Litmaps is a web-based research tool that uses citation links and search to help researchers discover papers and build literature reviews. Its catalogue contains more than 270 million papers. A Litmap shows how articles connect through citations and references; users can visualize and annotate articles and adjust how the map displays them. Topic monitoring sends automatic emails when new papers appear. Maps can be shared as images, public links, or with selected email addresses. Litmaps Pro syncs Zotero collections and Litmaps Tags in both directions. Articles can also be imported from BibTeX, RIS, or PubMed files and exported in BibTeX, RIS, or CSV formats. Open Access PDFs are available to all users; other PDF access requires connecting institutional access through LibKey. The Free plan includes basic search, up to 20 inputs and 100 articles, one Litmap, a monthly summary, and no collaboration. Pro Education costs 10.00 USD per month, billed $120 / year, and requires an academic email address. It adds advanced search, unlimited inputs, articles, and Litmaps, plus daily or configurable alerts.
Who it is for
Litmaps suits researchers who need to discover papers, map citation relationships, and organize literature reviews. The Free plan may fit individual use; Pro Education is for users with an academic email address who need expanded search and alerts.
What is good
- Catalogue contains more than 270 million papers
- Maps show citation and reference connections
- Topic monitoring sends automatic email alerts
- Imports and exports several citation file formats
What to know first
- Free plan limits users to 20 inputs and 100 articles
- Free includes one Litmap and no collaboration
- Non-Open Access PDFs require institutional access through LibKey
- Pro Education requires an academic email address
Verdict
Litmaps combines paper discovery, citation mapping, and topic monitoring in a web tool. Its free limits and academic-email requirement for Pro Education are important to weigh against the larger catalogue and expanded paid-plan capacity.
Litmaps plans and pricing
All plansCompared on literature review software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Discovery tools
- search_and_recommendations
- Screening workflow
- Yes
- Full-text management
- Yes
- Systematic review tools
- Yes
- Collaboration
- Yes
- Evidence mapping
- Yes
