ResearchRabbit is a free literature discovery tool that maps how academic papers connect through citations. Here are five ways to bring it into your teaching and research supervision.
Activity | Best for |
Undergrads, early-stage researchers | |
Dissertation students developing a research question | |
Essay or dissertation preparation | |
Seminar series, whole-module use | |
PhD students, dissertation supervision |
1. Task students with tracing the literature in a field
Give your students two or three recently published papers and ask them to use ResearchRabbit to trace the foundational literature behind them. It's a great way to teach students how a field develops over time, without giving them all the answers upfront.
How to set it up:
Find two or three recent papers on your chosen topic and search for them in ResearchRabbit by title or DOI
Add them to a new collection, then click Share, and copy the public link
Send the link to your students and ask them to add the collection to their own ResearchRabbit project
Students use those papers as seeds and explore backwards through references and citations to find the foundational work in the field
Ask them to present what they found: which papers kept coming up, who the key authors are, and where the field began
Example: A psychology lecturer shares two recent papers on social media and adolescent wellbeing. Students trace backwards through the citation network and identify the foundational studies the field keeps returning to, then present a map of how the research developed over time and who shaped it.
2. Ask students to find the gap
Share a starter collection on a topic and ask students to explore the citation network and identify something that hasn't been studied yet. This works particularly well for dissertation students who are still developing their research question.
How to set it up:
Build a collection of 10 to 15 key papers on a topic relevant to your module
Send the link to your students and ask them to add it to their own ResearchRabbit project
Students explore the citation network and look for areas that are underrepresented, questions that keep being raised but not answered, or populations and contexts that are missing from the literature
Ask them to propose a research question and explain why the gap exists based on what they found
Example: A public health lecturer shares a collection on antibiotic resistance. Students explore the network and notice that most of the literature focuses on hospital settings. Several students propose studies on antibiotic resistance in community care as a gap worth filling, with the citation map as their evidence.
🐰 ResearchRabbit is free to sign up at researchrabbit.ai, no credit card needed. If you would like support setting up a collection or running a session with your students, get in touch at support@researchrabbit.ai.
3. Peer review a classmate's literature map
Ask each student to build a ResearchRabbit collection on their dissertation or essay topic and share it with a classmate for review. It teaches critical evaluation skills and gets students thinking about their literature search from someone else's perspective.
How to set it up:
Ask each student to build a ResearchRabbit collection on their topic, adding at least five papers as seeds and running a search
Pair students up and ask them to share their links with each other
Each student reviews their partner's collection and gives structured feedback. Are the seeds strong? Are there obvious gaps in the field? Are any papers flagged by Article Risk Badges as potentially untrustworthy?
Students present their feedback to each other and discuss what they would change
Example: Two history students swap their ResearchRabbit collections ahead of their dissertation proposals. One student notices that her partner's collection is heavily weighted towards English-language sources and suggests broadening the search. Her partner spots that she has missed a cluster of papers on a closely related topic that could strengthen her argument.
4. Build a living reading list together
Create a shared collection for a seminar series or module and add new papers each week as the course progresses. Students can watch the map grow over the semester and see how each week's reading connects to what came before.
How to set it up:
Create a new ResearchRabbit collection at the start of the semester and name it after your module
Click Share, and copy the public link. Share this with your students at the start of term.
Each week, add the required and recommended readings for that week's session to the collection
Encourage students to explore the map before each session and notice how the new papers connect to what they have already read
Use the map in class to show how the ideas in the course build on each other over time
💡 Tip: Students can use the Reading List function to prioritise their reading and keep track of what they've read as the collection grows.
Example: A sociology lecturer running a module on religious belief adds three or four papers each week as the course moves through different themes: class, race, gender, and intersectionality. By week eight, students can see how the papers cluster around each theme and where they overlap, giving them a visual overview of the field that helps them structure their final essays.
5. Use it as a supervision tool
Ask your PhD students or dissertation students to share their ResearchRabbit collection with you ahead of each supervision meeting. Use the map as the basis for your conversation rather than asking students to summarise what they have read.
How to set it up:
Ask your student to build a ResearchRabbit collection on their topic and add all the papers they have read or are planning to read as seeds
They click Share, and send you an invite or public link
Review the collection ahead of the meeting. Look at which papers they have used as seeds, explore the citation network yourself, and notice any obvious gaps or directions they have not yet explored.
Use the map as a starting point for your supervision conversation. You can pull up ResearchRabbit together in the meeting and explore in real time.
At the end of each meeting, agree on two or three papers for the student to add as new seeds before the next session
Example: A supervisor working with a PhD student on climate migration asks the student to share their ResearchRabbit collection a week before each supervision. Reviewing it in advance, the supervisor notices the student has not yet explored the literature on internal displacement and raises it in the meeting. Together they add two key papers as seeds and watch the network expand into a cluster of relevant work the student had not come across through keyword search alone.
🐰 You can sign up to ResearchRabbit at researchrabbit.ai. If you would like support setting up a collection or running a session with your students, get in touch at support@researchrabbit.ai.
Frequently asked questions
Do students need an account to view a shared collection?
No. Anyone with the public link can view a shared collection without signing up. However, to add the collection to their own ResearchRabbit project and use the papers as seeds for their own searches, students will need a free account. Signing up takes less than a minute at researchrabbit.ai.
Is ResearchRabbit free for students?
Yes. The core features are completely free and there is no time limit. The free version is a great starting point for most students and covers everything they need to get started: searching, building collections, exploring citation networks, and sharing their work. A premium tier called RR+ is available for researchers who want advanced search filters and larger seed sets, but there is no pressure to upgrade.
Can students edit a shared collection or only view it?
By default, anyone with the public link can view a collection but not edit it. If you want students to be able to add papers, you can invite them as collaborators by email from within the collection settings. This gives them editor access while keeping the collection under your control.
What are Article Risk Badges?
Article Risk Badges are indicators powered by our partners at Signals that flag papers which may have potential issues, such as retractions, suspicious citation patterns, or AI-generated content. A green badge means no major risks were found, orange means some risks worth reviewing, and red means significant risks that warrant further investigation before citing. They appear in the article information sidebar and are a useful tool for teaching students to evaluate sources critically. Article Risk Badges are available on RR+.
Does ResearchRabbit work for all disciplines?
ResearchRabbit works best for disciplines with strong citation networks, which includes most STEM fields, social sciences, and many humanities disciplines. It is particularly strong for health sciences, psychology, education, and environmental research.
How many papers should a student start with?
One or two strong seed papers is usually enough to get started. The key is choosing papers that are clearly relevant and well cited. These tend to sit inside rich citation networks and give ResearchRabbit more to work with. Students can always add more seeds as they explore and their understanding of the field develops.
Can I use ResearchRabbit alongside other databases like Scopus or Web of Science?
Absolutely. ResearchRabbit is designed to complement traditional databases rather than replace them. It excels at discovery and connection, surfacing papers you did not know to search for. For comprehensive systematic reviews or searches that need to meet formal inclusion criteria, we recommend using ResearchRabbit alongside a traditional database to make sure nothing is missed.
Can I get an institutional licence for my university?
Yes. We work with universities, libraries, and research institutions to provide institutional access to ResearchRabbit. An institutional licence gives all your researchers and students access to RR+ features, along with onboarding support and usage reporting. Get in touch at support@researchrabbit.ai to find out more.
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