Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Where does Litmaps data come from?

   • We use Microsoft Academic Graph as our primary data source.
   • Please let us know via Feedback or email (team@litmaps.co) if you find errors in our dataset. We'd also like to hear what other datasets you might be interested in us adding.

2. What is a Map?

   • This is a set of articles that you build up related to your area of study or work. These are visualised as a graph where articles are circles (nodes) and references are lines (edges). These are ordered over time by their publication date.

3. How does our Quick Search work?

   • We do plain keyword search, using a standard web technology called Elasticsearch which uses this methodology for ordering results. We then rerank the results with a reranker based on Semantic Scholar's reranker.

4. How does Explore work?

   • We do a 2º citation network search from your maps. This means we search through the citation network to find the articles connected to your maps by references and citations. These are the 1º citation search results. We then go one step further and find all the articles connected to those 1º articles.
   • For keyword searches you add to Explore, we run a Quick Search and then use these results to search through the citation network, using the same process as a map (described in the previous bullet point).
   • We then use all of those connections to your maps and/or keywords, give a list of the top 30 most connected articles.
   • One nice feature of this approach is that it can find research that is closely related to your map but is not found by keyword search (for example because people use different names for the same thing).

5. How do Map Updates work?

   • We run Explore on your map against new articles published, to notify you of new articles related to your map.

6. Can I use Litmaps now?

   • Yes! There is a free version available at: https://app.litmaps.co

7. Can I use a Litmaps Map in an article?

   • Yes! We are supportive and encourage academic publishing of a map for your article. If you need further information please send us an email (team@litmaps.co)
   • If you'd like to cite us please use: Litmaps [Computer software]. (2022). Retrieved from <https://app.litmaps.com>

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