Discover AI

Keenious

Scientific article search engine and context-based academic recommendations powered by AI

Keenious AS

Founded in 2017

Freemium

Research

Access Keenious

Free basic searches; Plus plan starting at $8/month (billed annually) for unlimited search and advanced filters.

scientific-articles

literature-review

academic-writing

pdf-analysis

plugin

Keenious screenshot

What is Keenious?

Keenious is a search engine and literature recommendation platform for scientific research founded in 2017 in Norway. The tool sets itself apart in the EdTech and research market by integrating directly into word processors (such as Microsoft Word and Google Docs). It uses artificial intelligence to analyze the context of what the user is writing and automatically recommend relevant peer-reviewed scientific articles, eliminating the need to stop writing to search for references on the web.

How it works

The user installs the Keenious plugin in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, or uploads a PDF to the web platform. The system's natural language processing (NLP) algorithms read the document's text, understanding the thesis, topics, and scientific fields discussed. In a sidebar, the AI presents a curated list of relevant academic papers, highlighting matching keywords and showing summaries. The user can filter results by year of publication, journal, citations, and add references directly to their citation manager.

Key features

  • Context-Based Recommendations: AI that reads your writing draft and suggests scientific articles that substantiate or validate the text.
  • Word & Google Docs Plugins: Native integration allowing literature search directly within the text editor.
  • Interactive PDF Analysis: Upload a complete article in PDF format and let the AI map and recommend similar studies.
  • Advanced Filtering: Classify articles by date, citation count, open access, and citation relevance.
  • Reference Manager Export: Compatibility with tools like Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote to save papers in one click.

Available integrations

Keenious connects directly with Microsoft Word (online and desktop) and Google Docs, and integrates with citation managers like Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote. The scientific database is powered by millions of open articles from OpenAlex.

Who it is for

  • University students and researchers who need to find validation references for specific ideas written in their drafts.
  • Librarians and academic advisors seeking to optimize bibliographic research time for students.

Real-world use cases

  1. Finding Validation References: A graduate student writes a complex paragraph about the relationship of microplastics with marine health. He clicks analyze in the Keenious plugin in Word, and the AI locates three peer-reviewed scientific articles in the sidebar that prove exactly that hypothesis.
  2. Cross-Literature Discovery: A history researcher enters his draft, and Keenious recommends a sociology article from another country that addresses the same historical problem under a different lens, revealing useful bibliographic intersections.

Pricing

PlanPriceType
FreeFreeBasic daily searches and access to simple recommendations
PlusFrom $8/monthUnlimited searches, advanced analytical filters, and full plugin support (billed annually)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Fantastic integration that avoids the need to constantly switch between the text editor and web browsers to search.
  • Context search effectively understands complex paragraph theses.
  • Modern and clean visual interface.

Cons:

  • The main database is focused on scientific articles, being less efficient at finding printed book data or news articles.
  • To obtain unlimited searches and filters, purchasing the paid Plus plan is required.

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