About OpenScholar-AI
Our Mission
OpenScholar-AI helps researchers, students, and academics find free, legal, full-text journal articles from open access repositories. We believe that scientific knowledge should be accessible to everyone, and our platform makes it easy to discover quality research without paywalls.
How the Search Works
AI Query Understanding
When you enter a search query, our AI analyzes it to understand your research intent. It expands your query with related terms and concepts to find the most relevant results.
Multi-Source Search
We search across 8 major academic databases simultaneously: OpenAlex, PubMed, Europe PMC, arXiv, DOAJ, Crossref, CORE, and Unpaywall. This ensures comprehensive coverage of open access literature.
Cascading Phrase Matching
Like research databases, we search for your exact phrase first, then progressively fewer words. Results that match your complete phrase rank highest, ensuring the most relevant articles appear first.
Multi-Signal Validation
Every result is validated using multiple signals to ensure legitimacy and open access status. We check DOI validity, publisher reputation, license information, and full-text availability.
AI Explanations
For the top 20 results, our AI generates personalized explanations of why each article is relevant to your search and why you can trust the source.
Trust Score Explained
Each result receives a Trust Score from 0-100 based on multiple validation signals:
- DOI Verification: Valid DOIs from trusted registrars increase the score
- Publisher Reputation: Known academic publishers and repositories are prioritized
- Open Access License: Articles with clear open access licenses score higher
- Full-Text Availability: Confirmed free full-text access boosts the score
- Source Quality: Articles from multiple trusted sources receive bonus points
Our Data Sources
OpenAlex
Open catalog of scholarly works, authors, and institutions with over 250 million records.
PubMed / PubMed Central
The premier biomedical literature database from the National Library of Medicine.
Europe PMC
European life sciences literature database with open access full-text articles.
arXiv
Open access preprint repository for physics, mathematics, computer science, and more.
DOAJ
Directory of Open Access Journals - curated list of quality open access journals.
Crossref
Metadata for scholarly content with DOI registration and linking services.
CORE
Aggregates open access research from repositories and journals worldwide.
Unpaywall
Finds legal free versions of scholarly articles via open access repositories.
Why Searches Take Time
Searches typically take 15-30 seconds because we prioritize quality over speed. During this time, we:
- Query 8 different academic databases in parallel
- Deduplicate and merge results from multiple sources
- Validate each result for legitimacy and open access status
- Generate AI explanations for the top results
Legal & Ethical
OpenScholar-AI only links to legally free articles. We do not host any copyrighted content ourselves. All results are from legitimate open access repositories, preprint servers, author self-archives, and publisher-provided open access versions. We actively filter out pirate sites and unauthorized copies.