A curated list of AI-powered tools, MCP servers, and agent skills for scientific research.
- Literature Search & Discovery
- Citation Management
- Research Reading & Comprehension
- Writing & Editing
- Data Analysis & Visualization
- Scientific Computing
- Figure & Diagram Generation
- Experiment & Lab Tools
- Drug Discovery & Chemistry
- Bioinformatics & Genomics
- Clinical Trials & Medical
- MCP Servers for Research
- AI Agent Skills & Plugins
- Research Workflow Automation
- Preprint & Publication Tools
- Grant Writing & Funding
- Collaboration & Project Management
- AI Models for Science
- Consensus - AI-powered academic search engine that extracts findings from peer-reviewed papers. Uses LLMs to synthesize yes/no answers from scientific literature.
- Semantic Scholar - Free AI-powered research tool by Allen Institute. Covers 200M+ papers with citation context, TLDR summaries, and influence scores.
- Elicit - AI research assistant that finds relevant papers, extracts key claims, and synthesizes findings across studies.
- Connected Papers - Visual tool for exploring academic paper connections. Builds a graph of related papers from any seed paper.
- Research Rabbit - Free tool for discovering and visualizing research paper networks. Monitors collections for new related papers.
- Scite.ai - Smart citation analysis showing how papers have been cited — supporting, contrasting, or mentioning.
- Litmaps - Dynamic citation maps for literature discovery. Tracks research lineages and finds gaps.
- OpenAlex - Free, open catalog of the global research system. 250M+ works with rich metadata and API access.
- Inciteful - Free tool to build a network of academic papers and analyze citation patterns.
- Zotero - Free, open-source reference manager with browser integration, PDF management, and Word/Google Docs plugins.
- Paperpile - Modern reference manager with Google Docs/Word integration and AI-powered metadata extraction.
- Mendeley - Reference manager with social networking features, PDF annotation, and collaboration tools.
- EndNote - Industry-standard reference manager with journal style databases and Cite While You Write for Word.
- ReadCube Papers - AI-enhanced reference manager with smart recommendations and enhanced PDF reader.
- SciSpace - AI copilot for reading papers. Explains text, math, and tables in plain language.
- Explainpaper - Upload a paper, highlight confusing text, get AI explanations.
- ChatPDF - Chat with any PDF document. Particularly useful for long research papers and reports.
- Scholarcy - AI summarizer that creates flashcards of key findings, methods, and contributions.
- Unriddle - AI assistant for understanding complex documents. Generates knowledge graphs from papers.
- Jenni AI - AI writing assistant specifically for academic writing with citation support and paraphrasing.
- Paperpal - AI grammar and language checker trained on millions of published papers. By Cactus Communications.
- Writefull - AI writing tool trained on published journal articles. Integrated into Overleaf.
- Trinka - AI grammar checker for academic and technical writing with style and tone suggestions.
- QuillBot - AI paraphrasing and summarizing tool with grammar checker and citation generator.
- Grammarly - General writing assistant with academic tone detection and plagiarism checking.
- Overleaf - Online LaTeX editor with real-time collaboration, templates, and Writefull AI integration.
- Typst - Modern markup-based typesetting system. Faster compilation than LaTeX with better error messages.
- Julius AI - AI data analyst that interprets data, creates visualizations, and runs statistical tests from natural language.
- Hal9 - AI-powered data analysis and dashboard creation from natural language queries.
- Obviously AI - No-code ML platform for prediction, classification, and time-series analysis.
- JASP - Free, open-source statistical software with both frequentist and Bayesian analysis. UI alternative to R/SPSS.
- Datawrapper - Create publication-ready charts, maps, and tables without coding.
- Plotly - Interactive graphing library for Python, R, and JavaScript with Dash framework for dashboards.
- Observable - Collaborative data visualization platform with reactive notebooks and D3.js integration.
- Wolfram Alpha - Computational knowledge engine for math, physics, chemistry, and engineering calculations.
- COMSOL - Multiphysics simulation with AI-enhanced meshing and solver selection.
- MATLAB - Numerical computing environment with AI/ML toolboxes, Simulink, and domain-specific packages.
- Google Colab - Free Jupyter notebook environment with GPU/TPU access for ML and scientific computing.
- Weights & Biases - ML experiment tracking, hyperparameter tuning, and model versioning.
- DVC - Open-source version control for ML projects. Tracks data, models, and experiments alongside code.
- BioRender - Scientific illustration tool with 50K+ icons for biology, chemistry, and medical figures.
- Mermaid - Text-based diagramming in Markdown. Flowcharts, sequence diagrams, Gantt charts — all from code.
- draw.io / diagrams.net - Free, open-source diagramming tool with scientific shape libraries.
- Inkscape - Free, open-source vector graphics editor. Publication-quality SVG figures.
- Matplotlib - Python 2D plotting library producing publication-quality figures. The foundation of scientific visualization in Python.
- Seaborn - Statistical visualization library built on Matplotlib. Beautiful defaults for publication figures.
- PlotNeuralNet - LaTeX code for drawing neural network architecture diagrams.
- Excalidraw - Hand-drawn style whiteboarding tool. Great for conceptual diagrams and brainstorming.
- Benchling - Cloud platform for life sciences R&D — molecular biology, CRISPR design, inventory management.
- LabArchives - Electronic lab notebook with version control, collaboration, and institutional compliance.
- Protocols.io - Open-access platform for sharing reproducible research protocols with version tracking.
- Hive Benchmarks - AI-powered lab workflow optimization and equipment benchmarking.
- AlphaFold - DeepMind's protein structure prediction. 200M+ predicted structures in the database.
- RDKit - Open-source cheminformatics toolkit for molecular analysis, fingerprinting, and descriptor calculation.
- DeepChem - Open-source library for drug discovery, materials science, and quantum chemistry with deep learning.
- ChEMBL - Open large-scale bioactivity database with 2M+ compounds and 20M+ activity measurements.
- ZINC - Free database of commercially available compounds for virtual screening. 230M+ molecules.
- Schrödinger - Physics-based computational platform for drug discovery and materials science.
- Open Babel - Open-source chemical toolbox for molecular file format conversion and fingerprinting.
- PubChem - Open chemistry database with 100M+ compounds, bioassays, and literature references.
- Galaxy - Open-source web platform for accessible, reproducible bioinformatics analysis.
- Biopython - Python tools for computational molecular biology — sequence analysis, structure, phylogenetics.
- BLAST - Basic Local Alignment Search Tool for comparing nucleotide or protein sequences.
- Nextflow - Workflow engine for scalable, reproducible bioinformatics pipelines across computing environments.
- DESeq2 - R package for differential gene expression analysis from RNA-seq count data.
- Scanpy - Python toolkit for single-cell gene expression analysis with scalable performance.
- IGV - Integrative Genomics Viewer for interactive visualization of genomic data.
- ClinicalTrials.gov - US registry of clinical studies. 500K+ studies, searchable by condition, intervention, and sponsor.
- PubMed - Free search engine for biomedical literature. 36M+ citations from MEDLINE and life science journals.
- Europe PMC - Open-access biomedical literature with full-text search, citation networks, and API access.
- Cochrane Library - Gold-standard systematic reviews and meta-analyses for evidence-based medicine.
- OHDSI / OMOP - Open-source tools for observational health data analysis with a common data model.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers extend AI agents with real-time access to scientific databases.
- PubMed MCP - Search and retrieve biomedical literature from PubMed/MEDLINE.
- arXiv MCP - Search and fetch preprints from arXiv across all scientific domains.
- Semantic Scholar MCP - Access the Semantic Scholar API for paper search, citations, and recommendations.
- ChEMBL MCP - Query bioactivity data, compound information, and target interactions.
- ClinicalTrials MCP - Search clinical trial registries and extract study details.
- bioRxiv MCP - Access preprints from bioRxiv and medRxiv.
- CrossRef MCP - Metadata lookup for DOIs, citations, and publication records.
- Google Scholar MCP - Search Google Scholar for academic papers and citations.
Skills and plugins that extend AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) for research workflows.
- Professional Word Document Generator - Generate publication-ready .docx from JSON. LaTeX equations, 200+ scientific symbols, auto-citations.
- Multi-Agent Orchestrator - 6-phase pipeline with adaptive complexity, parallel agents, and quality gates.
- AI Session Logger - Persistent session memory — track files, decisions, and progress across conversations.
- Claude Scientific Skills - 148+ scientific skills for Claude Code across multiple domains.
- Awesome Claude Code - Curated list of Claude Code extensions, skills, and resources.
- Snakemake - Python-based workflow management for reproducible and scalable data analysis.
- Apache Airflow - Platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor data workflows.
- Prefect - Modern workflow orchestration for data engineering and ML pipelines.
- Kedro - Open-source Python framework for creating reproducible, maintainable, and modular data science code.
- CWL - Common Workflow Language for describing analysis tools and workflows portably.
- Papermill - Parameterize and execute Jupyter Notebooks as workflows.
- arXiv - Open-access preprint server for physics, math, CS, biology, and more. 2M+ papers.
- bioRxiv - Preprint server for biology. Fast publication, free access.
- medRxiv - Preprint server for health sciences.
- ChemRxiv - Preprint server for chemistry.
- Authorea - Collaborative writing platform with built-in data visualization and journal submission.
- Curvenote - Scientific writing platform with Jupyter integration and interactive figures.
- Granted.ai - AI-powered grant writing assistant with proposal optimization.
- GrantForward - Funding opportunity search engine covering 14K+ sponsors.
- Pivot-RP - Comprehensive funding discovery tool with researcher profiles and collaboration matching.
- Dimensions - Linked research data platform connecting grants, publications, patents, and clinical trials.
- NIH Reporter - Search NIH-funded research projects, publications, and patents.
- Notion - All-in-one workspace for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. Popular for lab management.
- Obsidian - Markdown-based knowledge management with graph view, plugins, and local-first storage.
- Logseq - Open-source, privacy-first knowledge management and note-taking tool.
- Slack - Team communication with channels, integrations, and automation for research groups.
- OSF - Open Science Framework — free platform for research project management, preregistration, and data sharing.
- AlphaFold 3 - Predicts structures of proteins, DNA, RNA, ligands, and their interactions.
- Galactica - Large language model trained on 48M+ scientific papers, textbooks, and encyclopedias.
- BioGPT - Domain-specific LLM pre-trained on biomedical literature by Microsoft.
- SciBERT - BERT model trained on 1.14M scientific papers from Semantic Scholar.
- ChemBERTa - BERT model for molecular property prediction using SMILES representations.
- ESM - Evolutionary Scale Modeling — protein language models by Meta AI.
- MolBERT - BERT-based molecular representation learning for drug discovery.
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