Unified Literature Search
Stop opening ten browser tabs to find papers. With Apex Scholar, one search queries ArXiv, Google Scholar, PubMed, Semantic Scholar, and OpenAlex simultaneously.
How It Works
- Go to Explore
- Type your keywords (e.g., "federated learning in healthcare")
- Toggle the sources you want
- Click Search
Results appear in a single table. Each row shows the paper’s title, authors, year, source, and abstract.
Saving Time
Instead of:
- ArXiv → save → copy title → open new tab for Google Scholar → repeat…
You get everything in one place. Click the bookmark icon and the paper goes straight to your Resources.
Why Multiple Sources?
- ArXiv: Fast, free preprints—great for cutting-edge work not yet published
- Google Scholar: Broad coverage, including paywalled articles (links to publisher sites)
- PubMed: Essential for biomed/life sciences; MeSH terms improve precision
- Semantic Scholar: AI-powered relevance ranking and open access PDFs
- OpenAlex: Clean metadata and relationships (citations, authors)
Combining sources gives you more comprehensive results.
Tips
- Use specific keywords; broad terms return thousands
- If Google Scholar returns no results, your API key may be missing—admin can configure it
- Bookmark often; you can tag later
- Export your search history to a note for future reference
Limitations
- Rate limits apply; you can only search so many times per minute
- Some sources require API keys (admin-provided)
- Full-text PDFs are not directly downloaded—only metadata and links