Building a reading list at the start of a new research project and ensuring you don’t overlook important papers can take time and energy.

But literature discovery tools like Litmaps can take the pain out of this process.

Now you can save papers discovered with Litmaps directly to your Paperpile library.

What is Litmaps?

Litmaps uses citation networks to recommend references. Starting from a key paper or a collection of papers, Litmaps visualizes related references, making it easier to explore and prioritize your reading.

With Litmaps, you can:

  • Build a reading list for new projects.
  • Identify key papers for literature reviews.
  • Spot gaps in your reading list or bibliography.

In this post, we’ll show you how to use Litmaps with Paperpile.

How to find references with Litmaps

Litmaps lets you map citation networks around a specific paper or research topic. Simply search for a paper or keywords connected to your topic, explore related references, and add the ones you find useful to the map.

Litmaps citation network
A Litmap lets you explore related references (white circles) to seed papers on your topic (dark gray circles).

References are the circles on the map. You can view the reference title by hovering on a circle.

By default, references are organized by year published from left to right, with more heavily cited papers towards the top of the visualization.

How to add Litmaps references to Paperpile

Once you find references you’d like to cite later, use the Paperpile button within Litmaps to save them directly to your library, along with PDFs, if available.

Paperpile button in Litmaps
Save references from Litmaps to Paperpile with a single click.
How to save references from Litmaps to Paperpile

To save a reference, open the article details in Litmaps by clicking on the article title or on a circle in the map. Click on the Paperpile button, and it will be instantly added to your Paperpile library.

How to import references from Paperpile to Litmaps

Suppose you’ve already collected some papers for a project in Paperpile and you’d like to expand your collection.

You can easily import papers from your Paperpile library to Litmaps.

Export your selected references from Paperpile as a BibTeX or RIS file and import them into Litmaps to find more related research.

Export references from Paperpile
Export selected references from your Paperpile library.

You can also group papers by topic in Paperpile with folders or labels, then export to Litmaps to broaden your research.

How to start using Litmaps with Paperpile

To try our Litmaps integration today, make sure you have the Paperpile browser extension installed.

And if you have ideas for future website integrations, let us know!

About

Brought to you by the folks at Paperpile.

We love papers so we blog about it.

 

Follow us