ResearchRabbit is a tool for collecting and discovering research papers and articles through visualizations and personalized recommendations. Users create collections of articles, which generate related articles through relations of citation and co-authorship. Users develop their collections from this network of articles; in turn ResearchRabbit finds new connections and presents new works.
Start a collection in ResearchRabbit using our example article or a favorite article of yours. We will first go over the basic features of ResearchRabbit, then you will add new articles to your collection and explore the tool. As you do, consider the benefits and shortcomings of ResearchRabbit. Try using both the timeline and network visualizations.
Once everyone has had time to develop their collection and familiarize themselves with the tool, we will share our findings on ResearchRabbit and discuss where it has utility and where it does not.
Using ResearchRabbit begins with making an account. If you are participating in the workshop, we ask that you create your account prior to attending so as to use our time efficiently.
Go to ResearchRabbit.ai and click the blue “Sign Up” button.
Enter an email and password, then complete the signup process by filling in a form on the next page. With your account created, you are now ready for the workshop.
Go to and click the log-in button on the top right corner of the page. This will bring you to your home.
You will see a panel on the left of your screen. To begin, click “New Collection” at the top of this panel. Collections are groupings of works from which ResearchRabbit can create visualizations and serve suggestions. These can themselves be further organized into categories.
To access the collection's settings, click the icon with 3 dots next to it. From this menu you can enter a name, description, and category as well as sharing the collection for collaboration or as a viewable resource.
Click on the collection to open a new panel. In this panel, click the green “Add Papers” button to open a search prompt and find your first article. In this example, we will be using Thomas Malaby’s “Beyond Play: A New Approach to Games,” but feel free to use any of your favorite articles if you prefer. You may search with keywords or by DOI.
A search menu will pop out with a list of results. You may add any number of these to your collection with the “add to collection” buttons. When you are done, click the “X” in the top left of the popup menu or click outside the menu to close it.
With an article in the collection, some new options appear. Select the collection or the article within it to begin exploring “Similar Work.” Clicking this option, a new panel will open listening related articles with a visualization to its right. You may toggle this visualization between timeline and network views.
In this example, we add “Assemblage of Play” by T.L. Taylor from 2009. Since both of our articles are a little old, we may wish to find a more modern work. We can now search for articles related to all works in the collection. Select the collection and click “Later Work.”
We can now view later publications related to our collection. The timeline view is especially useful here to find the most recent articles on our subject, in this case the construction of “play” around virtual games. Adding the most recent article to the collection, more relationships of citation are visualized and new suggested authors and works are found.
You now know the basics of ResearchRabbit! For more guidance and features like Zotero integration, consult the resources linked below.
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