Topic discovery
Upload the PDF or Word papers behind your study, and Topic Finder suggests research gaps in up to six categories, each shown with a supporting reference. It gives you a grounded starting point for choosing your next research topic.
Sign-in required · Free: up to 3 papers per analysis · Premium: up to 10.
Overview
Topic Finder is a research gap finder for students and researchers who already have a set of relevant papers and need a defensible direction for a thesis, dissertation, or new project. Unlike a generic research topic generator, it analyzes the PDF or Word files you upload and returns possible gaps grouped into categories, from methodological to interdisciplinary. Each suggestion comes with a supporting reference, so you can return to the source and judge whether the gap really holds. Use it after an initial literature search, or whenever you want a structured way to discuss options with a supervisor. Treat every result as a starting point to verify: it reflects the papers you supplied, not the entire published literature.
Explore the Topic Finder tutorialCapabilities
Add one to three PDF or Word (.docx) papers on the Free plan, or up to ten on Premium, and Topic Finder evaluates them together. Because the analysis starts from documents you selected rather than a blank prompt, it works differently from an AI research topic generator: the suggestions start from your field and the sources you chose.
Results are grouped into methodological, context-specific, theoretical, technological, data-driven, and interdisciplinary gaps. The grouping shows whether an opportunity concerns how studies were designed, where they took place, which theories they rely on, which tools they use, what data they lack, or which fields they have not yet connected. Categories without a suggestion are left out.
Every suggested topic is shown with a supporting reference, and a reference list closes the results, so you can check each gap against its source. Completed analyses appear under Recent Analyses, where you can reopen any of your ten most recent results or delete the ones you no longer need.
How it works
Choose recent, closely related papers from your own literature search; the workspace recommends at least three review articles from the past three years. Upload PDF or Word (.docx) files of up to 20 MB each, and check that PDFs contain readable text rather than scanned images.
Select Upload & Run. Topic Finder evaluates your papers, then presents suggested topics by category. Read each suggestion with its supporting reference, and note which gaps fit your interests, your skills, and the data or methods you can realistically access.
Open the cited sources, search for newer work on your shortlisted gaps, and discuss the strongest options with your supervisor or co-authors. The analysis stays in Recent Analyses, so you can return to it while you refine your topic.
Inputs, outputs & coverage
Topic Finder is designed for focused sets of academic papers. These boundaries help you decide whether it suits the stage your project has reached.
Read our privacy policyPlans & limits
Try Topic Finder on a small, focused set of papers and see how each gap category works, within the Free plan's monthly usage limit.
Analyze a broader set of papers and see every suggestion the analysis returns in each category.
Frequently asked questions
Practical answers about inputs, plan limits, gap categories, and checking whether a suggested topic is genuinely new.
Contact our teamTopic Finder accepts PDF and Word (.docx) files of up to 20 MB each. Other formats, including older .doc files, are not accepted at upload. For the best results, use text-based PDFs, such as those downloaded from a publisher or exported from a reference manager. Scanned pages that contain only images may give the analysis little to work with. If a file is over the size limit, try a version without large supplementary material.
Free accounts can add up to three papers per analysis, and Premium accounts up to ten. The workspace shows a running file count as you add papers and keeps Upload & Run disabled until your selection is within your plan's limit. More papers are not always better: a focused set of recent, closely related studies, ideally including at least three review articles from the past three years, gives the analysis a clearer picture of your area.
Methodological gaps concern how studies were designed or measured. Context-specific gaps point to populations, settings, or regions that remain under-studied. Theoretical gaps involve frameworks that have not been applied or tested. Technological gaps relate to tools or techniques not yet used. Data-driven gaps highlight missing, limited, or outdated data. Interdisciplinary gaps suggest connections between fields that the papers have not made. A category appears only when the analysis returns a suggestion for it.
No. Topic Finder shows what appears open within the papers you uploaded, which is a useful first filter but not evidence of novelty across all published research. Before committing, read the supporting reference for each shortlisted gap, search for recent studies with Article Finder or your library's databases, and check theses and preprints in your field. Your supervisor or co-authors are best placed to judge whether a gap is significant, feasible, and suitable for your degree or project.
Topic Finder
Upload the papers you trust and use Topic Finder as a research topic finder that pairs each suggestion with a reference you can check.