Catalogs and useful tools

ACNP, the Italian catalog of journals, allows you to search for journals across all Italian libraries participating in the catalog. You can search for a journal by title or ISSN. If you need an article from a journal held by a library listed in ACNP, you can request it through the document delivery service.

When to use it: To search for journals available in Italian libraries.
Website: ACNP

Catalogue of the National Library Service, managed by ICCU. It allows you to search for resources (books, journals, etc.) within the collections of libraries participating in the system. Searches can be conducted by specifying fields such as title, author, or subject, and results can be further refined using the available filters.

When to use it: To search for monographs available in Italian libraries.
Website: OPAC SBN

Catalog managed by OCLC that enables federated searches across the catalogs of participating libraries worldwide. Using search filters, you can specify the type of resource you are looking for (print book, e-book, journal, etc.) and check whether it is also available online for free (open access).

When to use it: To find resources in foreign languages.
Website: WorldCat

The catalog managed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology allows you to simultaneously select and search catalogs from various countries worldwide, along with commercial databases (e.g., Amazon) and other types of platforms (e.g., Google Books).

When to use it: To search for resources in foreign libraries.
Website: Karlsruher Virtual Catalog

The growing number of online resources can be overwhelming. A good first step in navigating and choosing the most suitable tool for your needs is to rely on platforms that compare the disciplinary coverage of various databases (both free and paid) and describe their specific features, such as Search Smart! Born from an individual initiative, this platform compares the most popular databases of scientific literature in English, helping you select the tool best suited to your needs.

Website: Search Smart

A search engine designed by Google specifically for scientific literature. It is easy to use but features outdated data and a search interface that is overly simplified.

Website: Google Scholar

A search engine for scientific literature operated by the Bielefeld University Library, responsible for selecting indexed resources while ensuring transparency and quality standards. It indexes 340 million resources from over 11,000 providers, including major publishers, and offers an accurate and comprehensive search interface.

Website: BASE

A research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. It uses artificial intelligence to provide additional (free) services that simplify research, such as:

• TLDRs (Too Long; Didn’t Read): Allows you to summarize and outline the content of a publication;
• Highly Influential Citations: Allows you to identify the most influential citations in a publication.

Website: Semantic Scholar

A citation database funded by Digital Science, a London-based technology company. It provides access to approximately two billion citations and allows you to view the publication in connection with grants, patents, clinical trials, datasets, and policy documents linked to it.

Website: Dimensions 

An open-source citation database developed by the non-profit organization OurResearch, with the primary goal of promoting Open Access.

Website: OpenAlex

A tool developed by a group of researchers that allows you to visualize publications on a given topic in a graph, grouping similar ones. Similarity is determined based on co-citation and bibliographic coupling criteria. All publications used to create the graphs are sourced from Semantic Scholar

Website: Connected papers

A scientific publication search platform managed by the open access publisher MDPI AG. It develops and integrates algorithms to provide impact indicators for publications and features a list of the most active publishers and journals at the Open Access level. It also allows you to use the 2030 Agenda goals as search filters.

Website: Scilit

A research tool developed by a group of researchers that uses artificial intelligence to create connection graphs between publications and link a user’s research interests with relevant publications and/or authors. Additionally, AI is used to generate abstracts.

Website: Research Rabbit

A platform created through the initiative of a private individual, offering two tools:

• Paper Discovery: Allows you to create a network of publications on the same topic by using citations;
• Literature Connector: Allows you to upload two publications and discover the relationships between them based on bibliographic citations.

Sito: Inciteful

A project by the Cambia company, it is a platform that allows the aggregation of various content, including scientific publications and patents.

Website: Lens.Org

The world’s first open access repository, created by physicist Paul Ginsparg in 1991. It hosts preprints primarily in physics and mathematics, but also in computer science and electrical engineering.

Website: ArXiv

A preprint repository in the field of engineering, managed since 2019 by Open Engineering Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes open access in engineering.

Website: EngrXiv

A directory of open access scientific journals curated by DOAJ, an independent and non-profit organization. This organization sets the criteria for including journals in the directory and supports a community of reviewers who ensure compliance with both formal and qualitative standards.

When to use it: Searching for OA journals.
Website: DOAJ

A directory of open access (and peer-reviewed) monographs and monograph publishers, managed by the DOAB Foundation and created in collaboration with DOAJ.

When to use it: Searching for OA monographs.
Website: DOAB

A digital library managed by a non-profit organization, it provides access to and/or digital lending of a wide range of sources, from books and journals to articles and media content such as videos or audio. Through the Wayback Machine platform, it is also possible to search web pages archived over nearly 30 years.

When to use it: Searching for historical data or documents (including websites)
Website: Internet Archive

A digital library managed by a non-profit organization led by the University of Michigan, it was created through the partnership of 60 American libraries and provides access to most of the digitized works of the participating libraries (if out of copyright).

When to use: Searching for historical or rare documents.
Website: Hathi Trust