Best AI tools for writing research papers (free and paid)

Written by: Alessandra Giugliano

The world of academic research is constantly evolving, and staying ahead is crucial for your success as a student, researcher, or academic. In the last two years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become indispensable for academic writing, offering a wide range of capabilities, from finding relevant articles and conferences, to assisting with the writing process itself.

As a student or researcher, you must ensure that your work is original, well-researched, and academically sound. Indeed, tools generating content are leading you to plagiarism, academic misconduct, or even paper rejections. Instead of writing for you, they should support your work by providing feedback, citation assistance, research support, and clarity improvements. Because of that, universities and academic institutions are still defining policies on artificial intelligence use, making it even more important to choose tools that align with ethical writing practices.

Whether you are writing a research paper, a grant application, or your thesis, AI tools can make academic writing faster, clearer, and more organized. However, today has such a vast array of options available, it seems impossible to decide where to start.

This is why this blog will help you explore the best AI tools for writing research papers in 2025, covering everything from article and conference finders to tools that help you write, summarize, and refine your work. We selected our top 10 artificial intelligence programs, ranging from the free subscription to the paid ones. They are divided in 3 main categories : writing and proofreading assistance, summaries and reference help, and learning and studies assistance.  

But first, …

What Makes an AI Tool Ethical for Academic Writing?

Ethical AI tools generally follow these key principles:

• They don’t write the paper for you. AI should assist, not replace your academic work.

• They provide feedback, sources, or structure, not content. Unlike AI models that produce entire essays, the tools in this list help you improve what you’ve already written.

• They help enhance clarity, citations, and research without violating academic integrity policies. AI should function like a writing coach, second reader, or research assistant, not as a ghostwriter.

Students often struggle with revision and improving their own work, which is why it's essential to use AI as a tool for refining ideas rather than replacing them. 

Additionally, AI-powered tools can help strengthen academic arguments, organize research, and improve writing quality. For more on this topic, check out our discussion on how targeted feedback can turn a weak draft into a strong paper here.

Our guide explores the best AI tools for academic writing in 2025, covering everything from AI-powered feedback tools to citation managers, research assistants, and visualization tools. Whether you’re starting a research paper, organizing sources, or refining your final draft, these tools will help you write with purpose while staying within ethical academic guidelines.​​

Writing and proofreading assistance

1. thesify – Best for AI-Powered Academic Reviews

Most students never get clear, structured feedback on their writing. Professors don’t have the time for detailed comments, and generic grammar checkers don’t explain why your argument is weak or how to make it stronger. This is where thesify comes in. Unlike tools that just correct grammar, the program acts like an expert reviewer—it evaluates your work the way a professor would, giving real, structured feedback.

Academic Task: 

Get feedback on your academic writing: improves structure, clarity, and argumentation through AI-powered feedback

How to Use: 

• Upload your: essay, thesis, or research paper to thesify.

• Receive structured structured feedback on:

  • Clarity — Are your ideas clear, or is your writing confusing?

  • Logical Flow — Does your argument build properly, or is it disorganized?

  • Evidence Use — Are you supporting your claims effectively?

  • Use actionable suggestions to revise your work while maintaining your academic voice

What We Like:

• More than just grammar correction: thesify identifies argument weaknesses and structural flaws

• Instead of vague comments like “reword this”: it will explain what's wrong and how to fix it.

• Unlike ChatGPT or JenniAI, it doesn’t rewrite content: it helps students strengthen their own writing

• Ideal: for thesis writing 

• Helps you deliver impactful messages: turns weak essays into stronger arguments

What We Don’t Like:

• Does not correct grammar, spelling or wording. It’s complementary to Grammarly (see below)

Price: Free; Premium Starts at $4.99/month

Link: Try thesify 

2. Grammarly – Best for Grammar & Clarity Checks

Academic Task: 

Identifies and corrects grammar, spelling, and clarity issues

How to Use:

• Install the browser extension: you can choose from MS Word add-on or desktop app.

• Receive real-time grammar: improve your clarity and get conciseness suggestions.

• Use premium features: to check for academic tone and plagiarism, you can subscribe to the paid version. 

What We Like:

• Clarity: Best for fixing sentence-level clarity issues

• Compatible with a range of platforms: works across multiple platforms, including Google Docs

What We Don’t Like:

• Doesn’t analyze argument structure or logic: it’s complementary to thesify which gives you a deep analysis of your essay or thesis. 

Price: Free; Premium starts at $12/month

Link: Try Grammarly 

3. Antidote – Best for Enhancing the Details of your Writings

Academic Task :

Assists students and researchers by providing writing corrector, dictionaries and guides to fix problems with spelling and enhancing their writing style, as well as providing them with word definition and helpful tips to understand how to write better.

How to Use:

• Install Antidote on your device: you can choose to run it locally on your Mac or Windows PC or use Antidote Web with your browser. You can also have it on your mobile device.

• Opt for your preferred language: Antidote is available to use in English as well as in French.

• Receive tips to enhance your writing: paste your text in the corrector and obtain valuable spelling and grammar corrections, synonyms and better phrasing of your sentences.

What we like:

• Bilingual: the corrector can alternate between French and English in the same document.

• Big database: it provides suggestions to reformulate your writing, and every word, expression, proverb and word combination is translated from one language to the other seamlessly.

• Learn new words: you have access to a dictionary to understand better and learn new words or expressions, as well as their pronunciations.

 What we don’t like:

• Doesn’t analyze argument or structure logic : similar to Grammarly, it doesn’t evaluate your work like thesify do, it’s more a tool to improve the details of your writing.

 Price: 59$/per year

Link: Try Antidote

Summaries and reference help 

4. Zotero – Best for Citation Management & Reference Organization

Academic Task:

Organizes and manages research citations, references, and related materials.

How to Use:

• Install Zotero: Download and install Zotero for your operating system from the official website.

• Browser Integration: Add the Zotero Connector to your preferred browser to save citations directly from academic sources.

• Organize Your Library: Create collections and subcollections to categorize your references.

• Annotate and Highlight: Use the built-in reader to annotate PDFs, EPUBs, and web snapshots.

• Generate Citations: Automatically create citations and bibliographies in various styles, including APA, MLA, and Chicago.

What We Like:

• Free and Open-Source: Zotero is accessible to all researchers without cost.

• Cross-Platform Support: Available on macOS, Windows, Linux, and iOS, with a beta version for Android.

• Enhanced Performance: Zotero 7 offers improved speed and native support for Apple Silicon Macs and 64-bit Windows systems.

• Advanced Annotation Tools: New annotation types, including ink, underline, and text annotations, enhance the reading experience.

What We Don’t Like:

• Learning Curve: New users may need time to explore before they understand all features.

Price: Free.

Link: Try Zotero

5. Litmaps – Best for Research Visualization & Paper Discovery

Academic Task:

Visualizes academic research connections through dynamic citation mapping and facilitates discovery of relevant literature.

How to Use:

• Create a Litmap: Input a research topic or key paper to generate a visual citation map.

• Explore Connections: Identify key papers and see how research is interconnected over time.

• Monitor Updates: Set up alerts to stay informed about new publications related to your research interests.

• Tag and Organize: Use tags to categorize and manage saved papers.

What We Like:

• Dynamic Visualization: Provides a clear, visual representation of research landscapes.

• Semantic Search: The recent addition of semantic search allows finding papers through abstract similarity, enhancing discovery.

• Integration with Zotero: Syncs with Zotero accounts for streamlined reference management.

What We Don’t Like:

• Subscription Model: Advanced features require a Pro subscription.

Price: Free with 10$ a month premium plan available.

Link: Try Litmaps

6. Semantic Scholar – Best for Exploring Citation Networks & Research Influence

Academic Task:

Helps students and researchers understand the connections between academic papers by analyzing citations, identifying highly influential research, and mapping out research trends.

How to Use:

• Analyze Citation Networks – Search for a paper and view its citation graph to see who cited it, who it cited, and how ideas evolved over time.

• Discover Influential Research – Identify the most highly cited papers in a field to ensure you’re engaging with foundational studies.

• Explore Related Work – Use Semantic Scholar’s AI-powered recommendations to find additional research related to a specific topic.

• Use AI Summaries to Grasp Key Findings – The TLDR feature provides a one-sentence summary of each paper’s main contribution, helping students quickly determine if a source is relevant.

What We Like:

• Best for understanding how research builds over time: ideal for students working on literature reviews who need to track key academic debates.

• Regroups popular articles: great for discovering highly cited and influential research, not just recent publications.

• AI-powered TLDR summaries: making it easy to scan multiple papers quickly.

• Doesn’t just provide sources: it helps students understand the broader research landscape.

What We Don’t Like:

• Lack of a citation library: doesn’t offer a built-in citation management system like Zotero.

• Lack of quick synopsis: focuses on finding influential research but doesn’t integrate reference summaries like thesify.

Price: Free.

Link: Try Semantic Scholar

 7. Scite_ – Best for Citation Analysis & Smart Referencing

Academic Task:

Enhances literature review and research evaluation by providing context-rich citations and AI-powered insights into scholarly articles.

How to Use:

• Conduct Advanced Searches: Enter your research topic or specific queries to access a comprehensive database of scholarly articles.

• Utilize Smart Citations: View citations within articles to understand how they have been supported or contrasted by subsequent research.

• Explore Citation Networks: Analyze citation graphs to see how research builds upon previous studies, identifying influential papers in your field.

• Integrate with Reference Managers: Sync your Scite account with Zotero or Mendeley to manage and organize your references seamlessly.

What We Like:

• Smart Citations: Provides context to citations, indicating whether they support or contrast the cited work, aiding in critical analysis.

• Comprehensive Database: Access to over 200 million scholarly sources, including preprints and open-access materials.

• AI-Powered Assistant: Offers an AI Assistant that can generate summaries and answer research questions based on the literature.

• Browser Extension: The Scite browser extension allows users to see how articles have been cited while reading online, enhancing the research experience.

What We Don’t Like:

• Learning Curve: New users may need time to familiarize themselves with the platform's features and interface.

Price: €9.55 per month billed yearly

Link: Try Scite

Learning and study assistance

8. Moxie Learn AI – Best for AI-Powered Study Assistance

Moxie is an AI-native platform that enhances the research writing process through a human-in-the-loop approach, streamlining academic writing workflows while upholding scholarly integrity.

Academic Task:

Moxie tackles the challenges of research writing by providing real-time structured feedback helping researchers produce stronger drafts. A complete list of tasks is available on its webpage: https://moxielearn.ai/moxies-ai-tools

How to Use:

Users begin by answering questions about their research context (screenshot 1) and then they interact with Moxie to get feedback on task-specific research and writing skills (e.g., research questions, synthesizing literature, or even getting reviews of entire sections of manuscripts or dissertations).

Each tool provides a set of resources (written materials + video tutorials) to coach writers through the process (screenshot 2), drawing on the founders backgrounds as academic writing consultants.

The platform highlights areas for improvement while suggesting corrections based on disciplinary conventions, and best of all, the system is designed to guide rather than generate content, preserving the integrity of academic writing.

What We Like:

Moxie stands out by offering users the opportunity to iteratively engage with a chatbot "coach" to guide their revisions. The platform addresses a critical gap in research workflows by focusing on the revision process rather than just initial drafting. The emphasis on maintaining academic integrity through guidance rather than generation aligns with higher education values. 

What We Don’t Like:

• Some users might find the learning curve steep when adapting to Moxie's structured IMRAD approach (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion), despite it being the scientific standard.

• Novice researchers unfamiliar with this framework may need additional guidance.

• Also, Moxie currently lacks integration with academic databases for source retrieval, though this feature is planned for future updates.

Price: Free trial available; subscription starts at $8.99/month. Use promo code COLLEAGUES50 for 50% off of any plan.

Link: Try Moxie Learn AI 

9. Consensus – Best for Answering Scientific Questions 

Academic Task:

Assists students and researchers by providing evidence-based answers to complex scientific questions, streamlining the literature review process.

How to Use:

• Pose Scientific Questions: Enter specific research queries to receive evidence-based responses.

• Review AI-Generated Answers: Access concise summaries sourced from scholarly articles and studies.

• Explore Supporting Papers: Delve into referenced studies to validate answers and expand your research.

• Utilize Advanced Filters: Apply filters by study design, sample size, and methodology to refine search results.

What We Like:

• AI-Powered Responses: Delivers concise, evidence-based answers to complex scientific questions.

• Efficient Literature Review: Streamlines the process of gathering scientific perspectives on various topics.

• Wide Discipline Support: Covers a broad range of fields, including medicine, physics, and social sciences.

• Advanced Search Filters: Allows users to refine searches by study design, sample size, and methodology.

What We Don’t Like:

• Limited to Scientific Topics: Primarily focuses on scientific and academic subjects, which may not be suitable for general knowledge inquiries.

Price: Free to sign up; $8.99 monthly

Link: Try Consensus

10. Mind the Graph – Best for AI-Generated Academic Graphs & Visuals

Academic Task:

Facilitates the creation of visually appealing and scientifically accurate graphics, infographics, and posters to enhance research presentations and publications.

How to Use:

• Select Templates: Choose from a wide range of templates tailored to various scientific disciplines.

• Customize Illustrations: Edit and personalize illustrations to fit your research needs, including adding text, shapes, and data.

• Utilize AI Poster Maker: Use the AI-powered Poster Maker to generate professional posters by inputting your research information.

• Download and Share: Export your creations in various formats (PNG, TIFF, PDF) for presentations, publications, or sharing with collaborators.

What We Like:

• Extensive Library: Access to over 75,000 scientifically accurate illustrations across 80+ fields.

• User-Friendly Interface: Designed specifically for researchers, allowing easy creation of complex visuals without advanced graphic design skills.

• AI Integration: The AI Poster Maker streamlines the process of creating professional posters, saving time and effort.

• Collaboration Features: Supports collaborative work, enabling teams to work together on visual projects.

What We Don’t Like:

• Limited Free Features: Some advanced features and templates require a subscription.

Price: 10,58€ /month billed yearly or 17 € billed monthly

Link: Try Mind the Graph

Conclusion: Ethical AI Tools for Academic Success

As AI continues to shape the world of academic writing in 2025, it's crucial to choose tools which align with ethical academic practices. Artificial intelligence should help improve your work, not replace it—guiding you through research, writing, and revision while ensuring your academic integrity remains intact.

thesify for instance, offers AI-powered feedback, helping students refine their ideas, improve clarity, and strengthen their arguments—all without crossing ethical boundaries such as plagiarism. Unlike generative tools providing you with entire essays or rewriting content, thesify empowers you to become a better writer by offering valuable insights into the structure, evidence, and flow of your work.

Whether you're conducting research, drafting a paper, or refining your thesis, these ethical AI programs enable you to stay true to your academic goals while saving time and improving the quality of your work. By selecting tools that focus on feedback, clarity, and research assistance, you’re making the choice to enhance your writing, respect academic integrity, and support your growth as a scholar.

Work smarter, not harder, by keeping ethical integrity!

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