Semantic Scholar
requiredFind paper candidates and citation trails without starting from SEO results.
Web & alerts Free · Graph API Free · Bulk datasets FreeOpen dossier →
Student research core
Students and supervisors who need a repeatable, source-first research workflow.
Before you start
- None — designed for first-time researchers
The stack at a glance
Stack cost calculator
Required tools from Free – $17.990000000000002/mo per month when every seat is on the cheapest monthly tier.
- Semantic ScholarrequiredFree
- ZoterorequiredFree
- PerplexityoptionalFree·$10/mo
- NotebookLMoptionalFree·$7.99/mo
Vendor annual plans, usage billing, and team seats can change the real bill. Treat this as a floor, not a quote.
A small tool stack for finding, saving, checking, and briefing sources without pretending chat is evidence.
Zotero
requiredStore only opened sources, PDFs, notes, and citation metadata.
Free Free · 2 GB $20/yr · 6 GB $60/yr · Unlimited $120/yr · Institutional CustomOpen dossier →
Perplexity
optionalRun fast cited web passes and spot missing context before the library search.
Free Free · Pro $20/mo · Max $200/mo · Education Pro $10/mo · Enterprise Pro $40/mo · Enterprise Max $325/mo · Sonar $1 · Sonar Pro $3 · Sonar Reasoning Pro $2 · Sonar Deep Research $2 · Agent API / Search API CustomOpen dossier →
NotebookLM
optionalInterrogate the source pack after you have already collected defensible material.
Standard Free · Plus $7.99/mo · Pro $19.99/mo · Student (Pro) $9.99/mo · Ultra 20TB $99.99/mo · Ultra 30TB $200/mo · Enterprise $9/moOpen dossier →
How the pieces fit together
- Write the research question and exclusion rule before opening any tool.
- Search Semantic Scholar for paper candidates; use Perplexity only to widen context.
- Open each candidate source and save it to Zotero only if it survives a relevance check.
- Load the surviving source pack into NotebookLM for claim checks, not for final prose.
- Write the brief with source types and caveats visible beside each claim.
This stack only earns its keep when you actually follow the run order.
- A cited answer is not a bibliography entry until you open and classify the source.
- NotebookLM is only as honest as the corpus you give it.
- Zotero becomes junk drawer fast if you save every candidate result.