About Only Research
For students, researchers, and academics navigating the world of scholarly collaboration.
When I was looking for professors in my research area, I found myself juggling half a dozen sites — Google Scholar, university faculty pages, ResearchGate, ORCID, random lab websites. None of them let me just type a topic and see who’s actually publishing in that field, ranked by their work.
Only Research is my attempt at fixing that. One search box, one place to find professors by what they research — with their papers, citations, and links to reach them. Whether you’re cold-emailing for an RA position, shortlisting PhD advisors, or just exploring who’s doing interesting work in your field — this should save you hours.
It’s not just for students, though. Faculty looking for reviewers or panelists in a specific area can quickly surface active researchers. Conference organizers can map who’s publishing in a niche. And if you’re a researcher yourself, it’s a handy way to double-check your own collaboration network and discover potential collaborators you might have missed.
How to use it
Search by topic
Enter any research area — “computational neuroscience”, “gene therapy”, “climate modeling” — and get a list of professors who publish in that field. Results are ranked by relevance to the topic.
Search by name
Already know who you’re looking for? Switch to name search and find them directly.
Search by institution
Switch to institution search to find all researchers at a specific university — “MIT”, “Stanford”, “ETH Zurich”. Combine with filters to narrow by country or citations.
Filter & export results
Narrow down by country, minimum citations, or sort by most cited or most published. Export any search results to CSV for offline tracking.
Professor profiles
Click any professor to see their full profile — research topics, publications (sortable and filterable by year), citation metrics, frequent co-authors, and direct links to OpenAlex, ORCID, Google Scholar, and their lab page. Draft a cold email, report whether they’re accepting students, or share their profile.
Save & compare
Bookmark professors to My List, add notes, track your outreach status, and compare up to four professors side by side with topic overlap analysis.
Explore research networks
Use the 3D network explorer to visualize collaboration graphs. Search a topic to see how the top researchers in a field connect, or search an author to map their co-author network. Click any node to expand it, see their research areas, and discover new collaborators.
Who is this for?
| Students | Find research assistantships, PhD advisors, or labs to join by searching your area of interest. |
| Faculty | Identify reviewers, panelists, or potential collaborators in a specific research niche. |
| Researchers | Audit your own collaboration network, discover adjacent researchers, and explore how your field connects. |
| Organizers | Map who’s actively publishing in a topic when planning conferences, workshops, or special issues. |
Data
All data comes from OpenAlex, a free and open catalog of 240M+ academic works, authors, and institutions. The data is licensed under CC0. Only Research is not affiliated with any university or institution.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find a PhD advisor?
Use the topic search to find professors actively publishing in your field of interest. Review their recent publications, citation metrics, and h-index to gauge their research activity. Once you find a good match, use the built-in email draft feature to compose a personalized cold email referencing their latest work.
How do I cold email a professor for research?
Start by visiting a professor's profile on Only Research to understand their current research topics and recent publications. Then use the built-in email generator, which creates a personalized draft based on the professor's actual work. This helps you write a targeted message that references specific papers and research areas rather than sending a generic template.
How do I compare research professors?
Save professors to your My List by clicking the bookmark icon on any professor card or profile page. Once you have at least two professors saved, click the Compare button to see them side by side. The comparison view shows h-index, citation counts, publication volume, 2-year mean citedness, research topics, and highlights overlapping areas of expertise.
What data does Only Research use?
Only Research is powered by OpenAlex, a free and open catalog of more than 240 million academic works, authors, and institutions. All data is licensed under CC0 (public domain), meaning it is freely available with no restrictions. The data includes publications, citations, co-author relationships, institutional affiliations, and research topic classifications.
Is Only Research free to use?
Yes, Only Research is completely free to use. There is no sign-up required, no account needed, and no premium tier. All features including search, professor profiles, saving to your list, comparing professors, and exporting to CSV are available at no cost.
Built by Samanvya Tripathi