, asking questions and getting summaries based on the PDF content.
AI tool that reads papers, reports, and book chapters, breaking them down into highlighted summaries, extracting key info (findings, limitations, data).
AI academic writing assistant providing language suggestions, grammar checks, and editing tailored for scientific manuscripts.
AI writing assistant offering proofreading, style editing, paraphrasing, and summarizing features for academic and professional text.
Widely used AI writing assistant for grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, and style suggestions. Offers plagiarism checks.
AI writing platform primarily known for its paraphrasing tool, but also includes summarization, grammar check, and citation generation.
AI writing assistant specifically designed for academic and technical writing, focusing on subject-specific grammar and style.
AI writing assistant aimed at research, offering outlining, drafting, citation finding, and source access.
AI writing assistant integrating note-taking, summarization, citation finding, and drafting capabilities.
AI platform focused on finding sources, generating summaries with citations, and aiding literature review.
📊 AI for Data Analysis, Modeling & Simulation
(Platforms leveraging AI/ML for analyzing complex scientific data, building models, and simulations)
Google Cloud AI Platform / Vertex AI
Platform for building, training, and deploying ML models at scale. Includes tools for data analysis, visualization, and MLOps.
AWS service to build, train, and deploy machine learning models quickly. Offers various tools for data scientists.
Microsoft Azure Machine Learning
Cloud-based environment for training, deploying, automating, and managing ML models.
Enterprise AI platform automating the end-to-end process of building, deploying, and managing ML models.
Open-source and enterprise platform for AI and machine learning, widely used for predictive analytics.
Open-source software for creating data science applications and services. Visual workflow approach.
Data science platform offering data prep, machine learning, and predictive model deployment.
AI system that predicts a protein's 3D structure from its amino acid sequence. Database of predictions available.
Jupyter Notebooks / JupyterLab
Web-based interactive computing environments widely used for data cleaning, transformation, numerical simulation, statistical modeling, data visualization, and machine learning.
Programming and numeric computing platform widely used by engineers and scientists for data analysis, algorithm development, and model creation (requires license). Includes AI/ML toolboxes.
Technical computing system providing tools for computation, visualization, programming, and machine learning (requires license).
🧬 AI in Specific Scientific Domains
(Examples of AI platforms and initiatives transforming specific fields)
Drug Discovery & Life Sciences:
37. Exscientia - AI-driven drug design and discovery platform.
38. Insilico Medicine - AI platform for drug discovery, biomarker development, and aging research.
39. Recursion Pharmaceuticals - Uses AI and automation on cellular images for drug discovery.
40. BenevolentAI - AI platform analyzing biomedical information to generate novel hypotheses and aid drug development.
41. Standigm - AI platforms for drug discovery, exploring chemical space and predicting properties.
42. Schrödinger - Physics-based computational platform integrating ML for drug discovery and materials science.
Materials Science:
43. NOMAD AI Toolkit - AI tools integrated with the NOMAD materials science data infrastructure.
44. Citrine Informatics - AI platform specifically for materials and chemicals development.
45. Materials Project - Database of material properties often used with ML techniques; includes analysis tools.
46. AFLOW - Repository of material properties data often used for AI/ML applications in materials discovery.
Climate Science & Environment:
47. Climate Change AI (CCAI) - Global non-profit initiative catalyzing impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning.
48. IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite - Uses AI to monitor, predict, and respond to weather and climate risks.
Astronomy & Physics:
49. Zooniverse - Citizen science platform where ML is often used to pre-process data or analyze results from human classifications (e.g., galaxy morphology).
50. LSST (Vera C. Rubin Observatory) - Upcoming telescope project relying heavily on AI/ML for real-time data analysis of vast astronomical datasets.
💻 AI Development Frameworks & Libraries
(Core tools for researchers building or implementing AI/ML models)
Open-source library for numerical computation and large-scale machine learning (Google).
Open-source machine learning library known for flexibility and strong GPU acceleration support (Meta AI).
Widely used Python library for traditional machine learning algorithms (classification, regression, clustering, dimensionality reduction).
High-level API for building and training neural networks, runs on top of TensorFlow, Theano, or CNTK.
Essential Python library for data manipulation and analysis (data structures like DataFrames).
Fundamental package for scientific computing with Python (N-dimensional arrays, linear algebra).
Comprehensive Python library for creating static, animated, and interactive visualizations.
Python data visualization library based on Matplotlib, provides a high-level interface for drawing attractive statistical graphics.
Popular library providing thousands of pre-trained models for Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks.
Open-source library for advanced Natural Language Processing in Python.
NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit)
Leading platform for building Python programs to work with human language data.
Open-source library for computer vision and machine learning tasks.
Optimized distributed gradient boosting libraries known for speed and performance in ML competitions and research.
☁️ AI Cloud Platforms & Infrastructure
(Services providing the necessary computing power and tools for large-scale AI research)
Google Cloud AI Platform / Vertex AI (See also Data Analysis)
Amazon SageMaker (See also Data Analysis)
Microsoft Azure Machine Learning (See also Data Analysis)
Hub for GPU-optimized software for deep learning, machine learning, and HPC.
Integrated data and AI platform.
Cloud provider specializing in GPU instances for deep learning.
Platform for building & scaling ML applications, includes notebooks and workflow tools.
🎓 AI Learning, Community & News Resources
(Places to learn AI concepts, connect with peers, and stay updated on the latest research)
Coursera - Courses on AI, ML, Deep Learning from top universities (e.g., Andrew Ng's ML course).
edX - Offers various AI/ML courses and professional certificates.
fast.ai - Practical deep learning courses for coders.
DeepLearning.AI - AI education platform founded by Andrew Ng.
Kaggle - Platform for data science competitions, datasets, notebooks, and learning.
Papers with Code - Resource linking research papers to their corresponding code implementations, datasets, and leaderboards.
arXiv - Essential preprint server for AI/ML research papers (cs.AI, cs.LG, stat.ML sections).
Distill.pub - Online journal focused on clear explanations of machine learning concepts.
Google AI Blog / DeepMind Blog - Updates from leading AI research labs.
Meta AI Blog - Research updates from Meta AI.
OpenAI Blog - News and research releases from OpenAI.
MIT Technology Review - AI Section - News and analysis on AI developments.
AI News - Dedicated news site covering the AI industry.
VentureBeat AI - Tech news site with strong AI coverage.
KDnuggets - Site covering AI, machine learning, data science, and analytics news and tutorials.
Towards Data Science - Medium publication with countless articles on data science and AI concepts/applications.
AI Alignment Forum / LessWrong - Communities discussing AI safety, ethics, and long-term implications.
Hacker News - Often features discussions on the latest AI papers and developments.
Reddit (r/MachineLearning, r/Artificial, r/datascience) - Subreddits for discussion and news.
NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ACL - Top AI/ML conference websites (proceedings often available).
🏛️ AI Ethics & Responsible AI Resources
(Guidelines, frameworks, and organizations promoting ethical considerations in AI research)
OECD AI Policy Observatory - International resource hub for AI principles and policies.
EU AI Act Information - Details on the European Union's regulatory framework for AI.
Partnership on AI (PAI) - Multi-stakeholder organization developing best practices for AI.
AI Ethics Lab - Helps organizations build ethically aligned technology.
Montreal AI Ethics Institute - International non-profit research institute focused on the ethics of AI.
AlgorithmWatch - Non-profit research and advocacy organization shedding light on algorithmic decision-making.
ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct - Includes principles relevant to AI development and deployment.
IBM AI Ethics - IBM's principles and approach to responsible AI.
Microsoft Responsible AI - Microsoft's framework and principles for ethical AI.
Google Responsible AI Practices - Google's guidelines and approach to AI ethics.
The field of AI in scientific research is incredibly dynamic. New tools emerge constantly, and capabilities expand rapidly. This list offers a strong starting point for exploring the resources available today. Embracing these tools thoughtfully and ethically promises to unlock unprecedented scientific progress.
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