Additional Tools & Resources

Beyond Review Buddy (the primary toolkit featured in this book), there are several excellent complementary tools that can enhance your literature review workflow. This section provides practical guides for:

📚 Tools Covered

Paper-Finder

GUI-based tool for discovering and searching papers across multiple databases

Paper-Finder

Info-Extractor

Extract information from papers in a structured way for systematic analysis

Info-Extractor

️ LitMaps

Visual citation mapping tool for discovering related papers through citation networks

LitMaps

Consensus

AI-powered search engine for finding scientific consensus across research papers

Consensus

🤖 Elicit

AI research assistant for literature review automation and data extraction

Elicit

Tool Selection Guide

Different tools excel at different stages of the literature review process:

        graph TD
    A[Research Question] --> B{Initial Search}
    B -->|GUI Tool| PF[Paper-Finder]
    B -->|Primary Tool| C[Review Buddy]
    
    PF --> F{Enhancement Phase}
    C --> F
    
    F -->|Citation Discovery| G[LitMaps]
    F -->|Check Consensus| H[Consensus]
    F -->|AI Analysis| I[Elicit]
    
    G --> J[Complete Paper Set]
    H --> J
    I --> J
    
    J --> K[Info-Extractor]
    K --> L[Structured Data]
    
    style PF fill:#e1f5fe
    style C fill:#e3f2fd
    style G fill:#fff3e0
    style H fill:#fff3e0
    style I fill:#fff3e0
    style J fill:#e8f5e9
    style K fill:#f3e5f5
    style L fill:#f1f8e9
    

Complementary Workflows

These tools work best when combined with Review Buddy:

Workflow 1: Comprehensive Discovery

1. Initial Search: Use Review Buddy for a systematic multi-database search

2. Citation Mapping: Upload results/references.bib to LitMaps to discover related work

3. Validation: Check scientific consensus with Consensus

Workflow 2: Exploratory Scoping

1. Quick Exploration: Use Paper-Finder’s GUI to try search terms on PubMed and arXiv

2. Refine the Query: Turn the terms that work into a boolean query in Review Buddy’s query.txt

3. Systematic Search: Run Review Buddy across all databases

Workflow 3: AI-Assisted Review

1. Broad Search: Use Review Buddy with AI-powered filtering (python main.py --ai)

2. AI Screening: Use Elicit for additional screening and categorization

3. Network Analysis: Use LitMaps to check for missed papers

4. Data Extraction: Use Info-Extractor on the downloaded PDFs

Quick Comparison

Tool	Type	Best For	Access	Cost
Review Buddy	Python Scripts	Systematic reviews, advanced filtering	Local	Free
Paper-Finder	Local web GUI	Exploratory searches on PubMed and arXiv	Local	Free
Info-Extractor	Local web app	Structured data extraction from PDFs	Local	Free
LitMaps	Web App	Citation network discovery	Web	Freemium
Consensus	Web App	Finding scientific consensus	Web	Freemium
Elicit	Web App	AI-powered screening & extraction	Web	Freemium

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Recommended Approach

Start with Review Buddy as your primary tool, then enhance your workflow with these complementary tools as needed!