LitTrace turns a research question into a complete interactive citation network in minutes — foundational theories, seminal works, domain columns, and landmark papers, sourced from 15 academic databases.
Semantic Scholar, then PubMed, then Web of Science. By the third source, the spreadsheet doesn't track which paper came from where.
You follow citations from paper #42, lose #38, get pulled into an unrelated #97, and surface again at midnight wondering what you were after.
You compile two hundred papers and only at month four does your advisor mention the foundational framework that defined the field in 1985.
Drop in a research question. LitTrace identifies the foundational theory underneath it, maps five supporting research domains, and pins the seminal works that anchor each. The only tool that begins from a question, not a seed paper.
Six majors plus nine regional sources, queried in parallel and deduplicated.
Automated multi-hop citation discovery, ranked by relevance.
Visual canvas. Filter, expand, pin. Heatmaps reveal where the literature thins; tag gaps for the discussion section.
Drop any PDF, DOI, or title and LitTrace builds the network outward from its bibliography in one pass.
Excel · BibTeX · RIS · APA 7th — preserved annotations.
SciELO · AJOL · CyberLeninka · J-STAGE · OpenAIRE.
Type it. Paste a paper title. Or drop in a seed PDF. Twenty characters minimum.
15 databases in parallel. Theory identified. Domains mapped. Citations scored.
Pan, filter, expand. Pin papers. Tag gaps. Export in four formats. Share with your advisor.
| Capability | LitTrace | Connected Papers | Litmaps | ResearchRabbit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Databases searched | 15 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| AI theory identification | — | — | — | |
| Forward citation chaining | ||||
| Backward citation chaining | ||||
| Start from a paper | ||||
| Start from a question | — | — | — | |
| PDF upload & analysis | — | — | — | |
| Export formats | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Regional coverage | 7 regions | — | — | — |
| Interactive network with domains | — | — | — | |
| Share with advisor | — | — | — |
For the curious researcher mapping a single area of interest.
Everything a doctoral candidate needs for a defensible review.
For research departments and lab groups with shared workflows.
Citation chaining is the process of following references both forward — newer papers citing a work — and backward, to the older works a paper cites. LitTrace automates this across 15 academic databases in a single pass.
LitTrace searches 15 academic databases simultaneously, including Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Web of Science, PubMed, Crossref, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, and seven regional databases covering Latin America, Africa, Russia, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Yes. Drop in any paper as a PDF, DOI, or title and LitTrace will use its references and citing works to build the network outward. Included on every plan, including the free tier.
Free users export to Excel. Pro and Team users export to Excel, BibTeX, RIS for Zotero or EndNote, and APA 7th edition. Annotations and pinned papers are preserved across exports.
Yes. The Researcher tier is free and includes three sessions per month, five databases, Excel export, and the standard network visualization. Pro is $19 per month for unlimited sessions.
Connected Papers searches a single database — Semantic Scholar. LitTrace searches 15, identifies the foundational theory behind a research question, supports PDF upload and analysis, and exports to four formats. Connected Papers does not offer any of these.
Yes. LitTrace uses Claude on Amazon Bedrock to identify the foundational theory underlying your research question, then maps five supporting research domains. Unique to LitTrace.
Yes. Pro users generate a read-only share link to any network. Team users get a shared workspace with comments and an advisor review mode.