{"slug": "semantic-scholar", "name": "Semantic Scholar", "category": "search", "category_name": "Search", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.114, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-20", "latest": "2026-09-24", "why": "Semantic Scholar in particular is doing great work in this area", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Semantic Scholar in particular is doing great work in this area", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "semanticscholar.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.semanticscholar.org/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Semantic Scholar"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797237904, "item_id": 49827369, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827369", "by": "lemontheme", "date": "2026-09-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend something like semanticscholar to find actual relevant papers", "excerpt": "My take: if not for arxiv and huggingface, the field of ML would be nowhere near where it is today. More to your question, I recommend something like semanticscholar to find actual relevant papers. Try to identify researchers that seem trustworthy, then explore the citation network around them. For more hot off the press stuff, follow what gets boosted on social media. Still doesn\u2019t cover the truly niche stuff but it", "context": "", "use_case": "finding relevant papers", "switched_from": "", "story": "ArXiv receives multiyear commitments to support it as an independent nonprofit"}, {"id": 769584337, "item_id": 48099021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48099021", "by": "smokel", "date": "2026-05-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "except for SemanticScholar [1], which might have been lucky being one of the first.", "excerpt": "People will not flock somewhere unless they sense some potential return on investment. If a website looks like it will disappear in a few months, it does not make sense for a user to invest time and effort into it. You have to either invest a lot to get a critical mass to join your site, or make it extremely entertaining to be there from the start. Apart from all the criticism, this is what Facebook, Instagram, Twitt", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: TikTok but for Scientific Papers"}, {"id": 747533392, "item_id": 46720837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46720837", "by": "gcr", "date": "2026-01-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Semantic Scholar in particular is doing great work in this area", "excerpt": "Academics typically use citation count and popularity as a rough proxy for validation. It's certainly not perfect, but it is something that people think about. Semantic Scholar in particular is doing great work in this area, making it easy to see who cites who: https://www.semanticscholar.org/ Google Scholar's PDF reader extension turns every hyperlinked citation into a popout card that shows citation counts inline i", "context": "", "use_case": "Citation exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPTZero finds 100 new hallucinations in NeurIPS 2025 accepted papers"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["finding relevant papers", "citation exploration"], "compared": [{"slug": "alphaxiv", "name": "alphaXiv", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49823664", "title": "ArXiv receives multiyear commitments to support it as an independent nonprofit", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096842", "title": "Show HN: TikTok but for Scientific Papers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46720395", "title": "GPTZero finds 100 new hallucinations in NeurIPS 2025 accepted papers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46264491", "title": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45991035", "title": "Show HN: Interactive research papers (a big step up from ArXiv HTML)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"compare": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 797237904, "item_id": 49827369, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827369", "by": "lemontheme", "date": "2026-09-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend something like semanticscholar to find actual relevant papers", "excerpt": "My take: if not for arxiv and huggingface, the field of ML would be nowhere near where it is today. More to your question, I recommend something like semanticscholar to find actual relevant papers. Try to identify researchers that seem trustworthy, then explore the citation network around them. For more hot off the press stuff, follow what gets boosted on social media. Still doesn\u2019t cover the truly niche stuff but it", "context": "", "use_case": "finding relevant papers", "switched_from": "", "story": "ArXiv receives multiyear commitments to support it as an independent nonprofit"}, {"id": 769584337, "item_id": 48099021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48099021", "by": "smokel", "date": "2026-05-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "except for SemanticScholar [1], which might have been lucky being one of the first.", "excerpt": "People will not flock somewhere unless they sense some potential return on investment. If a website looks like it will disappear in a few months, it does not make sense for a user to invest time and effort into it. You have to either invest a lot to get a critical mass to join your site, or make it extremely entertaining to be there from the start. Apart from all the criticism, this is what Facebook, Instagram, Twitt", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: TikTok but for Scientific Papers"}, {"id": 747533392, "item_id": 46720837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46720837", "by": "gcr", "date": "2026-01-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Semantic Scholar in particular is doing great work in this area", "excerpt": "Academics typically use citation count and popularity as a rough proxy for validation. It's certainly not perfect, but it is something that people think about. Semantic Scholar in particular is doing great work in this area, making it easy to see who cites who: https://www.semanticscholar.org/ Google Scholar's PDF reader extension turns every hyperlinked citation into a popout card that shows citation counts inline i", "context": "", "use_case": "Citation exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPTZero finds 100 new hallucinations in NeurIPS 2025 accepted papers"}, {"id": 740366049, "item_id": 46272878, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272878", "by": "eamag", "date": "2025-12-15", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "compared to https://www.alphaxiv.org/, https://www.semanticscholar.org/", "excerpt": "What's the core feature compared to https://www.alphaxiv.org/, https://www.semanticscholar.org/ and just using Gemini? I feel like there are many research assistants but not sure which one is the best", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}, {"id": 735858080, "item_id": 45991130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45991130", "by": "abracos", "date": "2025-11-20", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "http://semanticscholar.org/ come to mind", "excerpt": "Cool project, the space is very crowded: https://x.com/JeffDean/status/1991053401061536027 and http://semanticscholar.org/ come to mind", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Interactive research papers (a big step up from ArXiv HTML)"}]}