Exploring an author’s work is a powerful way to understand a research area more deeply and identify key contributors in your field. Instead of searching paper by paper, author exploration lets you follow the intellectual “thread” of a single researcher or research group.
You'll want to dive into an author's work in order to:
Identify key contributors in your field: This is especially vital when you're new to a field and need to learn who's who.
Find related research faster: Authors often publish a series of papers that build on each other. Exploring them can give you a more complete picture of the topic.
Spot emerging trends or collaborations: Looking at what an author has published over time can help you see how their research focus is evolving and who they’re collaborating with.
Build your own research network: If you’re working in a similar area, identifying key authors can help you find mentors, potential collaborators, or future labs to work with.
How to explore an author's work in ResearchRabbit
Exploring an author in ResearchRabbit is quick and interactive. Here’s how to do it:
Click on an article: Start from any paper in your feed, collection, or search results.
Click on an author’s name (under the title).
View their author map: You’ll be taken to a map of all the articles that this author has published. These are visualized in a network, helping you see how their work connects over time.
Dive deeper into authors
Once you’re viewing the author’s map, there are several ways to dive even deeper into the research. You can explore their work from multiple angles, and discover related papers and authors.
📝 Review papers one by one: Click on individual papers to read abstracts, open them in your browser, or save them to your collection.
🔍 Use filters to narrow down: Filter by publication year, keywords, or other criteria to focus on specific periods or topics in the author’s career. Learn more about advanced search here.
📡 Spot patterns: Examine the articles visually to see how their research focus has evolved or what areas they emphasize most. Articles are sorted based on citation count and date of publication, so you can see how their work has changed over time.