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Day 68: new resources are added every day. See what's new
Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Web App

Open Knowledge Maps

A free visual search engine that maps out any research topic.

Visit Open Knowledge Maps4.5

  • Rating

    4.5 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Beginner

  • Works on

    Web

Built with love by Shushant Lakhyani. Building bestproductivityresources.com

Free: 1,100+ ways people make money onlineFree: 399+ ways to make money online

What is Open Knowledge Maps?

Open Knowledge Maps searches millions of open scholarly papers and groups the results into a clickable knowledge map, so you can see the main sub-topics of a field at a glance and jump straight to relevant open access papers. It is run by a non-profit and is free to use without an account.

Pros: what Open Knowledge Maps does well

  • Shows the shape of a topic visually
  • Focuses on open access papers
  • Non-profit and free

Cons: where it falls short

  • Maps can be rough for very niche topics
  • Fewer filters than full academic databases

Who Open Knowledge Maps is for

Students and researchers starting a literature review on an unfamiliar topic.

Who can skip it

People who already know exactly which papers they need.

Open Knowledge Maps alternatives

Not sold on Open Knowledge Maps? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Research resources

NotebookLMEditor's pick, verified

Focus: citations, summaries and study. Shares research with Open Knowledge Maps. Freemium (Open Knowledge Maps: Free). Adds iOS and Android. Rated 4.6 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

Web AppFree planWeb, iOS
4.6Visit

Connected Papers

Focus: academic papers and citations. Shares literature review and research with Open Knowledge Maps. Freemium (Open Knowledge Maps: Free). Rated 4.6 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

Web AppFree planWeb
4.6Visit

Litmaps

Focus: citations and papers. Shares literature review and research with Open Knowledge Maps. Freemium (Open Knowledge Maps: Free). Same 4.5 rating.

Web AppFree planWeb
4.5Visit

Our World in Data

Focus: data and statistics. Shares research and open access with Open Knowledge Maps. A website, not a web app. Rated 4.8 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

WebsiteFreeWeb
4.8Visit

Are.na

Focus: moodboard, bookmarks and collections. Shares research with Open Knowledge Maps. Freemium (Open Knowledge Maps: Free). Adds iOS, Android and Chrome. Rated 4.6 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

Web AppFree planWeb, iOS
4.6Visit

ResearchRabbit

Focus: citation map, academic research and papers. Shares literature review with Open Knowledge Maps. Freemium (Open Knowledge Maps: Free). Rated 4.6 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

Web AppFree planWeb
4.6Visit

Free alternatives to Open Knowledge Maps

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Rosetta Code

Focus: programming, code examples and languages. Also in Learning and Research, like Open Knowledge Maps. A website, not a web app. Same 4.5 rating.

WebsiteFreeWeb
4.5Visit

Glasp

Focus: highlights, annotations and read later. Also in Research and Knowledge Management, like Open Knowledge Maps. A browser extension, not a web app. Adds Chrome and Safari. Rated 4.4 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

Browser ExtensionFreeChrome, Safari
4.4Visit

Wikipedia

Focus: encyclopedia, reference and open knowledge. Shares research with Open Knowledge Maps. A website, not a web app. Adds iOS and Android. Rated 4.8 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

WebsiteFreeWeb, iOS
4.8Visit

Internet Archive

Focus: digital library, wayback machine and archives. Shares research with Open Knowledge Maps. A website, not a web app. Rated 4.7 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

WebsiteFreeWeb
4.7Visit

Google Dataset Search

Focus: datasets, open data and data analysis. Shares research with Open Knowledge Maps. A website, not a web app. Rated 4.6 (Open Knowledge Maps: 4.5).

WebsiteFreeWeb
4.6Visit
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